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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Bioethics Medicine Pseudoscience

False analogies and pseudoscience as “moral arguments” against the use of fetal cell lines to manufacture vaccines

Antivaxers frequently object to the use of fetal cell lines to manufacture vaccines on “moral” grounds. Über-quack Joe Mercola lays down some astonishingly bad moral arguments based on pseudoscience.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bioethics Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

How “aborted fetal cells” contributed to vaccines preventing billions of cases of disease and many million deaths

Antiabortion antivaccine activists like to claim that “aborted fetal cells” in vaccines mean that vaccines are contaminated products of evil. In reality, there are no “aborted fetal cells” in vaccines. A cell line derived from an aborted fetus in 1962 did, however, lead to huge advances in vaccine technology and the prevention of many millions of deaths worldwide.

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Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Religion

The Kenyan Catholic Bishops are at it again, this time spreading fear of the polio vaccine

There’s a delightful meme going around Facebook right now, featured above, that portrays five African women, fists raised, all wearing aprons proclaiming “Kick out polio!” Accompanying the meme is a message from the American Academy of Pediatrics celebrating that yesterday marked one full year since the last case of polio was recorded on the continent […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Complementary and alternative medicine Quackery

A zombie meme rises from the grave: Maurice Hilleman, the polio vaccine, SV40, and cancer

Did you know that vaccine pioneer Maurice Hilleman admitted that contaminating SV40 virus in early batches of oral polio causes cancer? That’s because he didn’t, although antivaxers keep claiming that he did and that SV40 from early batches of polio vaccine cause cancer. It almost certainly doesn’t.

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine Quackery

What do polio, pesticides, and cell phone radiation have in common?

No matter how you slice it, I’ve been at this blogging thing a long time. it’s been over seven years now. It’s been even longer than that, though, because before that cold gray Saturday afternoon in September when I started farting around with Blogger and ended giving birth to the first iteration of Respectful Insolence, […]