Autism
Respectful Insolence
Category archives for Autism
Vaccines and autism: Same as it ever was
Posted by Orac on February 22, 2012 If there’s one thing I’ve learned during the last seven years about the antivaccine crowd invested in the idea that vaccines cause autism, it’s that it reacts with extreme hostility to any sort of studies that cast doubt upon their pet idea that vaccines cause autism. That’s somewhat understandable, given how much of their identity…
Yes, Virginia, there is an antivaccine movement (efforts to deny it notwithstanding)
Posted by Orac on February 9, 2012 There are times when I want to fall down on my knees and give thanks for certain cranks. I mean, where would my blogging material come from, were it not for antivaccine loons, quacks, cranks, creationists, and animal rights terrorists providing me with an unending stream of blog fodder? Were they all to disappear, I’d…
Tactics and tropes of the antivaccine movement
Posted by Orac on January 24, 2012 I’ve been an observer and student of the antivaccine movement for nearly a decade now, although my intensive education began almost seven years ago, in early 2005, not long after I started blogging. It was then that I first encountered several “luminaries” of the antivaccine movement both throughout the blogosphere and sometimes even commenting on…
A black hole of antivaccine misinformation
Posted by Orac on January 19, 2012 Every so often, I come across a bit of antivaccine idiocy that’s so amazingly idiotic, such a–shall we say?–target-rich environment that it’s catnip to a cat. I just can’t resist it, even when there are other topics and subjects out there that have backed up over the last few days and I want to cover.…
A one trick pony does his one trick
Posted by Orac on January 13, 2012 It’s funny, but it’s only been one week since I expressed extreme skepticism that that wretched hive of scum and quackery, The Huffington Post, had reformed itself. The reason, of course, was that HuffPo had announced that it was starting a science section. Even though on the surface it seemed that HuffPo was making the…
The antivaccine crankosphere rallies around its hero, and Brian Deer strikes back
Posted by Orac on January 11, 2012 When I wrote last week about the latest legal thuggery against an opponent of antivaccine pseudoscience, this time by hero of the antivaccine movement, who sued investigative reporter Brian Deer for defamation, there was one thing about the case that confused me, one aspect that didn’t add up to me. Part of it was why…
HuffPo now has a science section, and I remain skeptical that it changes anything.
Posted by Orac on January 6, 2012 It’s no secret that I’ve been highly critical of The Huffington Post, at least of its approach to science and medicine. In fact, it was a mere three weeks after Arianna Huffington launched her blog back in 2005 that I noticed something very distressing about it, namely that it had recruited someone who would later…
Legal thuggery, antivaccine edition, part 3: Andrew Wakefield rallying the troops
Posted by Orac on January 6, 2012 I realize I’ve already written two posts about Andrew Wakefield suing investigative journalist Brian Deer, the first one pointing out how it’s just another example of cranks trying to silence criticism not through producing good science to defend their views but rather through abusing legal process and starting frivolous libel suits, the second one pointing…
Legal thuggery, antivaccine edition, part 2: An interesting connection
Posted by Orac on January 5, 2012 The plot thickens. Earlier, I discussed how disgraced, struck-off anti-vaccine physician Dr. Andrew Wakefield, deciding that being humiliated once by the courts in a libel action wasn’t enough, has apparently decided to have another bite at the apple. Given that he was so thoroughly humiliated in the notoriously plaintiff-friendly (for libel cases, at least) British…
Legal thuggery, antivaccine edition: Andrew Wakefield sues Brian Deer, the BMJ, and Fiona Godlee
Posted by Orac on January 5, 2012 If there’s one thing that a crank, quack, pseudoscientist, or anti-vaccine propagandist doesn’t like, it’s having the light of day shined upon his activities. In fact, so much do they hate it that they have a distressing tendency to respond to science-based criticism not with science-based rebuttals (mainly because they can’t given that they don’t…
A young antivaccine propagandist develops
Posted by Orac on December 30, 2011 The other day, I pointed out that one of the characteristics of antivaccine cranks is how, no matter how much you press them, they will never, ever get specific about which vaccines they find acceptable. they’ll go on ad nauseam about vaccines they despise and why, but will never admit that there are beneficial vaccines.…
Two examples of “antivaccine”
Posted by Orac on December 29, 2011 In the process of laying down a little of the ol’ not-so-Respectful Insolence on the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), Barbara Loe Fisher, and Jenny McCarthy yesterday, I briefly discussed what the term “antivaccine” means. It’s a topic I’ve discussed at length before and that Steve Novella recently wrote about. The long version is in…
A lesson in communicating vaccine science to the public
