Quackery
oracknows | June 11, 2008Fellow skeptical doc PalMD informs me that apparently a new blogger, who happens to be a law student at NYU, discovered that his school had invited antivaccinationist-apologist supreme, David Kirby, to speak at NYU on June 26. In response, antivaccinationists, including David Kirby himself and antivaccinationist crank extraordinaire Clifford G. Miller himself, the man who apparently invited David Kirby to befoul the fair city of London and even the halls of Parliament with his antivaccinationist nonsense, has appeared. Much hilarity ensues as every antivaccinationist canard known to…
oracknows | June 11, 2008I know I'm a bit late to this game, but those of you who read ERV, Denialism Blog, and Pharyngula didn't think that their prior mention of this story about how the State of Minnesota is going to allow naturopaths to claim the title of "doctor" would stop me from jumping right in even if I am a day late (which in the blogosphere might as well be a year), did you?
If you did, you don't know me very well, even after three years of blogging. This sort of thing is the raison d'être of this blog, and just because blogging about an antivaccine rally last week and about Abraham Cherrix yesterday…
oracknows | June 10, 2008I admit it. Sometimes, my better nature notwithstanding, I can't help taking a bit of a morbid interest in celebrity scandals. I don't know if it's a weakness or just normal human nature. Like most "educated" people, I do know I tend to be vaguely embarrassed by falling for an interest in such "low' pursuits. Given that, how can I resist making note of a recent development in the ongoing nastiness between Charlie Sheen and his ex-wife Denise Richards? More oddly, how can it be that I find myself seeing Denise Richards as actually being rational?
It turns out that Charlie Sheen is apparently…
oracknows | June 10, 2008Somehow, with all the blogging about vaccines last week, I totally missed a major update to a story that's been of great interest to me since I first became aware of it. It turns out that Starchild Abraham Cherrix, the teen who two years ago rejected conventional therapy for his lymphoma and sought out the quackery known as Hoxsey therapy, has turned 18:
Abraham Cherrix, the teenager who fought a court battle on the Eastern Shore for the right to choose his own cancer care, turns 18 today, officially freed from reporting his medical condition to the Accomack County court that has required…
oracknows | June 9, 2008After having subjected my readers to all those posts about the antivaccination lunacy that was on display in Washington, D.C. last week, I think it's time for a break from this topic, at least for a while if not longer. In the run-up to the "Green Our Vaccines" rally events on the antivaccinationism front were coming fast and furious, and I felt it was my duty to comment on them. Now, with great relief I can say that the rally is over. How many people actually attended the rally is uncertain. The organizers themselves claim that 8,500 people attended, while more objective estimates from…
oracknows | June 8, 2008Remember how I warned citizens of the U.K. about an impending visit to their fair island by American apologist for antivaccinationist nonsense and his invitation to give a briefing at Parliament?
Apparently, the whole thing was very--shall we say?--underwhelming. The lameness of his excuses, they limp:
I then asked a question (yay!). Kirby had said earlier in the lecture that autism diagnois rates in California haven't reduced following the removal of thimerosal from childhood vaccines in California because of a delay between children being vaccinated in their early years and them being…
oracknows | June 7, 2008Don't worry, faithful readers, my blogging about the "Green Our Vaccines" rally last week is reaching its end. If my poor neurons can take it, there are still the speeches of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Dr. Jay Gordon to be commented on in one more post (the latter of whom I used to consider somewhat reasonable albeit incorrect but who, if his speech and statements to the press at the "Green Our Vaccines" rally are any indication, has gone completely over to the dark side of antivaccinationism). Then that's probably about all I'll be able to take for a while. It'll be back to writing about…
oracknows | June 6, 2008
I never thought I'd be saying this, but Dan Olmsted has my profuse thanks. When yesterday I posted some signs carried by marchers at the "Green Our Vaccines" rally on Wednesday, I asked you to decide for yourself whether they are "pro-safe vaccine" or anti-vaccine. To me the answer is obvious. Thanks to Olmsted, however, I have a list of many of the slogans that he saw on signs at the rally, as well as a video of many of the signs:
So, once again, I ask you, my readers, the question: "Pro-safe vaccine" or antivaccine? You be the judge!
THE "GREEN OUR VACCINES" COLLECTION:
The Jenny…
oracknows | June 6, 2008I'm tired.
I apologize in advance if I'm not as--shall we say?--energetic as usual this week. I'm sure you'll understand. After all, I just spent the last three days subjecting myself to the most toxic and concentrated woo known to humankind. If you're a regular reader here, you clearly know what I'm talking about, namely Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey's "Green Our Vaccines" rally on Wednesday in Washington, D.C. Fortunately, it wasn't as large as attended. Although its organizers claim that 8,000 showed up, more realistic estimates were maybe around 1,000. Maybe. Even better, the media hardly…
oracknows | June 5, 2008The organizers of the "Green Our Vaccines" rally yesterday went to great trouble to keep repeating a mantra that they "aren't anti-vaccine" but rather "pro-safe vaccine" (or, as Jenny McCarthy likes to put it, "anti-toxin"). I've argued that it's all a cynical ploy to hide their true agenda. What do some of the signs carried by marchers tell us?
You be the judge! (Pictures below the fold.)
Here's one that I predicted would show up:
And here's the one to top them all:
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That's right. To these marchers, vaccines are weapons of mass destruction!
