Stalking pseudoscience in the internet jungle
Well, one of the most obnoxious anti-vaccine, right-wing, science denying MDs, Jane Orient, is back in the limelight. And she’s pushing the same old pseudoscience about climate change as she has about vaccines, HIV, and other sciences.
Let’s take a look at what she wrote. And why she’s an ignoramus about science, whether it’s vaccines or climate change. Continue reading “Jane Orient, the anti-vaccine, climate change denier, right-wing quack MD”
If you’re spending more than a nanosecond reading idiotic memes from the anti-vaccine religion, I’m sure you’d see the old the package insert says that FDA doesn’t require testing vaccines to determine whether they cause cancer or not. It still makes me laugh how much authority the anti-vaxxers give to package inserts, but that’s another story for another day.
Oh wait, it is another story that I told. You know, the old argument by vaccine package insert fallacy. It’s a fun one, it’s helpful in dismissing the bogus claims that the anti-vaxxers make using package inserts.
Like all zombie memes from the vaccine deniers, this one keeps disappearing then returning every few months. And now with the current measles epidemic in the US and other areas, it’s arisen from the graveyard of debunked vaccine myths to haunt the internet.
And it’s time to debunk it once again. Continue reading “Testing vaccines for cancer – another anti-vaxxer myth with no credibility”
After extensive efforts from public health and the immunization coalition to revise Maine vaccine exemptions, and in the face of determined opposition, on Tuesday, May 14, 2019, the Maine Senate voted for a bill removing religious and personal belief exemptions to school vaccination requirements. The bill will now go to the Governor’s office, and Governor Janet Mills – whose administration already expressed support for the bill – is expected to sign it.
The bill, LD 798, has been in the works for a while, over strong opposition from the resident anti-vaccine groups. It simply removes the language creating the non-medical exemptions, such as for religion and personal beliefs.
On the support side, the grassroots group Maine Families for Vaccines spoke in favor of the bill, and medical associations, including the Maine American Academy of Pediatricians, worked to explain it and support it. A previous bill, similar in language, passed through the Maine Legislature, but it was subsequently vetoed by the (then) governor.
The new Maine vaccine exemptions bill went through the legislative process with some drama. After passing through the House, the Senate approved the bill, but – in an 18:17 vote – added back a religious exemption.
On returning the bill to the house, the House reaffirmed their commitment to the removal of both the personal belief and the religious exemptions – in procedural terms, it “insisted”, and sent the original bill back to the Senate to vote on it again. After negotiations, one of the Senators who supported adding the religious exemption back in reversed course, and the original bill – removing both the personal belief and the religious exemption – passed 18 to 17.
As mentioned above, the Governor is expected to sign it.
The price of the change appears to be somewhat weakening the controls on religious exemptions by preventing the Department of Health and Human Services from regulating them and allowing a nurse practitioner or physician assistant to grant them.
In addition, children with an individualized educational plan can continue to attend, as long as the parents – or the student, if over 18 – have consulted with a licensed physician about “the risks and benefits associated with the choice to immunize.”
Maine – whose exemption rate was high, and who has seen a large outbreak of pertussis in past years – thus joins California, West Virginia and Mississippi as states with no non-medical exemptions. It also provides the second legislative win for public health this season, after Washington passed a bill removing the personal belief exemption to the MMR vaccine.
Congratulations, Maine, and let us hope this step helps keep your children safe and serves as a model to more states.
This piece is a summary of Herd Immunity and Immunization Policy: The Importance of Accuracy, published in v. 94 of the Oregon Law Review.
As a bit of background, in an article that was published in the Oregon Law Review in 2014, authors Mary Holland and Chase E Zachary claimed that school immunization mandates are inappropriate because they reject the concept that herd immunity works.
This article will explain why Holland and Zachary’s analysis or immunization mandates and herd effect is simply incorrect. And let’s be clear – there is a legitimate debate about whether school immunization mandates are appropriate, policy-wise, as a response to non-vaccination.
Unlike vaccine science, the appropriate policy to handle non-immunization is not agreed upon, and the data on what is the right way to get people to vaccinate is anything but clear (though some things are clear – for example, harder to get exemptions lead to higher vaccination rates). But the debate needs to be premised on accurate facts – not on misuse of legal terms and incorrect scientific data. Holland and Zachary’s article does not provide that. Continue reading “Yes, vaccine herd immunity works – scientific evidence supports this fact”
As of 10 May 2019, the CDC has reported 839 cases in the 2019 measles epidemic – the vast majority of these individuals were unvaccinated. As a result, this year is the worst for measles in the USA since 1994, just prior to the startup of the Vaccines for Children Program (VCP) that provides free vaccines to US children.