Posted by Orac on December 21, 2011 After yesterday’s video and the video from the day before demonstrating just what “antivaccine” means, I thought you’d all need a little something to cleanse the palate after having swallowed so much crazy. Fortunately, Paul Offit provides just the thing, a lecture at the NIH in which he discusses on vaccines and how to educate…
One more lesson on what “antivaccine” means
Posted by Orac on December 20, 2011 Yesterday, I discussed the meaning of the word “antivaccine,” using the example of Dr. Suzanne Humphries, an MD-turned-homeopath, as an example of why I refer to people like Humphries as “antivaccine.” She really laid down the crazy, too, repeatedly calling vaccines the injection of “disease matter” and “unnatural,” while piling conspiracy theory on top of…
And global warming is caused by the decrease in the number of pirates or: Why an inorganic chemistry journal should not publish a vaccine epidemiology paper
Posted by Orac on December 8, 2011 In my eagerness to pivot back to an area of my interest after having had a little fun with anti-vaccine cranks, I ignored a paper to which several of my readers referred me over the last few days. Many of them had first become aware of it when everybody’s favorite smugly condescending anti-vaccine crank, Ginger…
It’s a part of my anti-vaccine fantasy; it’s a part of my anti-vaccine dream…
Posted by Orac on December 6, 2011 After the lengthy post from yesterday, I must admit, I’m a bit tired; so I think it’s time to slum a bit for a day. No, that doesn’t mean I’m going to throw up a video and call it a day. That’s not how Orac rolls (well, usually, at least). I just need a bit…
Mr. Michael Dochniak, meet Prometheus
Posted by Orac on December 2, 2011 A while back I wrote a brief, snarky post about a bizarre hypothesis that I considered so risible as not to be worth applying my usual 1,500 to 3,000 words of not-so-Respectful Insolence to. My original post was in response to a press release announcing a book by Michael J. Dochniak and Denise H. Dunn…
Compare and contrast
Posted by Orac on November 23, 2011 I’ve spent nearly seven years and an enormous amount of verbiage writing about the difference between pseudoscience and science, between cranks and skeptics, between denialists and scientists. Along the way, I’ve identified a number of factors common to cranks and denialists. For example, two of the most prominent characteristics are a tendency to cherry pick…
Picking up one’s marbles and going home
Posted by Orac on November 22, 2011 One of the greatest gifts anyone can give is to donate his body to science after death. Such anatomic gifts contribute to the training of medical students, residents, and other medical professionals as well as being used for research that can contribute to the advancement of medical science. One of the things that makes an…
Anti-vaccine propaganda lands in New York City this weekend
Posted by Orac on November 18, 2011 I’ve heard it said (actually, I’ve said it myself) that if you don’t have the science and evidence to back up your point of view, in order to persuade someone, make a movie. At least, this seems to be the philosophy of a number of cranks who have produced movies promoting pseudoscience over the last…
The return of the Medical Hypotheses anti-vaccine howler
Posted by Orac on November 17, 2011 When it rains it pours, as they say. Yes, sometimes there’s so much going on that I can’t possibly blog about it all, particularly now that I’ve cut back a bit. This week seems to be turning into one of those weeks. Yesterday, I couldn’t resist having a bit of fun with the grande dame…
Brian Deer strikes again: More evidence of the worthlessness of Andrew Wakefield’s “research”
Posted by Orac on November 11, 2011 I had been wondering why the anti-vaccine crank blog Age of Autism had been gearing up the slime machine against Brian Deer lately. For example, former UPI reporter turned vaccine/autism cran Dan Olmsted has been attacking the BMJ. As you recall, the BMGpublished Brian Deer’s latest revelations earlier this year when he quite pithily and…
Chuck Norris outdoes Jenny McCarthy on vaccines
Posted by Orac on November 8, 2011 Believe it or not, sometimes I rather miss Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey. Although McCarthy is still nominally the head of the anti-vaccine group Generation Rescue, she’s really faded to a rather low profile over the last year or so. Indeed, the last time I even remember her spouting off about vaccines was way back…
Whither the anti-vaccine movement?
Posted by Orac on October 20, 2011 Yesterday, I congratulated that bane of anti-vaccine movement and great vaccine scientist, Dr. Paul Offit, for having been accepted into the Institute of Medicine. It’s a huge honor, and one well-deserved. At the time, I contrasted Dr. Offit, who has ascended to the highest heights of his profession through good science, with Dr. Andrew Wakefield,…
The nonsense that is “Vaccine Injury Awareness Month”
Posted by Orac on October 18, 2011 Normally, these days I greet the month of October with a mixture of anticipation and dread. The anticipation stems from October’s position as Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Now that somehow I’ve managed to have a variety of responsibilities with respect to how breast cancer is managed at our cancer institute, suddenly I find that I’m…