Of course, that's…
oracknows | June 5, 2008
(Note: In the photo above, the guy in the sunglasses behind Jim Carrey is our old friend Dr. Jay Gordon, Santa Monica antivaccinationist-sympathetic pediatrician to the beautiful people. He's the one with his tongue sticking out.)
It's worse than I thought.
In seeing the first bits of video last night from the "Green Our Vaccines" rally led by celebrity useful idiots Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey. I had been thinking of trying to be "nicer" to them, given that their fans who have shown up here seem to think I have been very, very mean to her and that I lack compassion. I also realize…
oracknows | June 4, 2008Maybe I need to inaugurate some sort of monthly award for the best comment, as some other ScienceBloggers do. If I had such an award, surely this comment earlier today by Prometheus would be in serious contention for it:
Re: "Green Vaccines"
One of the things that the "Greens" are in favor of is biological diversity and protecting endangered species. This dovetails nicely with the "Green Vaccine" movement, since it is clear to me that they (the "Vaccine Greens") are simply trying to prevent the loss of valuable biological diversity.
Not too long ago, in 1977, one viral species (Variola or "…
oracknows | June 4, 2008I know I've been whining a lot about how blogging about antivaccinationists has taken over here of late. The reason, of course, is the "Green Our Vaccines" rally taking place in Washington, D.C. as this post first appears in your newsfeed. Yesterday, I wrote about how "Green Our Vaccines" is a sham and nothing more than an anti-vaccine rally as well as about how its organizers were causing a bit of a rift in the antivaccinationist movement by trying to adopt a kinder, gentler, crunchier, media- and (seemingly) eco-friendly message. Unfortunately, stuff keeps happening. So I've decided that,…
oracknows | June 4, 2008Something happened yesterday that rarely happens. I got back from ASCO rather late and was so tired that I didn't have time to post one of my characteristic, Respectfully Insolent magnum opuses (magnum opi?). Fortunately, I had just the thing prepared.
I'm not the only one who's expressed skepticism and pointed out that the whole "Green Our Vaccines" slogan" that you'll be seeing and hearing right around now is nothing more than a ploy to hide the true nature of the protest, which is an assault on the very concept of mass vaccination. I therefore thought that it would be useful for me to post…
oracknows | June 3, 2008In the leadup to Jenny McCarthy's little antivaccination-fest tomorrow, it appears the the medical community has at least roused itself enough to write an open letter to Congress about immunizations. It's not much, but at least it's something. I hope all the signatories are ready for a P.R. blitz to counter Jenny McCarthy.
That's enough about this for now. I don't plan on blogging about it tomorrow unless something really interesting comes up. Maybe I'll do an all-science Wednesday instead after I get back from ASCO this afternoon.
THE "GREEN OUR VACCINES" COLLECTION:
The Jenny McCarthy and…
oracknows | June 3, 2008Sadly, it's almost here.
I'm referring, of course, to the "Green Our Vaccines" rally led by that useful idiot for the antivaccinationist movement Jenny McCarthy and sponsored by Talk About Curing Autism (TACA), Generation Rescue, and a variety of other , which will take place a mere day from now. I'll give the organizers credit for one thing. They have come up with a slogan that's truly brilliant in an Orwellian sort of way, namely "Green our Vaccines," with an accompanying press release:
McCarthy, author of the best-selling book "Louder Than Words: A Mother's Journey in Healing Autism," and…
oracknows | June 1, 2008In the nearly two years of its existence, I have strived to feature only the finest and most outrageous woo that I can find. It's mostly been medical quackery but sometimes it's other topics as well. Oddly enough, the vast majority of the woo featured nearly every week never attracts the attention of any regulatory bodies. Given the hilariously, extravagantly pseudscientific or spiritual claims made to support some of these devices, it's hard to image how so many of them never attract the loving attention of the Food and Drug Administration or the counterpart of the FDA in other countries in…
oracknows | May 30, 2008If there's one thing I've learned over the last couple of years of doing this little feature, it's that there are a couple of kinds of woo. Actually, there are certainly more than a couple, but pretty much all woo can be divided into a couple of types. The first time is where the woo is based on no science at all, but rather mysticism or some other religious or "spiritual" force. This may or may not be combined with the physical or with some sort of scientific or pseudoscientific explanations to justify it, but at its very heart the woo far more religion than science. Then, there's another…
oracknows | May 29, 2008As many who take an interest in this subject know, one of the most common arguments that advocates of various medical woo often make is the appeal to ancient wisdom. They seem to think that if a treatment is old (homeopathy, acupuncture, various "energy healing" methods), there must be something to it because otherwise it wouldn't have persisted. (Never mind that belief in ghosts and evil spirits, for example, has persisted for many thousands of years.)
Here is an explicit description of just what some of this "ancient medical wisdom" is, straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak, namely…
oracknows | May 29, 2008Sometimes I wonder if subjecting myself to all this woo is going to my head. Why do I worry that this might be the case? Recently, I made the mistake of getting involved in an e-mail exchange with a prominent antivaccinationist. Perhaps it was my eternal optimism that led me to do this, my inability to believe that any person in the thrall of pseudoscience, no matter how far gone and how active in harassing anyone who counters him, can't be somehow saved and brought around to understand the value of science and why their previous course was wrong. Such efforts on my part almost inevitably end…