Category: Vaccines
No, a Vaccine Court ruling does not show that vaccines cause SIDS
There was a rumbling in the antivaccine underground over the weekend about a recent ruling by the Vaccine Court compensating parents of a child who died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). In a confused and scientifically highly flawed decision, the Special Master Thomas Gowen didn't rule that vaccines cause SIDS, but did rule that they contributed to SIDS in this one...
Trump’s new CDC Director is very pro-vaccine, but was she also at one time a quack?
On Friday, Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Tom Price announced the appointment of Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald to head the CDC. Reassuringly, her record as Georgia Public Health Commissioner was pro-vaccine and relatively non-ideological. Not so reassuringly, a news report yesterday found that before entering public service she was peddling anti-aging quackery at her private practice. Where will her balance fall now...
Fun with Spanish Flu Myths
There are many myths about the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918. Some of them are pretty funny.
Does society try to shame and shun vaccine refusers and the vaccine-averse?
Antivaxers often complain that they are judged harshly, even shunned. A recent study suggests that, to some extent, they might well be. But are judging, shaming, and shunning parents who refuse to vaccinate their children wrong? More importantly, what about the children, who didn’t choose not to be vaccinated, and how likely is such stigmatization to change behavior?
Minnesota Measles
There is currently an outbreak of measles in the Somali population of Minnesota – an outbreak that can be directly linked to antivaccine propaganda.
Corrigendum. The Week in Review for 05/28/2017.
More measles in Minnesota. Yet another form of acupuncture: Snafu. CAM cancer studies are of poor quality. The future of CAM is LSD.
Corrigendum. The Week in Review for 05/21/2017
Choosing CAM leads to bad outcomes the world over. How deep can an acupuncture needle go? Measles continues and Minnesotans and will be welcomed in Texas. Rat rectal stimulation for Science. And more.
Corrigendum. The Week in Review for 05/14/2017.
The week in review. Measles cases climb in Minnesota; Texas is jealous. Koala and rabbit abuse. FDA suggesting pseudo-medicine? And more.
Two (now retracted) studies purporting to show that vaccinated children are sicker than unvaccinated children show nothing of the sort
Antivaccine websites have been touting two recently published studies as strong evidence that vaccinated children are less healthy than unvaccinated children. The studies are so flawed that they show nothing of the sort. Even more hilariously, the bottom-feeding predatory open access journal that published them appears to have retracted them.
Make measles great again: A case study of the politicization of school vaccine requirements in Michigan
Protecting our children through school vaccine requirements has long had strong bipartisan support. Unfortunately, the antivaccine movement has had success linking "vaccine choice" with "freedom" and "parental rights", leading to a surge of right wing antivaccine activism that has undermined that bipartisan consensus. Two bills under consideration by the Michigan legislature represent a microcosm of what is going on in much of...