Antivaccine nonsense
oracknows | January 11, 2012When 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 Wakefield sued Brian Deer over an article he wrote for the BMJ a year ago, although in retrospect it's become apparent to me that it was almost certainly because the statute of limitations for a libel action in Texas is one year. More importantly, the silence of the antivaccine…
oracknows | January 9, 2012I've spent a lot of time over the years looking at cranks, examining crank science (i.e., pseudoscience), and trying to figure out how to inoculate people against crankery. Because I'm a physician, I tend to do it mostly in the realm of medicine by critically examining "alternative" medical claims and discussing the scientific basis of medicine, both with respect to those "alternative" claims and to more conventional medical claims. However, I don't limit my skepticism and critical thinking just to medicine, although lately I think that I've been "specializing" too much, almost totally…
oracknows | January 6, 2012It'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 become and "old friend" (and punching bag) of the blog, Dr. Jay Gordon, as well as the mercury militia stalwart David Kirby, among others. As a result, antivaccination lunacy was running rampant on HuffPo, even in its infancy. Many, many, many more examples followed very quickly.…
oracknows | January 5, 2012I 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 out a connection between Andrew Wakefield and Autism Trust USA that might indicate how Wakefield is getting cash to pay for this lawsuit. Through it all, I've asked one question: Why is Wakefield doing it?
Well, as part of the legal…
oracknows | January 5, 2012The 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 system, it beggars imagination that he or his attorneys would think that he has a prayer of prevailing in Texas, but sue Brian Deer Andrew Wakefield has done anyway. His legal complaint accuses investigative journalist Deer…
oracknows | January 4, 2012If 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 have any science to support them) but rather with legal threats. Sometimes these legal threats progress beyond just threats and into legal action, usually libel suits designed not to be compensated for damage to reputation but rather to intimidate…
oracknows | January 4, 2012Finally, I think I've found this blog's theme song:
As I've asked so many times before: Dammit! Where's all that filthy big pharma lucre I've been told by quacks, cranks, and antivaccinationists that I'm getting for toeing the big pharma line? After all, if I'm going to work so hard as a pharma shill, I gots ta get paid, yo. Come on, I still want to live the dream of sitting back in my sweatpants and sweatshirt behind a massive computer screen, pouring out anti-CAM screeds, and then waiting for all that cash money to roll in as I serve my corporate masters! Lord Draconis Zeneca knows.
Wait…
oracknows | December 31, 2011I know I said I'd probably chill this weekend and not post anything new until after New Years, but another thing showed up in my in box that--shall we say?--inspired me to post another quickie. It's Medscape's list of the Physicians of the Year: Best and Worst. It starts with the worst, and guess who shows up first?
Andrew Wakefield, who is described thusly:
Wakefield's MMR-Autism Vaccine Study an "Elaborate Fraud"
In January, the BMJ published a series of 3 articles and editorials charging that the study published in The Lancet in 1998 by Andrew Wakefield (pictured above) and colleagues…
oracknows | December 30, 2011OK, I know I said that this morning's post would likely be the last post of 2011, but then--wouldn't you know it?--the antivaccine crank blog Age of Autism had to go and post a post entitled AAPS on Vaccine Exemptions. I think it deserves a brief mention today for the simple reason that it's a perfect example of crank magnetism. It makes a lot of sense that Anne Dachel of AoA would be very impressed by the sorts of things that Dr. Jane Orient, the current president of the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) because, well, the AAPS is a crank organization every bit as cranky…
oracknows | December 29, 2011The 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. When pressed about which vaccines should be included in the pediatric vaccination schedule, they'll spin and contort enough to bend the fabric of space-time rather than commit to admitting that a vaccine is safe and effective.
Experienced antivaxers, of course, have a series…
oracknows | December 29, 2011In 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 the links, but the short version is that, unlike the "pharma shill gambit" favored by antivaccine activists and others who aren't too fond of science-based medicine (SBM), it's not just a convenient label for supporters of SBM like me to use to…
oracknows | December 28, 2011Here we go again.
