More proof--as though more were needed--that the anti-vaccination movement is built on misinformation, disinformation, bad science, ignorance, and outright lies: A major study published in one of the world’s leading medical journals has concluded that there is no link between the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccination and autism in children. The findings from the study of …
Quote of the Day
The autistic brain is not particularly good at understanding irony, and yet most people I’ve met on the autism spectrum have, over time, developed a pretty strong grasp of the concept. Many of us have even managed to teach ourselves how to wield it. I’ve begun to suspect that this is due to our constant …
Thanks, Anti-Vaccine Lunatics
Thanks an awful lot, with an emphasis on the word "awful": The number of measles cases in the United States this year has risen to 288, the highest number for one year since the disease was eliminated from the country in 2000, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. This also is the …
Yes, Jenny McCarthy Is Anti-Vaccine
Here is the proof. I am sure that there is more proof out there, but this ought to suffice. Can we debate something genuinely controversial now, like whether water is wet, fire is hot, ice is cold, night is dark and day is light? Because that might serve as a more valuable use of our time.
The Anti-Vaccination Hall of Shame
Some quotes which ought to live in infamy: Jenny McCarthy: "If you ask 99.9 percent of parents who have children with autism if we'd rather have the measles versus autism, we'd sign up for the measles." Bill Maher: "And a lot of diseases that have been they say, whoa, this was eliminated because of a …
What the Anti-Vaccine Movement Hath Wrought
Behold: Kathryn Riffenburg decided on a closed casket for her baby's funeral. She didn't want her family to see what whooping cough, her son's first illness, had done to 9-week-old Brady Alcaide. The nearly forgotten disease, which has in recent years afflicted thousands of Americans, left Brady's tiny body swollen and unrecognizable. So his mother …
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Dear Anti-Vaccination Fanatics
Don't ever forget that you are responsible for stories like this one: Measles, a highly contagious and dangerous virus, was thought to have been eradicated from the U.S. with vaccines -- but in recent years outbreaks have been occurring at an alarming rate. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reports there was an average of 83 measles …
Depressing Thought of the Day
The Jenny McCarthy Body Count may go up quite a bit. It is surely too much to say that she will "wipe out humanity," but it is likely not too much to say that thanks to her anti-vaccination advocacy (and that of others), there will be incidents of sickness and death that could otherwise have …
Being Against Genetically Modified Crops Means Being Anti-Science
And notwithstanding its boasts to the contrary, the port side of the partisan divide can be just as anti-science as it accuses the starboard side of being: From the moment the bill to ban genetically engineered crops on the island of Hawaii was introduced in May 2013, it garnered more vocal support than any the County Council …
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Once Again: GMOs Do Not Threaten Public Health
And the major study purporting to prove the contrary argument has been discredited: As the Genetic Literacy Project reports, the GMO wars are escalateing after the discrediting of a central pillar of the anti-crop biotechnology movement and the stumbling by a prominent science journal. Gilles-Éric Séralini, author of the controversial rat study that claimed to show that genetically modified …
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