Respectful Insolence
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Crank magnetism at a young age: Anti-vaccine “resistance” and 9/11 Truth
Posted by Orac on December 21, 2009 If there’s one thing that irritates me about the anti-vaccine movement, it’s the utter disingenuousness of the movement. How often do we hear the claim from anti-vaccine loons that “we’re not ‘anti-vaccine’; we’re ‘pro-safe vaccine’”? I’ve tried to pin such people down time and time again to answer just what it would take in terms…
Arm & Hammer Baking Soda for H1N1 influenza and cancer? Woo at its finest!
Posted by Orac on December 16, 2009 There are times when I get really depressed writing this blog. It’s not because I don’t enjoy it, although like any long term hobby my blogging does occasionally feel like more of an obligation than a hobby. That’s only part of the time, though. Most of the time I really do enjoy what I do.…
“Obama’s fixin’ death panels for your mama”: The USPSTF recommendations for mammography used as a political weapon
Posted by Orac on November 20, 2009 As I discussed in detail when I analyzed them, the new USPSTF recommendations for screening mammography for breast cancer have sparked a debate that has degenerated from a scientific and public policy debate into pure emotional rhetoric. When last I visited this topic, yesterday, I had intended it to be my last post for a…
Desiree Jennings “cured” of her “vaccine-induced dystonia”?
Posted by Orac on November 6, 2009 Remember how I promised that I’d do my next installment of my blogging Suzanne Somers’ pile of idiocy, namely her own book, before the end of the week? Plans change, and neurons melt, which they did in response to reading the first several chapters of Suzanne Somers’ book. Don’t worry, though. I’ll definitely try to…
The anti-vaccine movement strikes back against Amy Wallace using misogyny
Posted by Orac on October 30, 2009 The little matter of finding out that the actor who played Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation appears to have anti-vaccine proclivities sidetracked me from something that I had actually wanted to blog about yesterday. Specifically, it’s something that my blog bud Abel Pharmboy has been hitting hard over the last couple of days.…
A tale of two news stories: The HPV and flu vaccines and why it’s so easy to confuse correlation with causation
Posted by Orac on October 2, 2009 And so it begins. Well, it hasn’t really just begun. In fact, it’s been going on a long time. I’m talking about confusing correlation with causation when it comes to vaccines. For example, the “vaccines cause autism” variety of the anti-vaccine movement blatantly confuses the correlation with the beginning of the increase in autism diagnoses…
A crazy mixed up kid comes up with a crazy mixed up conspiracy theory about a crazy mixed up blog collective
Posted by Orac on September 23, 2009 That Jake Crosby, he’s a crazy mixed-up kid, but I kind of like him. He seems like a nice enough and smart enough kid, but, sadly, he’s fallen in with a bad crowd over at the anti-vaccine crank propaganda blog, Age of Autism, so much so that he’s even blogging there, helping, whether he realizes…
In which Orac defends Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum…
Posted by Orac on August 26, 2009 I realize that I’m possibly stepping into proverbial lion’s den with this one, but a man’s got to do what a man’s got to do. As you may recall, former ScienceBlogs bloggers Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum (and current Discover Magazine bloggers) recently released a book called Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future.…
Back to reality after The Amazing Meeting: Now what?
Posted by Orac on July 14, 2009 Rerun time is over. Very early Monday morning, a plane touched down, a car drove along a dark and deserted freeway, and my wife and I found ourselves finally back at home. True, we did have a late night diversion to Denny’s because we were starving, but by 2 AM or so we were back…
Are we playing it too safe in cancer research?
Posted by Orac on June 29, 2009 A couple of weeks ago, NEWSWEEK science columnist Sharon Begley wrote an article entitled From Bench To Bedside: Academia slows the search for cures. It was a rather poorly argued bit of polemic, backed up only with anecdotes that came across as sour grapes by scientists whose grant proposals the NIH had decided not to…
Help vaccinate Las Vegas!
