I wrote about this classic crank gambit a bit about a week and a half ago, emphasizing that no amount of studies will convince a crank.
Now, MarkH at denialism.com takes on the same issue in more detail so that I don't have to bother with David Kirby's latest spew. Thanks, MarkH! The point is that, for people who've already made up their mind to take a position that already contradicts what large amounts of available evidence says, no amount of other studies is ever enough. The "just another study" gambit should be recognized for what it is: a delaying tactic designed to buy time and distract people from the already existing scientific evidence against the crank position. It's a shifting of the goalposts.
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David Kirby seems to be planning his escape from the autism debate. At Huffington post, he demands that science perform epidemiological studies that compare the healthiness or autism rates of unvaccinated versus vaccinated children.
Most people (save for a handful of fringe parents who believe…
This week's Realtime with Bill Maher was just about the most perfect example I've seen yet that maybe reality doesn't have a liberal bias. Due to the measles outbreak becoming a hot-button issue, and the realization that his smoldering anti-vaccine denialism would not go over well, our weekly…
David Kirby asks us to move the goalposts one more time on the vaccines-cause-autism question.
Epidemiologic studies have shown no link. The Institute of Medicine has looked at the evidence for the link between mercury and autism and found it to be specious. Thimerosal has been removed, to no…
Luckily they don't make the mistake of actually debating denialists. The feature of last weeks issue, "Age of Denial" is a series of articles by skeptics and one laughable rebuttal, discussing the nature of denialism and tactics to use against it. They do quite a good job covering the basics,…
Your welcome. it's already attracted a troll I thought I had dispensed with. His wit and wisdom seems to be to call the expert witnesses for the government in the autism omnibus "whores" with the usual failure to address any criticism.