Hey, it was true 150 years ago, too!

My favorite thing that Scientific American does is reprint articles from their earlier issues. Given how long they've been in publication, this means they can go back 150 years. Here's my favorite one so far:

Gas [for interior illumination], it is supposed, is a powerful disinfectant, and hence there is no contagion within the circle of its influence.’ We copy the above sentence for the purpose of disputing the inference that gas will protect people from the small-pox. Small-pox is doubtless uncommon among that class of people who burn gas for light in our cities, because they generally have sufficient intelligence and forethought to attend to the vaccination of their families, and its ravages are almost wholly confined to that improvident class who make no provision against the small-pox, or anything else in the future, and who live by the light of burning fluid.

Here's the rest.

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Andrew Wakefield Censured by GMC

The UK's General Medical Council finds that Andrew Wakefield failed to act in interests of children and a whole raft of other things.

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Orac on the Biomed Movement

The autism “biomed” movement: Uncontrolled and unethical experimentation on autistic children.


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Cracked.com continues to be awesome

This time, they're ripping into Jenny McCarthy and Suzanne Somers: Go get 'em, guys!


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Guess what? Vaccines STILL don't cause autism.

Yet another study debunks vaccination-autism link.

New findings from the CHildhood Autism Risks from Genetics and the Environment (CHARGE) study have found no difference in the blood levels of mercury among children ages 2-5 with autism spectrum disorders and children who were developing normally. [Hertz-Picciotto I and others. Blood mercury concentrations in CHARGE Study: Children with and without autism. Environmental Health Perspectives, Oct 19, 2009] The complete report is available as a .pdf at this link.

From the latest Consumer Health Digest. Please check out the full issue. There's some great stuff about pop psychology and Paul Offit in there. It never fails to floor me how the people with facts on their side stick to those while their logic-challenged opponents just launch personal attacks.

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Get your flu shot

Just a quick note:

Get your damn flu shot.

Thank you.

For more information, please check out flu.gov.

Autism/Vaccination News from Consumer Health Digest

The latest issue of Consumer Health Digest has three items of great interest:

1. The U.S. Court of Federal Claims has upheld the decision of a Special Master that the family of William Yates Hazelhurst had presented no credible evidence that vaccination had caused him to develop regressive autism.

2. Autism not linked to GI disorders.

3. And my favorite: Huffington Post blasted for promoting crackpot theories.

Jenny McCarthy Bodycount

Things have been slow over here at Homologous Trend HQ for several reasons. The largest of which is that my laptop died. It has recently been fixed and it works so much better than before.

Actual, factual content will come but until then, check out the Jenny McCarthy Bodycount site.

Thank you and be excellent to each other.

More bad news for anti-vaccinationists

Chances are, you've already heard about the study that drives yet another nail into the coffin of the idea that thimerosal causes autism. There's nothing I can say about it that the two doctors below haven't said better, so I'll let them do the talking:

Orac

Dr. Steve Novella

Also from the Mounting Evidence desk, here's yet another report that shows how much detoxification doesn't work.

Quick note

You know? I looked all over www.huffingtonpost.gov and I can't find that David Kirby post that everyone's talking about.

Must be a hoax.

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Vaccinate Your Kids

I know I'm always on about this but it's important. Vaccinate your kids.

Here's a little fine tuning on that message: Vaccinate your kids according to the schedule recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Still need some convincing? Have you read Bob Sears's book and it's raised some questions?

This article from Pediatrics by Paul A. Offit and Charlotte A. Moser should answer those questions. They take Dr. Sears to task for threatening the herd immunity of our entire species by recommending the delay or withhold certain vaccines.

Thanks to Dr. Stephen Barrett from Quackwatch for writing about this in his latest newsletter.

Yes, more links

I have some things to say about parenting an autistic child but lately I've been so busy helping to actually do that parenting (along with my day job) that I haven't had a chance to blog about it. The good news is that everything's going great and B loved the holidays. His mom and I did, too.

And now, some links:

If I can't talk about my personal experiences with an autistic kid, I can at least post a link to Orac's recounting of an awful episode of The Doctors which looks like it might just be an awful show. The subject was vaccines and they had that total douche Jay Gordon on there. Nuff said.

