Tag Archives: autism

Elsevier Makes Good: Original Wakefield Takedown Now Free

Awhile back, I blogged about a particularly insidious glitch in the biomedical literature, in which a fraudulent study that caused enormous harm was available for free, while a contemporary – and strikingly prescient – commentary that eviscerated that study was … Continue reading

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Our Cross to Bear

I’m an atheist, but for social reasons I occasionally have to sit through a church service. This past Easter, I did it again, and found the sermon particularly interesting, though not in the way the pastor intended. Visiting a common … Continue reading

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New Elsevier Slogan: “It’s All about The Benjamins”

Regular readers of this blog (both of you), and regular listeners of This Week in Virology (all 10,000-plus of you) are by now quite familiar with a fellow named Andrew Wakefield, and the epic and ongoing public health catastrophe he … Continue reading

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The Epidemic That Still Isn’t: Autism Rates and Case Definitions

A paper that came out yesterday in the American Journal of Psychiatry has generated a lot of press coverage of the “autism epidemic,” as it purportedly shows that one in every 38 South Korean children is autistic. That’s more than … Continue reading

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The Vaccine-Autism Fraud

This is why we still need old-fashioned investigative journalists. Of course the anti-vaccination zealots will claim he’s a tool of Big Pharma, but that’s pretty hard to reconcile with his other work. Excellent job, Mr. Deer.

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Penn and Teller on Vaccines and Autism

I first saw these guys at the Maryland Renaissance Festival, long before they were famous. Though their recent work sometimes veers a bit off the rails, they definitely do a good job explaining the real risks and benefits of vaccination:

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Vaccines and Autism: The Bullshit Continues

A news item a few days ago has fired up a new round of the old “vaccines cause autism” nonsense. The story correctly states that the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program has awarded a substantial amount of money to the … Continue reading

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Is Autism a Methylation Disease?

What causes autism? It’s a question that has bedeviled researchers for decades, but a new report in BioMedCentral Medicine points to epigenetics for a possible answer: Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have uncovered a new genetic signature that correlates … Continue reading

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