It’s an interesting question, isn’t it? A while back several people sent me this awesome video from The Beaverton. If you haven’t seen it, please enjoy. If you have, please watch it again! It is a very on point skewering of the dangers of medical misinformation and the “natural”movement. And how society gives so-called “natural” …
Continue reading “Would an organic flu vaccine convince more people to get vaccinated?”
As today is World Aids Day I feel it is appropriate to point out that Gwyneth Paltrow and her crack team at GOOP are featuring Dr. Kelly Brogan, an AIDS denialist, as one of their medical experts at In GOOP Health 2018 in New York City. In 2014, so when HIV was well-known to be …
Some critics of the HPV vaccine claim it can cause autoimmune disease and describe this as a reason for vaccine hesitancy. The specter of the “Gardasil girls.” young women with bizarre, ill-defined symptoms (often described as autoimmune or autoimmune disease-like) attributed to the HPV vaccine fills the Internet and many parents searching for information on HPV …
Continue reading “Another study shows no link between HPV vaccine and autoimmune diseases”
This week I posted concerns regarding the University of Toronto’s response to complaints from scientists and faculty regarding the course Alternative Health at the Scarborough Campus. To summarize, the course was taught by a homeopath and the associated required reading/videos for the class on vaccines was comprised entirely of anti-vaccine propaganda. The syllabus also advised students the course would …
Continue reading “University of Toronto doubles down, restates anti vaccine syllabus not unbalanced”
Earlier this year two groups of academics (scientists and faculty members) at the University of Toronto wrote letters of concern to the President of the University regarding the course Alternative Health: Practice and Theory HLTD04H3-S, Special Topics in Health taught by Beth Landau-Halpern, a homeopath. One group wrote about their concerns that the course presented …
There seems to be an alarming trend in anti-vaccine information at some Canadian Universities. Here are the three that recently caught my eye: University of British Columbia A known anti-vaccine group, the Dwoskin Family Foundation, funds “research” at the University of British Columbia. I say they are anti-vaccine because they compare vaccination to the Holocaust. The Dean …
Continue reading “Are Canadian universities fertile ground for anti vaccine pseudoscience?”
The title of the Toronto Star’s misleading front page article about vaccine safety has been changed. No longer is it “A Wonder drug’s dark side,” now it reads “Families seek more transparency on HPV vaccine.” They just don’t get it, do they? Here we have a vaccine that can protect from the virus that causes cervical cancer. …
Continue reading “Dear Toronto Star, your Gardasil article isn’t about transparency”
When I was 22 weeks pregnant with triplets I had a craving for a Jamba Juice. So I had one. Three days later I ruptured my membranes and my son Aidan was born and died. During the hospitalization that followed I had a craving for another Jamba Juice and my then husband stalled and delayed …
Continue reading “Toronto Star claims HPV vaccine unsafe. Science says the Toronto Star is wrong.”
Background: Marin County, California has one of the highest rates of vaccine refusal in the country. The reasons for this are not socioeconomic, but rather appear to be based on fixed, false beliefs that the MMR vaccine causes autism, contains “toxins,” has mercury, or is associated with outcomes other than measles immunity. Exhaustive educational attempts …
Continue reading “Effect of a science fair project on MMR vaccine beliefs in Marin County”
The impact of not vaccinating children based on “personal beliefs” (i.e. science denialism) has come home to roost. The measles outbreak is growing exponentially due to the large numbers of unvaccinated people coupled with the extreme contagious nature of the disease. It can live on surfaces for 2 hours and a lot of people can …
Continue reading “Reading Roald Dahl out loud should be required to decline MMR vax”
Dr. Jen Gunter 