Promoting Science and Critical Thinking
If you wade into the Breitbart pool, then you should do so in the full knowledge that this is not filled with pristine clear water that has been purged of lethal germs with just the right dose of editorial chlorine. Instead, it is a cesspit brimming with foul propaganda and disinformation that has been carefully … Read more
If you go to Amazon and enter “Autism Cure” you will be offered a long selection of complete and utter bullshit. Given the recent news, this is to some degree a bit surprising, and yet given their desire to publish anything just to make a buck or two, perhaps not. A few days ago the … Read more
Vaccination not only works, but it works well. Smallpox is gone, and Polio, Tetanus, and Measles, have all been greatly restricted. Nobody would seriously advocate a return to the 18th century, a time when as many as 400,000 europeans died each and every year of smallpox alone, and yet the arise of an anti-vaccine movement … Read more
Meet Dene Shulze-Alva and her daughter Sage, age 5. The above is a picture of her that was highlighted within an NPR article about vaccine denial. The backstory here is that she is a hardcore vaccine denialist who has not only refused to have her daughter vaccinated, but takes time out to fly right across the … Read more
Rather a lot of beliefs do not lean on evidence, but instead are castles of confidence that are built upon something distinctly different. I’m not specifically talking about religion, so what am I getting at? OK, let’s work a few examples. Myth: Vaccines cause Autism I need not go into the history here, except to perhaps point … Read more
So once again the topic of vaccines and autism pops up and the media is running with it because somebody famous has said something utterly daft. To be fair, media outlets do often balance things, for example the UKs Telegraph has the story and does underline that his claim is not factual. Let’s cut to the actual text within … Read more