As it does every two years, the CDC has issued its 2018 report on autism prevalence. As in years past, autism prevalence has ticked upward. As in years past, antivaxers have tried to blame it on vaccines. As in years past, they’re wrong. Vaccines are not responsible for increased autism prevalence.
Zoe O’Toole, aka “The Professor” at an antivaccine crank blog known as The Thinking Moms’ Revolution, likes to think she’s figured out this whole science thing. Her falling for “crooked theory,” an impressively daft piece of antivaccine pseudoscience by Forrest Maready, shows her self-delusion on that score.
I’ve mentioned Dr. Paul Thomas before as a rising star in the antivaccine movement. A month and a half later, it occurs to me that I haven’t given proper due to his co-author, Jennifer Margulis, as an equally prominent rising star in the same crank movement. Here, I rectify that oversight.
J. B. Handley and Orac go way back (to 2005), when Orac first encountered Handley’s brand of blustering, arrogantly ignorant antivaccine pseudoscience. Lately, Handley’s been blogging over at Medium. A couple of weeks ago, Medium kicked him off its platform for violating its TOS. Schadenfreude ensues.
One of the central myths of the antivaccine movement is that vaccines cause autism. Consequently, researchers looked at vaccination rates in children with autism spectrum disorder and their younger siblings and found both groups were significantly less likely to be fully vaccinated. Thanks, antivaxers.