Mindhacks brings us news of a report on spurious correlations between behavior and brain activity. The report is amazing and the blog post does an excellent job of breaking it down. This is why Mindhacks is one of my favorite sites.

Finally, Pure Pedantry keeps us in the holiday spirit by talking about lying.

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Vaccinate your kids - Please

The latest episode of This American Life includes the following story:

When they decided not to vaccinate their son against measles, two San Diego parents thought they were making the best decision for their child. But when the 7-year-old came home from an overseas trip suffering from the disease (pictured at left: measles virus), his family’s personal decision became a whole community’s problem. The resulting outbreak infected 11 children and endangered many others.

I know that anecdote is not the singular of data but there are plenty of real studies to back up the assertion that a lack of vaccination is harmful to our species. Get your flu shots and keep up with the vaccination schedules your doctor (and your child's doctor) recommend. They don't cause autism.

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Debunkings in the News! Mostly.

An international doctors panel appointed by the Roman Catholic Church is getting out of the business of determining whether visitors to Lourdes may have experienced miraculous healing. Good for them.! Though, some of the language the spokesman for the panel uses disturbs me.

Reynold Ducasse, a Haitian physician, has a new book out which debunks the zombie myths specifically the Wilfred Doricent case. The Doricent thing has been blasted several times before (scroll down to the Zombies section) but it's nice to see a Haitian doctor take it on.

Orac takes a recent meta-analysis of acupuncture apart letter by letter. Get some popcorn and watch the fun.

If you have kids and you're on the fence about getting them vaccinated, I urge you to read this article by Dr. Steven Novella. Related topic: Dr. Jay Gordon is not just a complete douche, he's actively dangerous because he's advising people not to get vaccinations. So, when the herd immunity for our species goes away and we have epidemics of measles and influenza sweeping the nation we'll know who to blame.

I know I've said this before but here we go again: My son is autistic but I don't blame vaccines. Why don't I blame them? Is it because Orac and Dr. Novella and others told me that vaccines don't cause autism? Hell no! It's because people like Orac and Dr. Novella and Dr. Andrew Offit pointed me towards credible, scientifc studies and actual resources where I could find the information and THINK FOR MYSELF by making an informed decision about the health of my child. Don't take my word for it. If you're reading this, you're sitting at a computer with internet access. Go find the information for yourself.

Science-Based Medicine and Respectful Insolence are both great places to start.

jessiemarion of Rational Moms provides some perspective on the The Myth of the Sugar High. She even includes references and stuff.

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Get a flu shot

USA Today (and others) are reporting on a new study published in Pediatrics that confirms the benefits of vaccinating children against respiratory diseases.

Adults should get flu shots, too. Need more encouragement? Go here and an Infectious Disease specialist will call you a dumbass.

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More fun with internists

What is human life? The first third a good time; the rest remembering about it.

--Mark Twain

I just came back from the doctor and boy are my arms tired!

Well, one arm. It's sore.

I stopped being a dumbass and got a flu shot.

I also discussed the results of my bloodwork with my doctor. My internist is a professional which means he didn't jump up and down and make AAAOOOGAH! noises at me. Instead, he said, "Yeah, your triglycerides are really high. You're gonna have to make some changes."

Good news: I'm not diabetic and I don't have kidney disease.

Bad news: I can never do anything fun again as long as I live.

Basically, I've got a bad case of "Being Almost 40". My metabolism has changed and I'm paying for my earlier wicked ways. So, it's back to:

• Taking the stairs instead of the elevator
  
• Cutting sweets (nearly) completely out of my diet
  
• Pretending I don't like eggs or ice cream
  
• Imagining that eating fresh fruit is like a rock concert on the moon with fireworks and trained sharks and the cast of Firefly.
  

OK, it's not all that bad. My doctor said, "I've got a big book with lots of details and pages but here's the one I give to guys." He handed me a single sheet of paper. One side lists the foods I am 'strongly encouraged' to eat. The other one lists the ones I should avoid. It's all common-sense stuff for the most part but there are some things I wasn't aware of. Like the fact that avocados are Satan's death fruits.

