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Medicine

“If you’re pro-science, then you should be anti-vaccine”?

Antivaxxers love to claim the mantle of science and that they are more pro-science than vaccine advocates. They aren’t, although it is often true that they appear to “know” more about vaccines. The problem is motivated reasoning based on cherry picked evidence.

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

This could be the most ludicrous version of the “toxins” gambit I’ve ever seen

One of the oldest antivaccine tropes that first encountered is one that I like to call the “toxins gambit.” Basically, this is an antivaccine lie that portrays vaccines as being laden with all manner of “toxins” because they have—gasp!—chemicals with scary sounding names and even some chemicals that are toxic. The lie derives from the […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Quackery

Antivaccine quackery: You be Orac today!

Some antivaccine (and quack, but I repeat myself) tropes come up time and time again, and I’ve blogged about them time and time again. Obviously, at times this can get a bit repetitive, particularly when I’ve been blogging nearly every day for eight years. On the other hand, even after eight years, I still regularly […]

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Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Science

A crank attacks the Human Genome Project

The Human Genome Project (HGP) was one of the most massive scientific undertakings in recent years and, from a basic science and technology development standpoint, one of the most productive. The data gained formed the basis of the genomic revolution. And “revolution” is the right word. A mere 12 years after the human genome sequence […]