Skeptical Raptor

Autism rates have tripled — it’s still not caused by vaccines

by Michael Simpson
2023-01-30
Andrew Wakefield, Autism, James Lyons-Weiler, Vaccines

A recent peer-reviewed paper that autism rates have tripled, and you just know some people will blame vaccines. But this paper doesn’t link autism to vaccines, it just says that the rates have tripled in the New Jersey and New York metropolitan areas.

I wish I didn’t have to write about these types of articles, especially since there is no link between vaccines and autism — it is considered settled science.

Let’s take a look at this paper, and once more, remind the reader that nearly all peer-reviewed papers show that there is no link between vaccines and autism.

Intermittent fasting diet probably does not work

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I think over my lifetime, I have seen at least 100 different diet fads, with the intermittent fasting diet being one of the more recent. I even wrote about this diet fad previously, concluding that it might work, though the evidence was weak.

The scientific evidence keeps going back to the simple weight loss equation — calories burned must be greater than calories consumed. There is no magical way to change that, and despite the claims of diet faddists everywhere, there is no scientific way of significantly altering that equation. I have yet to see a powerful medical study that shows a method to burn more calories without actually burning them.

We are going to take a look at what is the intermittent fasting diet, and what the new data says.

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Big Pharma is NOT hiding the cure to type 1 diabetes

Here is another conspiracy or myth that I need to debunk — some corners of the internet claim that Big Pharma is hiding the cure for type 1 diabetes. Trust me on this, they’re not.

I know it’s hard to believe this considering all the news about the high price of insulin in the USA, but finding a cure for type 1 diabetes is difficult, and it might be impossible. Big Pharma isn’t hiding the cure, it doesn’t have one. No one does, it doesn’t exist.

This article will discuss type 1 diabetes and why it’s so difficult to find this elusive cure. It’s a complex disease, which I bet most don’t quite understand unless they have the disease.

Science says GMO foods are safe

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When I was writing the articles about organic foods, I noticed that GMO foods are not safe according to the organic food lobby. Of course, there seems to be an incredible amount of pseudoscientific claims about GMO food safety, so I thought that I needed to put together an article that shows the science of GMO foods, and the scientific consensus is that they are safe.

I know that many of my progressive friends are going to dispute this fact, but it’s time to let science speak on this matter.

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Jeff Beck died of bacterial meningitis not COVID-19 vaccine

by Michael Simpson
2023-01-22
BCG vaccine, COVID-19 vaccine, Hib vaccine, Meningitis vaccine, Pneumonia vaccine

On 10 January 2023, famed English guitarist Jeff Beck tragically died. Within a few nanoseconds, anti-vaxxers predictably jumped onto his untimely death by blaming the COVID-19 vaccines. This is part of a pattern that seems to be in the anti-vax guidebook — someone famous dies, blame the COVID-19 vaccine.

Just a couple of weeks ago, American footballer Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field, and it was immediately blamed on one of the COVID-19 vaccines. Someone on Facebook commented after seeing the collapse while watching the game that anti-vaxxers would jump into the fray. Of course, they did.

Because I am tired of these anti-vaccine lies and disinformation campaigns, I have to state the obvious — Jeff Beck did not die due to the COVID-19 vaccine. Not even close. Jeff Beck was a great musician, and we should be celebrating that, not spending time debunking anti-vaccine lies.

USDA announced new guidelines for the organic food label

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I just wrote an article about organic foods, and then the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced new guidelines for organic food labeling. I do not claim causality, but it certainly is a correlation. Or maybe just a coincidence.

Anyway, one of the comments I kept seeing about my article was that the USDA didn’t regulate what is or is not organic food very well. Suddenly, not because I wrote about it, the USDA has decided to set new and transparent standards for what constitutes an organic food product.

I thought this would be of interest to those who are curious about organic food labeling and regulation, at least, concerning the USA. I believe that Europe has always had stricter requirements for the organic food label, so this may seem like a “catch-up” for the USA.

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Coffee is linked to reduced cardiovascular disease and mortality

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A new peer-reviewed paper has been published that seems to indicate that coffee consumption is linked to reduced risks of cardiovascular disease and mortality. As I am writing this article while drinking a large cup of coffee, I can only say, “awesome!”

I have written previously about the benefits of coffee to health, but this new article is one of the better ones that examine the effect of coffee on the risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality.

But those of you who read my articles demand more than “awesome,” but you want me to take a look at the article and determine if it meets the standards of good science. I think it does, but let’s take a better look.

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Organic foods — are they safer and healthier?

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Organic foods have been increasingly popular these days moving from local co-ops and farmer’s markets to large retail chains that specialize in organic foods (such as Whole Foods) to general large retail chains. More and more stores dedicate portions of their produce sections to organic produce, usually at significantly higher prices.

Even dairy and meat sections of most supermarket chains have sections that contain organic products. Again, at significantly higher prices (so, you’ll see a trend here).

But there is a simple question that needs to be asked — are organic foods worth the extra cost? Are they healthier? Are they safer?

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US cancer mortality rate dropped by 33% since 1991

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A new peer-reviewed article provides data that shows that the cancer mortality rate in the US has dropped by 33% since 1991. This is definitely good news in a world where we are getting hit by bad medical news. And it seems like we’re winning the war on cancer.

This also goes against the claims by Joe Mercola and Robert F Kennedy Jr that the mass COVID-19 vaccination has caused a large increase in cancer deaths. Obviously, using real data, it hasn’t, but when are Mercola and RFK Jr ever right about anything?

Although I am not a cancer scientist nor do I play one on the internet, I like to keep abreast of new technologies and new pseudoscience about cancer. Since I am no David Gorski, MD, a real cancer scientist, I can’t tell you the best way to treat breast cancer, but I can generally tell you what’s a scam because I know how to read science articles.

But, most of all, I love to discuss meta-level data like cancer mortality rates because they tell more of the story of how successful we are in fighting the war on cancer. I know people are more afraid of dying of cancer than almost any disease. If COVID-19 were cancer, there would be NOBODY refusing the vaccine, even among the most ardent anti-vaxxers. I haven’t seen polling on this, but I’ll bet that people are scared of cancer more than any other disease out there.

So, we’re going to dig into this new research on cancer death rates, so that maybe the reader will feel less afraid of cancer as a group of diseases (there are over 200 different cancers, at least). Let’s go.

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The bivalent COVID vaccines are not linked to strokes

by Michael Simpson
2023-01-15
BioNTech, COVID-19 vaccine, Moderna, Pfizer

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The anti-vaccine world has jumped on some safety signals that seem to indicate that the bivalent COVID vaccines are linked to strokes. This group has shown how it misuses preliminary data to try to make false claims about every vaccine, especially the COVID-19 vaccines. This leads to false claims about these vaccines.

This post is going to examine what was found on VAERS, what is a safety signal, and what the FDA and CDC did to determine that there was no link between the bivalent COVID-19 vaccines and stroke. Even though this link has been dismissed, you just know that the anti-vaccine world will push it for the next few months.

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