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Anti-vaccine quiz gets it all wrong – silliness from Wisconsin anti-vaxxers

Wisconsin anti-vaccine quiz

Every week, I come across some amusing and frustrating anti-vaccine website. Most of them are laughably ignorant of any scientific facts, but that doesn’t stop them, as we all know. Today, I present to you an anti-vaccine quiz brought to you by the Wisconsin Coalition for Informed Vaccination. And by “informed vaccination, ” they mean “misinformed,” since they provide little but ignorance and pseudoscience.

Having nothing better to do on a Sunday afternoon, I thought I provide legitimate answers to the anti-vaccine quiz, because that’s the solemn duty of this skeptical feathery dinosaur. I’ll quote their question and answer, then rip the answer into little bite-sized pieces, as is the style of any carnivorous raptor. Continue reading “Anti-vaccine quiz gets it all wrong – silliness from Wisconsin anti-vaxxers”

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More whooping cough outbreaks, now Wisconsin

This week must be whooping cough news week, which means it’s not a good week.  The Wausau (Wisconsin) Daily Herald reports that a whooping cough outbreak has hit the Wausau area.  According to the report, more than 100 cases have been seen in the area since the beginning of 2012.  And as we have discussed, although the disease is not usually dangerous, it has significant consequences for a number of people including children and those who are immune compromised. Continue reading “More whooping cough outbreaks, now Wisconsin”

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Heartland Institute plans to discredit teaching of climate change

The New York Times article, Heartland Institute Leak, a Plan to Discredit Climate Teaching, obtained some leaked documents from the Heartland Institute, a conservative think tank that denies the link between second hand smoke and cancer; and denies anthropomorphic global warming (human-caused climate change).  These documents outlined “plans to promote a curriculum that would cast doubt on the scientific finding that fossil fuel emissions endanger the long-term welfare of the planet.”  According to the Heartland Institute, “Principals and teachers are heavily biased toward the alarmist perspective (pdf file).”

Continue reading “Heartland Institute plans to discredit teaching of climate change”