In fact, I think I'm starting to see a pattern here among antivaccine organizations. You might remember that in November 2010, the antivaccine group SafeMinds bought ad space in AMC Theaters over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, one of the heaviest moviegoing time periods of the year. This use of pre-movie time to promote antivaccine propaganda resulted in a campaign by skeptics to try to persuade AMC to see the error of its ways, a campaign that was successful.
Then, a few months later, the the grande dame of the antivaccine movement, arguably the woman who started the…
oracknows | December 24, 2011Because there's only one way for Orac to wish his minions, shills, and fans a Merry Christmas:
Well, maybe not. There's also this:
Both via Skepchick.
For those of you who celebrate the holidays, whatever they may be, Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanza, Festivus, or whatever, have a happy one. Be of good cheer. And, as our illustrious leader Lord Draconis would urge us, stay frosty, my friends. You will be needed. Orac shall return next week, and the the minions, shills, and flacks of pseudoscience, particularly antivaccine pseudoscience and quackery (for instance, in the comments after this…
oracknows | December 24, 2011You knew it was inevitable. I'm just surprised it took this long. Then, via Stuff and Nonsense, I find this video:
Extra points for using a different scene from Downfall than the usual Downfall parodies use.
It also reminds me. There's a paper on just this topic that might require a bit of not-so-Respectful Insolence early next week. For now, though, Orac is going to chill with his family. (Ensor will be so ticked off if I don't visit this year.)
oracknows | December 22, 2011The holidays are now upon us, but I can't resist having a bit of fun before I disappear for this year's Christmas weekend to visit family and catch a rare bit of relaxation. Nothing too heavy, but, equally important, nothing too fluffy either. One topic that fits the bill is anything to do with homeopathy, and in this case I have a doozy of a "teachable moment relevant to homeopathy. It appeared a couple of days ago in what I like to refer to as that wretched hive of scum and quackery or Arianna's happy home for quacks. Yes, I'm referring to The Huffington Post, or, as a lot of people…
oracknows | December 20, 2011After 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 the public about vaccine science can be found here:
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Dr. Offit hits all the high points, including the false "balance" in journalism, how to deal with scientific uncertainty, and when not to let oneself be sucked into "debates" with the…
oracknows | December 19, 2011Yesterday, 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 conspiracy theory about big pharma. After seeing that, I didn't think I'd soon find another example of someone as antivaccine as Humphries.
I was wrong.
I was actually debating whether to subject you to this video a mere day after having…
oracknows | December 18, 2011Every so often, someone will take a great deal of umbrage at my use of the term "antivaccine." The assumption behind criticism directed at me (and others) when we use such terms is that we throw the term about without a care, using it as a weapon unjustly and incorrectly to smear parents who are in reality "pro-safe vaccine." Of course, what antivaccine activists and their apologists don't realize (or conveniently forget) is that I view the term "antivaccine" as having a fairly specific definition, and it's not simply to describe anyone who questions the efficacy or safety of vaccines. If…
oracknows | December 13, 2011I've been so busy writing about things like Dr. Stanislaw Burzysnki's highly exaggerated cancer claims, which have become a new favorite topic of mine despite the fact that Dr. Burzynski himself has been plying his "alternative" cancer treatments for over three decades, and one of my long time topics, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), that I actually missed a couple of vaccine-related posts that would normally affect me the way catnip affects cats. Also, after two days of doing even longer than the usual Orac-ian screeds, one of which required quite a bit…
oracknows | December 9, 2011I have an unfortunate announcement today.
Because the most craptastic of all broadband services, Comcast (since rebranded as Xfinity) let me down last night, going out for several hours and only deigning to start working again a couple of hours ago, there's no blog post this morning other than this rather annoyed announcement. So, if you're jones-ing for your daily dose of Insolence, be it Respectful or Not-So-Respectful (and my original intention for this morning was Not-So-Respectful, which is always more entertaining, although too much of it gives the haters an opening to become tone…