autism
oracknows | January 27, 2011If there's a single TV show out there that has the widest reach when it abuses science-based medicine, there is no doubt that it's Oprah Winfrey's show. If there's a show that has the second-widest reach when it abuses science-based medicine, arguably it's Dr. Mehmet Oz's show. Whether it be his recent show featuring quackmaster supreme, Joseph Mercola, or his upcoming show featuring a faith healer, I fear that Dr. Oz has given up whatever claim he once had to promoting science-based medicine. Yes, it's true that he has had a soft spot for reiki for a long time, but other than that he's…
oracknows | January 21, 2011
Over the last three weeks, the British Medical Journal (BMJ) has been publishing a multipart expose by investigative journalist Brian Deer that enumerated in detail the specifics of how a British gastroenterologist turned hero of the anti-vaccine movement had committed scientific fraud by falsifying key aspects of case reports that he used as the basis of his now infamous 1998 Lancet article suggesting a link between the MMR vaccine and a syndrome consisting of regressive autism and enterocolitis. Indeed, Deer even went so far as to describe Wakefield's fraud as "Piltdown medicine,"…
oracknows | January 20, 2011I was originally going to blog this yesterday, but Dr. Oz's offenses against science and medicine on his show that aired on Tuesday kind of pushed it out of the way. It's not that I didn't think the third part of Brian Deer's expose of Andrew Wakefield's fraud worthy of my attention. Rather, the Oz thing really got me peeved, peeved enough to push aside (temporarily, at least) Brian Deer's deconstruction of how the editors of The Lancet scrambled to cover their proverbial asses, which they proceeded to do with alacrity, as the title of Deer's article implies: The Lancet's two days to bury bad…
oracknows | January 17, 2011You know, sometimes I think that the United States, Australia, and the U.K. must be unique in their level of tolerance for pseudoscientific nonsense. Of course, that's probably mostly because that's the majority of the English-speaking world, and I speak English. I don't see and can't understand anti-vaccinationists in most other languages. Unfortunately, fellow ScienceBlogger tells me that they have anti-vaccinationists in Sweden too. Worse, they're peddling the same idiotic "vaccines didn't save us" gambit that Raymond Obamosawin is peddling.
I don't feel better that pseudoscience isn't…
oracknows | January 17, 2011What does it take to get an advocate of pseudoscience to change his or her mind? Many are the times I've asked myself that question. Over the years, I've covered the gamut of techniques, going from what some might call "militant" or even insulting to being as reasoned and calm as can be--and probably everywhere in between. It's not just the anti-vaccine movement, either, but the anti-vaccine movement provides a convenient example. This is particularly true because of the recently released revelations, both more detailed old and also new, about how anti-vaccine hero Andrew Wakefield not only…
oracknows | January 16, 2011Oh, geez. Will the media never learn?
Yep, it looks as though Andrew Wakefield will be on Good Morning America tomorrow. True, it is a holiday in the U.S., but that just might mean that viewership will be higher because more people will be at home. I, of course, will be at work; so I probably won't get to see it until it's either on YouTube or the GMA website later. In the meantime, the promo is here. It's probably better that way, at least for my blood pressure.
Fallacious "tell both sides" journalism about scientific fraud and pseudoscience lives, it would appear.
oracknows | January 13, 2011It is with some trepidation and more than a little regret that I begin writing this piece. The reason for my hesitation is that, by doing so, no matter what I say I'll be inserting myself into what appears to be a disagreement among people all of whom I admire very much. I don't really want to do it, but I feel obligated, because the issues brought up in the disagreement are important, and reasonable people can disagree--sometimes strongly--about them. I also believe that someone whom I admire greatly has made a regrettable mistake.
Over the last week or so, I've been blogging a lot about the…
oracknows | January 12, 2011Clearly, once the allegations of Andrew Wakefield's fraud, conflicts of interest, and business plans to profit off of his demonization of the MMR came to light, it was only a matter of time before this arrived:
NOTE: Apparently the creator of this parody has removed it. I've sent an e-mail asking to reconsider.
oracknows | January 11, 2011One of the favorite attacks favored by advocates of pseudoscience, particularly advocates of the sort of pseudoscience favored by proponents of "alternative" medicine, particularly the more militant ones who really, really detest conventional, science-based medicine, is to poison the well with a pre-emptive ad hominem attack that implies that defenders of science-based medicine are somehow interested in nothing but money. The first favored attack is to point out that the pharmaceutical industry is interested in nothing but money. That's partially true (they are, after all, for profit…
oracknows | January 10, 2011The fallout from Brian Deer's further revelations of the scientific fraud that is anti-vaccine hero Andrew Wakefield continues apace.
