Results for: "age of autism"
Dedicated to Jake Crosby and Age of Autism…
I'm still standing, better than I've ever been.
Study laundering: IPAK, antivax “scientists,” and the return of living dead antivax studies
Antivaxxers don't like it when one of their crappy studies that they somehow managed to sneak into a decent peer-reviewed journal is deservedly retracted, as happened to Mark Skidmore's paper that estimated that 278K people might have died from COVID-19 vaccines. Fortunately for Skidmore and others, there exist fake journals that will launder their study by republishing it so that antivaxxers can...
COVID-19 vaccines and the Nuremberg Code
Antivaxxers love to claim that vaccine mandates (especially COVID-19 vaccine mandates) violate the Nuremberg Code and call for Nuremberg-style tribunals to hold public health and vaccine advocates "accountable". As usual, they have no idea what they are talking about. This is also not a new antivax narrative, although what is unprecedented is that what was once fringe even among antivaxxers is now...
“The vaccinated are a danger to the unvaccinated because of shedding!”: The latest COVID-19 antivaccine disinformation
Antivaxxers are masters of projection, which is why the latest antivaccine disinformation about COVID-19 vaccines is that they lead the recipient to "shed" spike protein, which can can cause menstrual irregularities or even miscarriages in women who come into contact with the vaccinated and even make people very sick. This trope is nothing more than a clever repackaging of the old antivaccine...
The latest antivax false claim: mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 are not vaccines but “medical devices” or “gene therapy”
There's a new antivaccine talking point in town, and it's just as much disinformation as other antivaccine talking points. It's the claim that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are not really vaccines but "medical devices," "gene therapy," or "experimental biologics" and that they were falsely classified as vaccines in order to bypass safety testing. Here, we discuss why this claim is utter nonsense based...
Don’t use a COVID-19 vaccine, cry the antivaxxers, because of the horseshoe crab!
Antivaxxers are now urging vegans not to use a COVID-19 vaccine because blood from horseshoe crabs will be used in its manufacture. At its heart, this is no different than their weaponization of beliefs against other vaccine ingredients, except that it does use a germ of a good point that we should be looking for other ways to ensure that vaccines have...
Shots Heard: When the antivaccine movement swarms and harasses on social media, what can we do?
Of late, antivaxers active on social media have been ramping up their attacks on their perceived enemies, up to and including attacking even mothers who have lost children to vaccine-preventable disease. A new study looks at the characteristics of this group, even as two doctors form a group to help those who are victims of antivaccine harassment on social media, Shots Heard...
Antivaccine pseudoscience disguised as autism advocacy in the Minnesota legislature
Recently, Sen. Jim Abeler of Minnesota created the MN Autism Council, an advisory panel tasked with advising the legislature on autism policy. A closer look at the story reveals that Sen. Abeler is a chiropractor, two of the members are antivaxers, and one of them was a founding member tasked with forming the council. This is how antivaccine activism is disguised as...
Autism prevalence increases to 1 in 59, and antivaxers lose it…yet again
Autism Awareness Month isn't as full of news stories about autism with false balance between science and antivaccine pseudoscience advocates as it was in years past. Every few years, though, when new autism prevalence figures are released, we can count on antivaxers losing it. 2018 is just such a year.
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.