Autism
Respectful Insolence
Category archives for Autism
Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS) and autism at Autism One: Kerri Rivera’s apologists strike back (Part 2)
Posted by Orac on June 18, 2012 
Here we go again. Remember how last week I said I wouldn’t write about the Miracle Mineral Solution (abbreviated MMS) again for a while? I lied. Well, actually, I didn’t. At the time I wrote that, I really did mean to give it a rest for a while, and for a while at least I…
Best retort ever?
Posted by Orac on June 12, 2012 I have to hand it to Autismum. Remember the Open Letter to Kerri Rivera she wrote, the one criticizing her for using bleach (Miracle Mineral Solution, often referred to as MMS) to try to “cure” autism? I referred to it yesterday when I pointed out how the pro-MMS apologists were striking back at their critics.…
A misguided “chalkboard talk”
Posted by Orac on June 8, 2012 Sometimes I feel like Dug, the talking dog in the movie Up, in that when it comes to blogging I’m often easily distracted. The reason I say this is because there’s been a “viral” (if you can call it that) video floating around the antivaccine quackery blogosphere that antivaccinationists are passing around as though it’s…
A homeopath and Dr. Jay will teach you about vaccines—and, no doubt, autism
Posted by Orac on May 31, 2012 Remember Dr. Jay? Regular readers know about whom I speak. I’m talking about Dr. Jay Gordon, pediatrician to the stars’ children. Dr. Jay has been a fixture on this blog on and off for seven years, first having popped in as a commenter way back on Respectful Insolence, Mark 1, when I first noted him…
Pharma and vaccines turn you into a zombie?
Posted by Orac on May 30, 2012 When I saw the latest screed from that very living embodiment of crank magnetism, Mike Adams, I chuckled. I sent it around to some fellow skeptics, including, for instance, the crew at The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe, as well as acquaintances and friends of mine because I couldn’t believe it. Adams, as loony as…
A quackfest at the University of Toronto
Posted by Orac on May 29, 2012 I always thought that the University of Toronto was a great school, but lately I’ve been starting to have my doubts. My doubts began three years ago, when I noticed that Autism One Canada, which is basically the Canadian version of the yearly antivaccine biomedical quackfest held every Memorial Day week in the Chicago area,…
The Refusers attack Orac’s readers
Posted by Orac on May 28, 2012 I was thinking of taking Memorial Day off. There are several reasons. First, it’s a holiday. Second, the blog still isn’t functioning quite up to snuff after the transition to WordPress. In particular, we still have a major spam infestation that is unlikely to improve before Tuesday. It also doesn’t help that I have a…
The lowest of the low: Trying to bleach autism away
Posted by Orac on May 25, 2012 It’s that time of year again. What am I talking about? Regular readers know. They know that sometime around the Memorial Day weekend every year, usually beginning a couple of days before the extended weekend and into the weekend itself, there lands in the Chicago area a quackfest of such unrelenting quackitude that it has…
The (not so) Thinking Moms’ (D)evolution’s Declaration
Posted by Orac on May 7, 2012 One of the most inaptly named groups I’ve ever seen is called Thinking Moms’ Revolution (henceforth abbreviated as TMR). Given the reality of what TMR really is, the word “thinking” applied to TMR is, as they say, so wrong it’s not even wrong. As for a “revolution,” what TMR really represents is nothing revolutionary at…
I know you are, but what am I?
Posted by Orac on May 4, 2012 Denialism. You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. The story might be apocryphal, and it might not even be true, but it’s often used as a metaphor. I’m referring to the “boiling frog” story. Basically, the idea is supposedly based on an observation that a frog,…
Antivaccine activists try to flog Rep. Dan Burton’s fear mongering about an “autism epidemic”
Posted by Orac on May 2, 2012 Oh, goody. Remember last week, when I took note of how organized quackery’s best friend in Congress, not to mention a shining example of crank magnetism, Representative Dan Burton of Indiana, was taking the opportunity of his having announced that he would not be running for reelection this year to write a typically brain dead…
Dan Burton’s last antivaccine hurrah?
Posted by Orac on April 26, 2012 A couple of months ago, I couldn’t help but rejoice when I learned that Indiana Representative Dan Burton had finally, after twenty years in the U.S. House of Representatives, decided to retire after the end of this term. I thought that anyone in the U.S. who supports science-based medicine should rejoice, too, because I’m hard-pressed…
The annals of “I’m not anti-vaccine,” part 10: Titanic, Oklahoma City, or the Holocaust?