VCP was passed into law as a consequence of another measles epidemic, from 1989-91, that resulted in over 55,000 reported cases of measles, 11,000 measles-related hospitalization, and 123 deaths. It’s amazing what vaccines can do. Continue reading “2019 measles epidemic still going strong – the MMR vaccine stops it”
George Clooney goes after all kinds of science deniers, including the anti-vaccine religion. Of course, Clooney may know more about vaccines when he played pediatrician Dr. Doug Ross on ER than most anti-vaxxers and their lame Google University degree.
As a bonus, George Clooney goes after evolution deniers too.
Yeah, I know, this is just clickbait to have George Clooney in the headline. Well, if that gets someone to check out some snark about the anti-vaxxers, I’ll accept that!
The HPV cancer-preventing vaccine, especially Gardasil (or Silgard, depending on market), has been targeted by the anti-vaccine religion more than just about any other vaccine being used these days. So many people tell me that they give their children all the vaccines, but refuse to give them the HPV vaccine based on rumor and innuendo on the internet. This article provides all the posts I’ve written about Gardasil safety and efficacy.
As many regular readers know, I focus on just a few topics in medicine, with my two favorites being vaccines and cancer – of course, the Gardasil cancer-preventing vaccine combines my two favorite topics. Here’s one thing that has become clear to me – there are no magical cancer prevention schemes. You are not going to prevent any of the 200 different cancers by drinking a banana-kale-quinoa smoothie every day. The best ways to prevent cancer are to quit smoking, stay out of the sun, keep active and thin, get your cancer-preventing vaccines, and following just a few more recommendations.
The benefits of the vaccine are often overlooked as a result of two possible factors – first, there’s a disconnect between personal activities today and cancer that could be diagnosed 20-30 years from now; and second, people think that there are significant dangers from the vaccine which are promulgated by the anti-vaccine religion.
It’s frustrating and difficult to explain Gardasil safety and efficacy as a result of the myths about safety and long-term efficacy of the vaccine. That’s why I have written nearly 200 articles about Gardasil safety and efficacy, along with debunking some ridiculous myths about the cancer-preventing vaccine. This article serves to be a quick source with links to most of those 200 articles.
And if you read nothing else in this review of Gardasil, read the section entitled “Gardasil safety and effectiveness – a quick primer” – that will link you to two quick to read articles that summarize the best evidence in support of the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness.
Continue reading “Gardasil facts – debunking myths about HPV vaccine safety and efficacy”
I’m sure many of you read the news – scientists somehow made pig brains come back to life a few hours after the pigs died. Of course, most news sites had to produced clickbait headlines, and since most people don’t read beyond those headlines, there is a whole new mythos about these zombie pig brains.
We’re here to correct some of that information. Hopefully, a few people will look beyond the headline to examine the science rather than fall for pseudoscientific dreck. Continue reading “Zombie pig brains – once again, internet exaggerate scientific results”
We have written a lot about Robert F. Kennedy Jr in these pages. The vaccine denialism of RFK Jr is a regular topic here, and let’s just say we are not a fan of his.
We’ve written about RFK Jr and CDC patents – he’s wrong.
We’ve written about RFK Jr and serious journalists – they ignore him.
We’ve written about RFK Jr and Senator Richard Pan’s recent election to the California Senate – Senator/Dr. Pan won.
We’ve written about RFK Jr attacking the esteemed Dr. Paul Offit – absolutely wrong.
We’ve written about RFK Jr and his bad science – he was wrong again.
And let’s not forget that RFK Jr begged the anti-vaccine President of the United States, Andrew Wakefield’s good friend, Donald Trump to make him the head of some idiotic vaccine safety commission – never happened. Continue reading “RFK Jr vaccine denialism – other Kennedys think he’s wrong”
I don’t do this very often (or ever), but out of nowhere, there appears a wonderful anti-vaccine musical with humor, pointed comments, and good old-fashioned snark. And I need to share it with the loyal readers of the ancient feathered dinosaur.
Because we know that vaccine safety and effectiveness is settled science, because we know that vaccines aren’t linked to autism, and because we know that the HPV vaccine prevents cancer, we need to ridicule the anti-vaxxers. And this anti-vaccine musical does it perfectly.
So let’s make fun of the ignorance and cockwomble of the anti-vaccine world with an anti-vaccine musical, “Comeback-the anti-vaxxer song” from YouTuber Adrian Darakai.