Category: Vaccines

How not to report about vaccine safety issues, Toronto Star edition

I remember it well, because several of my readers forwarded it to me not long after it appeared on the website of the Toronto Star: An eye-catching headline proclaiming a “wonder drug’s dark side,” that “wonder drug” being Gardasil, one of two vaccines against the human papilloma virus (HPV) designed to prevent cervical cancer by preventing infection with the HPV virus. The...

/ February 16, 2015

What do we do about politicians and physicians who promote antivaccine misinformation?

There are politicians and physicians out there promoting antivaccine misinformation. None of us expect politicians to be scientists or physicians, but we do expect them to listen to them. Worse are physicians who betray their profession to promote antivaccine pseudoscience. What can be done about these very public figures who endanger public health?

/ February 9, 2015

Do two half-truths add up to a complete truth or a complete falsehood? Vaccinations truthiness.

I swear that the evidence that I shall give, shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth The interwebs are not a court of law, that is for sure. The whole truth. Interesting idea. I have no idea how applicable Godel’s theorems are outside of mathematics, but from a practical point knowledge is always incomplete. There is too...

/ February 6, 2015

Hot-Zone Schools and Children at Risk: Shedding light on outbreak-prone schools

The subject of parental vaccine refusal and the impact that has on disease outbreaks has been covered many times on SBM and elsewhere. I apologize to our readers who are growing tired of the subject, but there is perhaps no subject more deserving of focus and repetition. There’s also an important angle to the discussion that I’ve written on previously and which...

/ January 30, 2015

The Disneyland measles outbreak: “Dr. Bob” Sears says measles isn’t that bad, and an antivaccine activist invokes the Brady Bunch fallacy

One argument antivaxers frequently make about the measles is that it's not dangerous. As "evidence" of this contention, they will often cite examples of sitcoms and cartoons from a half a century ago or more when measles was played for laughs. This is a fallacious argument, and there was a profound disconnect between the popular perception of measles and its reality.

/ January 19, 2015

Say it ain’t so, Mickey! A holiday measles outbreak makes the happiest place in the world sad

A measles outbreak at the Magic Kingdom? And it's due to unvaccinated children? Say it ain't so, Mickey!

/ January 12, 2015

No, the HPV vaccine does not cause promiscuity

Today’s post isn’t about the flu vaccine, but that vaccine played a part in bringing you today’s topic. It seems that this year’s vaccine is a mediocre match for the circulating strains of influenza, and I was one of the unlucky ones in whom it didn’t appear to provide much protection. After spending several days effectively bedridden, I still feel like I’m...

/ December 18, 2014

SFSBM Report upsets naturopaths. We’re fine with that.

The Maryland Naturopathic Doctors Association is not pleased with the Society for Science-Based Medicine. Not at all. That is a good thing, for several reasons. It demonstrates the importance of stopping naturopathic licensing (and practice expansion) legislation in the state legislatures. It shows how they handle legitimate criticism of their practices. And it is a lesson in their modus operandi of obfuscating...

/ December 11, 2014

Vani Hari, a.k.a. “The Food Babe,” finally responds to critics

It’s no secret that we here at Science-Based Medicine (and many scientists and skeptics with a knowledge of basic chemistry and biology) have been very critical of Vani Hari, better known to her fans as The Food Babe. The reasons for our criticisms of her are legion. Basically, she is a seemingly-never-ending font of misinformation and fear mongering about food ingredients, particularly...

/ December 8, 2014

No, the CDC did not just “admit” that this year’s flu vaccine doesn’t work

Since the press release was originally issued on Thursday by now surely most of you have seen the news stories that popped up beginning yesterday morning with headlines like “CDC Warning: Flu Viruses Mutate and Evade Current Vaccine“, or “Flu vaccine protects against wrong strain, US health officials warn“, or “Flu shots may not be good match for 2014-15 virus, CDC says“,...

/ December 7, 2014