Posted by Orac on April 23, 2012 It’s not infrequent that I come under fire from antivaccinationists for, ironically enough, calling them antivaccinationists. “Oh, no,” they protest, “I’m not antivaccine. How dare you call me that? I’m actually a vaccine safety advocate.” Of course, when you probe more closely and ask a few questions, almost inevitably you’ll find that in reality they…
CEASE and desist subjecting autistic children to homeopathy
Posted by Orac on April 17, 2012 Periodically, I like to make fun of homeopathy and homeopaths. I realize that to some that might seem like the proverbial shooting of fish in a barrel, but it is amusing and educational. However, it’s not always amusing. For instance, I am not amused when I see The One Quackery To Rule Them All (my…
“Proof” is not what most people think it is
Posted by Orac on April 12, 2012 Proof. You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. That thought kept running through my mind as I perused an article appearing on an antivaccine website. Another thought that rant through my mind is that this was clearly not a scientist of any sort speaking. In science,…
The Refusers prove Orac’s corollary of Poe’s law once again
Posted by Orac on April 4, 2012 Remember The Refusers? They’re the antivaccine band with the recycled classic rock sound lacking a shred of originality or chops that flooded the blogosphere with their crazy in the form of Clash wanna be songs like Vaccine Gestapo, which inspired Surly Amy to make me a Vaccine Gestapo pendant to wear at TAM a couple…
The antivaccine movement resurrects the zombie that is the “autism epidemic”
Posted by Orac on March 30, 2012 If there’s one thing that I’ve learned that I can always–and I do mean always–rely on from the antivaccine movement, it’s that its members will always be all over any new study regarding vaccines and/or autism in an effort to preemptively put their pseudoscientific spin on the results. It’s much the same way that they…
California Bill AB 2109: Real informed consent versus antivaccine misinformed consent
Posted by Orac on March 23, 2012 I’ve discussed the concept of “misinformed consent” multiple times before. Quacks in general, particularly the “health freedom” movement proclaim their dedication to “informed consent.” “All we’re asking for,” they will say, “is informed consent.” The antivaccine movement in particular demands “informed consent” about vaccines. Be it Barbara Loe Fisher, the bloggers at the antivaccine crank…
The promotion of an antivaccine propaganda movie continues apace
Posted by Orac on March 23, 2012 I’ll give the Canary Party credit for one thing, if credit you can consider it. It’s persistent in its promotion of antivaccine pseudoscience. Somehow, someone at Current TV decided that it would be a good idea to show an utterly unbalanced, utterly cranky, utterly propagandistic “documentary” (The Greater Good) that seeks to demonize vaccines as…
A school board president abuses his position to promote an antivaccine movie
Posted by Orac on March 20, 2012 A science-based blogger’s work is never done, apparently. I’ll show you what I mean in a minute. But first, I just have to make a simple observation. Pseudoscience, be it quackery, evolution denial, denial of anthropogenic global warming, antivaccine nonsense, or other forms of pseudoscience, apparently never dies. No matter how many times it’s slapped…
Camel’s milk: The cure-all that cures autism, too?
Posted by Orac on March 16, 2012 The Autism File bills itself as a magazine dealing with all aspects of autism. In reality, it’s basically a crank magazine dedicated to autism biomedical quackery plus a generous helping of antivaccine fear mongering. In fact, this passage should tell you all you need to know about the publication: Autism File is a lifestyle guide…
Beware! Vaccines will sap and impurify your precious bodily DNA!
Posted by Orac on March 14, 2012 There are quite a few reasons why I blog. After all, to crank out between 500 and 3,000 words a day, with an average of somewhere around 1,500 by my reckoning) takes quite a commitment. One of the main reasons that I do this is to combat the irrationality that permeates the world, and, since…
Now Andy Wakefield will prevail in his libel suit against Brian Deer because John Walker-Smith won his appeal? Not so fast there, pardner…
Posted by Orac on March 12, 2012 I don’t know what it is about the beginning of a year. I don’t know if it’s confirmation bias or real, but it sure seems that something big happens early every year in the antivaccine world. Consider. As I pointed out back in February 2009, in rapid succession Brian Deer reported that Andrew Wakefield had…
Age of Autism’s Anne Dachel takes on Bill Moyers over vaccines. Hilarity ensues.
Posted by Orac on March 9, 2012 Thanks to the partying and backslapping going on in the antivaccine movement over the reversal of the decision of the British General Medical Council to strike Professor John Walker-Smith off of the medical record, after a brief absence vaccines are back on the agenda of this blog. Antivaccine cranks view the decision as a vindication…
Andy Wakefield exonerated because John Walker-Smith won his appeal? Not so fast there, pardner…
Posted by Orac on March 8, 2012 I sense a disturbance in the antivaccine crankosphere. Actually, maybe “disturbance” is the wrong word. Unabashed whooping it up is closer to correct. High-fiving is perhaps a better term. Or maybe partying like it’s 2005. The question, of course, is what is the inciting event was that sparked such widespread rejoicing in the antivaccine world.…