Posted by Orac on June 26, 2009 If there’s one thing that I’ve found that’s simultaneously gratifying and somewhat infuriating over the last year or so, it’s that the skeptical movement has finally really noticed that anti-vaccination movement in a big way. Those of us who’ve been on the blogospheric front lines for the last few years have sometimes been frustrated that…
More anti-vaccine nonsense from an old friend on (where else?) The Huffington Post
Posted by Orac on June 16, 2009 Here we go again. You may have noticed that I’ve been laying off that repository of quackery, autism pseudoscience, and anti-vaccine nonsense, The Huffington Post. I assure you, it’s not because things have gotten much better there. Oh, sure, occasionally someone will try to post something resembling science and rationality, but it’s impossible for so…
Another child sacrificing himself on the altar of irrational belief
Posted by Orac on May 11, 2009 Regular readers here know that I really hate to see stories like the one I’m about to discuss, specifically that of 13-year-old Daniel Hauser, a boy with Hodgkin’s lymphoma who is refusing chemotherapy based on religion and his preference for “alternative” therapy, whose parents are also supporting his decision. Since I’m a bit behind on…
More quackery at–where else?–The Huffington Post
Posted by Orac on April 30, 2009 I apologize to my readers. I apologize for continually blogging about the pseudoscience at The Huffington Post. Of late, it seems that I can’t go more than a day or two without some new atrocity against science being tossed out from Arianna’s happy home for antivaccinationists and quacks. Be it antivaccine lunacy, Deepak Chopra’s “quantum”…
Fire Marshal Bill discusses vaccines and autism on The Huffington Post
Posted by Orac on April 23, 2009 After writing about a new low of pseudoscience published in that repository of all things antivaccine and quackery, The Huffington Post (do you even have to ask?), on Tuesday, I had hoped–really hoped–that I could ignore HuffPo for a while. After all, there’s only so much stupid that even Orac can tolerate before his logic…
Fresh from HuffPo: Antibiotics cause cancer?
Posted by Orac on April 21, 2009 I’m really starting to hate the Huffington Post. It used to be that I just disliked it intensely. The reasons are, of course, obvious. Ever since its very beginning nearly four years ago, HuffPo has been a hotbed of antivaccine lunacy. Over the years, it’s served up pseudoscience and antivaccine nuttery from such “luminaries” of…
Your Friday Dose of Woo: The Worldwide Wanker of Woo
Posted by Orac on April 3, 2009 Let me say right up front that I’m not entirely sure that the victim–I mean target; no, I mean subject–of this week’s little excursion into the deepest darkest depths of woo is not a parody. That’s the beauty of it. I’ve never heard of it before, but a little Googling brought me evidence that it…
A horrifying breast cancer “testimonial” for “holistic” treatment, part 2
Posted by Orac on March 26, 2009 (NOTE ADDED 12/7/2010: Kim Tinkham has died of what was almost certainly metastatic breast cancer.) Three days ago, I decided to take a look at the scientific literature regarding whether any “alternative” therapies do any good for breast cancer. Not surprisingly, I found no evidence that any such therapy did, with the possible exception of…
Stupid cubed: David Kirby, RFK, Jr., and Generation Rescue use the Bailey Banks case to tag team the antivaccine counterattack against the MMR
Posted by Orac on February 26, 2009 “Just when I thought I was out… they pull me back in.” At least, that’s what Michael Corleone said in The Godfather, Part 3, and even though I’m not a mafia don, I can sort of relate to where he’s coming from, if you know what I mean. It seems that whenever I try to…
The beginning of a very, very bad year for antivaccinationists
Posted by Orac on February 23, 2009 One thing that’s become apparent to me so far in 2009 is that, while 2008 was the year of the antivaccinationist, 2009 is already shaping up to be a very bad year for antivaccinationists. A very bad year indeed, and this is a very, very good thing–if it can be sustained. But first, let’s take…
Sepsis is not caused by bacterial infection?
Posted by Orac on January 30, 2009 Sometimes I come across something so bizarre, so utterly wrong, that my mind reels in confusion and amazement, not to mention horror, that anyone can actually think or write something something like it. In fact, for a moment I considered offering up this one bit of horrifically inspired craziness up as an installment of Your…
Blurring the line between scientist and parent
Posted by Orac on January 22, 2009 Being involved in clinical research makes me aware of the ethical quandaries that can arise. Fortunately for me, for the most part my studies are straightforward and don’t provoke much in the way of angst over whether what I am doing is ethical or whether I’m approaching a line I shouldn’t approach or crossing a…
Run, don’t walk, away from these Doctors
Posted by Orac on December 23, 2008 I’m happy to say, I’ve never watched an episode of The Doctors, at least if the episode segment I’ve just been sent is any indication of the quality of the science and medicine discussed on the TV show. The episode, which aired on December 11, featured a segment on autism featuring an old “friend” of…
Your Friday Dose of Woo: Another model goes woo
Posted by Orac on December 5, 2008 What is it about celebrity models and credulity towards woo? Very early in the history of this blog, we first encountered Suzanne Somers, someone who underwent lumpectomy and radiation therapy for breast cancer, as well as radiation, but eschewed chemotherapy for “alternative” medicine. Guess to what she attributed her survival? Then she got into bioidentical…
Was Nazi science good science?
Posted by Orac on December 4, 2008 I’ve long had an interest in World War II history. Ever since I was around 11 or 12 years old, a major portion of my reading diet has consisted of books and articles about World War II. Back when I was young, my interest was, as you might expect, primarily the battles. The military history…