Results for: vaccines

Russian and Other COVID Vaccines

Russia's approval of a COVID-19 vaccine is premature and counterproductive.

/ August 12, 2020
5G tower

COVID-19 conspiracy theories: Vaccines and 5G (along with Bill Gates) are responsible!

The COVID-19 pandemic will almost certainly wind up being by far the worst pandemic we have experienced in a century. Given a huge pandemic with tragic death tolls, it's not surprising that conspiracy theories are popping up. Here, we look at two of the most common kinds of COVID-19 conspiracy theories. One blames 5G. The other blames—of course!—the flu vaccine.

/ April 6, 2020

Quoth RFK Jr.: Vaccines and glyphosate are responsible for the obesity epidemic!

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. published an article claiming that vaccines and glyphosate are responsible for the obesity epidemic. Too bad he cited the work of two longtime antivaccine cranks to support his bogus claim. He's really scraping the bottom of the barrel.

/ February 24, 2020

Vaccines in the News: The Good, the Bad, and the Imminent Loss of Our Measles Elimination Status

A quick recap of vaccine-related news from over the past several weeks.

/ October 4, 2019

Vaccines Still Don’t Cause Autism

Update: The evidence continues to show no link between vaccines and autism.

/ August 22, 2018

Are Rattlesnake Vaccines for Dogs Effective?

A company is now selling a rattlesnake venom vaccine. How much can we trust it when it comes to the health and safety of our dogs? Right now, it's too early to tell.

/ March 16, 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

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. promotes an awful epidemiology study linking vaccines and neurological conditions from…Yale?

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has never seen a lousy study linking vaccines to bad things that he didn't like. This is no exception. Oddly enough, this study was funded and carried out by a lawyer and an investment banker, with the help of an eminent Yale pediatrician. Of course, the study doesn't show what RFK Jr. thinks it shows.

/ February 12, 2017

Immunity: More Than Just Antibodies and Vaccines

Since I graduated from medical school, new scientific developments in immunology have been occurring at a prodigious rate. I knew I could use a refresher course, and serendipity dropped one in my mailbox in the form of a review copy of the new book Immunity, by William E. Paul, MD, chief of the Laboratory of Immunology at the National Institute of Allergy...

/ October 27, 2015

Antivaccine activists fund a study to show vaccines cause autism. It backfires spectacularly.

Having written about pseudoscience and quackery continuously for over a decade and having engaged in conversations about it online for over 15 years, I’ve come to recognize a number of traits that are virtually the sine qua non of quacks and pseudoscientists and their believers. Obviously, one of them is a severe case of the Dunning-Kruger effect, a tendency of those with...

/ October 5, 2015