Results for: Barbara Loe fisher

The long, strange road to passing SB 276 appears to be near its end…finally

In 2015, California passed SB 277, which eliminated religious and personal belief exemptions to school vaccine mandates. Unfortunately, there was a problem; a weakness in the law allowed antivaccine quacks to help parents get around the law by writing medical exemptions not supported by science. The long strange battle to get SB 276, the law designed to close that loophole, reveals a...

/ September 9, 2019

Anti-vaccination ideology in chiropractic continuing education and conference (again!)

Yet another chiropractic pediatrics conference features anti-vaccination ideology. Chiropractic institutions approve anti-vaccination CE course content. To protect public health, if chiropractic regulators won't stop this, the states should do it for them.

/ August 1, 2019
Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities inducts Yehuda Shoenfeld

The Israeli Academy of Sciences and Humanities elects antivaxer Yehuda Shoenfeld to its ranks

Yehuda Shoenfeld is an Israeli scientist who has promoted the idea that adjuvants in vaccines cause ASIA, Autoimmunity/Autoinflammation Syndrome Induced by Adjuvants, a vaguely defined catch-all diagnosis that encompasses vague symptomatology and unproven links to certain autoantibodies, all caused by adjuvants in vaccines, especially aluminum. Last week, Shoenfeld was elected to the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, an embarrassment to the...

/ July 1, 2019
PIC 2019

The strange saga of Peter Gøtzsche and Physicians for Informed Consent

Recently, it was noted that Peter Gøtzsche, formerly of Cochrane Nordic, was featured on the speaker list for an antivaccine quackfest organized by the antivaccine group Physicians for Informed Consent, along with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Toni Bark, and Marry Holland. Two days later, he announced that he would not be speaking there. So what happened? And what is Physicians for Informed...

/ February 18, 2019

The So-Called Vaccine Debate: False Balance in The San Diego Union-Tribune

A recent article in The San Diego Union-Tribune presents a pair of articles that gives a false balance regarding vaccinations. Those who oppose vaccination do so on the basis of ideology rather than science, thus placing the public's health at risk.

/ February 26, 2018
Facebook

The characteristics of antivaccine networks on Facebook

Facebook has become a major hub by which antivaccine messages are propagated. A recent study examines the characteristics of antivaccine groups on Facebook and comes to some not-so-startling conclusions.

/ January 8, 2018

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...

/ August 21, 2017

Chiropractic pediatrics conference features anti-vaccination ideology . . . as usual

For the third time in four years, a chiropractic pediatrics conference will feature anti-vaccination propaganda as part of its program. Chiropractors will spread this misinformation to their patients' parents.

/ August 3, 2017

In 2017, are antivaxers winning?

The election of Donald Trump as President has emboldened antivaxers, because they quite rightly sense that he is one of them. His inauguration as President, combined with other trends, have led observers to ask the question: Are antivaxers winning, or will 2017 be the year of the antivaxer?

/ February 13, 2017
Woman holding baby away from doctor trying to give shot.

Dealing with vaccine hesitancy and refusal

Almost as long as there have been vaccines, there has been an antivaccine movement. The misinformation promoted by antivaccinationists can infect parents and make them vaccine-averse. Here, we deal with some antivaccine tropes that find their way to the vaccine-averse.

/ August 1, 2016