So, I'll follow the instructions and get exercise and do all the stuff you're supposed to do and when I go back in a couple of months I'll let you know about my progress.

A question to any doctors reading this: When you make recommendations to your patients, what are your expectations that they will follow them?

I plan to stick to the new diet because the number on that paper scared the hell out of me. I'll keep you posted as to how I'm doing.

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Revenge of Homologous Links

Stephen Geddes' exhibition at the Sandra Small Gallery in Covington, KY will feature a piece called "Jurassic Ark," (pictured to the left). It just so happens that it's down the road from the creation museum. Go, Stephen!


I've been meaning to link to What's the Harm? for a while now. If you've ever had anyone ask you what the harm could be in believing in some bit of woo-woo or another, point them to this site.

Peter Lipson and Orac have lots to say about Jenny McCarthy and Dr. Jay. No, not the awesome basketball player, the lame anti-vaccination apologist.

Finally: Maybe Jesus was a snail.

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Stop Jenny McCarthy

Stop Jenny McCarthy is a new site which seeks to, well, stop Jenny McCarthy. "Stop her from what?: you may ask. Check out Friday's post for a hint.

Thanks to Skeptico for mentioning this on his site.

EDIT: Liz Ditz from I Speak of Dreams is compiling this awesome list of anti-Jenny resources as well as a bunch of anti-vaccination organizations and their boards of directors. Go, Liz!

EDIT #2: Kimball Atwood provides even more information about the AMAB. The AMAB is the fake certification board that has Mrs. Michigan on it.

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Focus on the Real Problem

I left a comment on this post by the awesome Emily of A Life Less Ordinary?. My comment, which contained an agreement with someone else's, made it clear that I am not fond of Jenny McCarthy and her anti-vaccination crusade.

This caused someone to reply with the following:

Why rip into Jenny? You may disagree with her beliefs about the cause of autism and the best way to treat it but she is a loving mother who works tirelessly for her child and others like him. She doesn't spew hate for innocent children and their distressed parents.

Why not keep the focus on the real problem: unfunny so-called comedians who say cruel and hurtful things about disabled children.

I say 'someone' because this brave soul remained anonymous. I am responding to this comment here because I don't want to crap up Emily's comment thread with an argument. Also, this response is a little long.

Let's look at the comment:

I agree with the first paragraph almost entirely. I have no reason to believe that Ms. McCarthy is not a "loving mother who works tirelessly for her child and others like him". And I have seen no evidence that she has spewed hate.

The second paragraph, however. Hoo, boy! Dennis Leary is the "real problem"?

No, I don't think so.

Dennis Leary's words will piss some people off (they sure made me livid) but they won't cause anyone physical harm. Anti-vaccination campaigns led by people such as Jenny McCarthy and Andrew Wakefield, on the other hand, have harmed innocent children.

There is no scientific evidence that the MMR vaccine causes autism. The fear that these people have spread has driven down vaccination rates and increased cases of measles in both the UK and the US. This is unconscionable.

Also, people searching for a cure for autism are unwittingly harming their children and there are lots of doctors who are taking advantage of the fear to rake in tons of money.

I am the father of an autistic child and I understand the helplessness and fear that goes with it. I love my son more than words can express which is why I would never do anything to harm him. I don't think Jenny McCarthy is a bad mother but I do think that she is horribly misguided and that she is unintentionally doing great harm to all kinds of children. Some of the doctors who subject children to harmful treatments are well-meaning but that does not mitigate the harm.

So, "Anonymous", that is why I'm ripping into Jenny. I will take a thousand ignorant assholes like Dennis Leary over a single loving mother who is doing real, physical harm.

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Son of Homologous Links

Wow. Dennis Leary really IS an asshole.

Hey, creationists! I got your transitional fossil right here!

National Geographic Online has a spread of the winners of the 2008 Small World Photomicrography Competition. Spectacular!

I don't usually get political here but since John McCain is pandering to the anti-vaccination crowd, I have to say that's one more reason not to vote for him.

Finally, The Friendly Atheist posts a list of atheist and secular organizations that could use donations along with a sickening list of how much the top Religious Right organizations rake in.

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