Remember last week, when I wrote about the first article of the two-part series enumerating the various ways that Andrew Wakefield committed scientific fraud in putting together the case series that became the basis of his now infamous 1998 Lancet paper (now retracted)? Remember how, in describing the crazed manner in which Wakefield apologists immediately started circling the wagons to defend their hero?, I wondered what had happened to the celebrity…
oracknows | January 6, 2011If my post today is a bit shorter on the usual Respectfully and not-so-Respectfully Insolent verbiage that you've come to know and love (or hate), I hope you'll forgive me. It's hard not to sit back, rest a bit, and enjoy the spectacle of Andrew Wakefield being pilloried in the press in the wake of the BMJ's article documenting his scientific misconduct in gory detail. He's gotten away far too long with trying to split the difference when credulous journalists "tell both sides of the story" so that to those not knowledgeable about his scientific fraud and incompetence it seems as though there…
tlambert | January 5, 2011The detailed examination of the Wakefiled fraud is by Brian Deer: How the case against the MMR vaccine was fixed. The British Medical Journal editorial summarises:
Who perpetrated this fraud? There is no doubt that it was Wakefield. Is it possible that he was wrong, but not dishonest: that he was so incompetent that he was unable to fairly describe the project, or to report even one of the 12 children's cases accurately? No. A great deal of thought and effort must have gone into drafting the paper to achieve the results he wanted: the discrepancies all led in one direction; misreporting was…
oracknows | January 5, 2011Pity poor Andrew Wakefield.
2010 was a terrible year for him, and 2011 is starting out almost as bad. In February 2010, the General Medical Council in the U.K. recommended that Wakefield be stripped of his license to practice medicine in the U.K. because of scientific misconduct related to his infamous 1998 case series published in The Lancet, even going so far as to refer to him as irresponsible and dishonest, and in May 2010 he was. This case series, thanks to Wakefield's scientific incompetence and fraud, coupled with his flair for self-promotion and enabled by the sensationalistic…
oracknows | January 3, 2011As hard as it is to believe after the pile of poo that was 2010, the year 2011 is starting out rather promisingly, at least from the point of view of science-based medicine. Its beginning has been greeted with the release of two--count 'em, two!--books taking a skeptical, science-based look at vaccines and, in particular, the anti-vaccine movement.
First off the mark (for me, at least) is a new book by a man whom the anti-vaccine movement views as the Dark Lord of Vaccination, Sauron himself sitting up in Barad-dûr (apparently the University of Pennsylvania and Children's Hospital of…
oracknows | January 2, 2011You know, I think I agree with ZDoggMD. The anti-vaccine movement has become so successful that perhaps it needs its own movie franchise to show its heroic resistance against vaccines:
It's round about time we in the medical community recognized the heroic efforts of those who would warn us against the horrible dangers of vaccinations. I mean, these are unsung superheroes, bravely facing down mountains of evidence and decades of public health outcomes data in favor of a more trustworthy source: the Internets. They are tireless advocates, working to ensure that a child's behind is left behind…
oracknows | December 30, 2010Part 1 is here.
Part 2 is here.
Part 3 is here.
I realize I say these things again and again and again, but they bear repeating because together they are a message that needs to be spread in as clear and unambiguous a form as possible. First, whenever you hear someone say, "I'm not anti-vaccine," there's always a "but" after it, and that "but" almost always demonstrates that the person is anti-vaccine after all. Second, for antivaccine loons, it's always about the vaccines. Always. It's not primarily about autism advocacy; it's primarily about the vaccines and blaming them for autism. Autism…
oracknows | December 16, 2010There are multiple recurring messages on this blog that have evolved over the years, but, if there's one of them that has been consistent since the very beginning, it's been about the inherent unreliability of single person testimonials. I wrote about this very topic virtually at the inception of this blog in a post that I still quote from time to time, and I wrote about it just last week when I discussed the case of a woman named Kim Tinkham, a woman who gives every indication of having died of breast cancer, a cancer that had a good chance of being cured had she only pursued effective…
oracknows | December 14, 2010If you need some woo, and you need it fast, who ya gonna call? HuffPo!
Yes, as I've pointed out since its very inception, if there's one thing The Huffington Post is good at doing, it's butchering medical science and serving up regular heapin' helpings of the purest woo. Be it the anti-vaccine pseudoscience that has dominated its pages from the very beginning (including posts by our old friend Dr. Jay Gordon), the quantum woo favored by Deepak Chopra, or the rank quackery that's been showing up on HuffPo's pages more and more frequently over the last two years or so, there's no "respectable"…
oracknows | December 11, 2010Has it really been six years?
Six years ago today, on a dim and dreary Saturday in December, almost on a whim I sat down, went to Blogspot, and started up the first version of Respectful Insolence with an introductory post with the cliched title, Please allow me to introduce myself. Here it is, six years later. On this cold December Saturday, I still find it difficult to his blog is considered one of the "top" medical blogs by one measure, and some actually--shockingly--consider me somewhat of a "famous" skeptic. I know, I know, I still can't wrap my head around the concept myself. At least,…
oracknows | November 25, 2010It's Thanksgiving Day here in the U.S., and, despite the crappy economy, there are still things to be thankful for. For instance, skeptical activism can still be effective. Remember how on Sunday Skepchick Elyse put out the call to Skepchic readers to complain to movie theaters that were reportedly going to be airing a public service announcement from the anti-vaccine group SafeMinds? (Actually, "public service announcement" is a misnomer; it should be called a public disservice announcement.) This was a truly disgusting and deceptive bit of misinformation that I discussed as part of the anti…