Jeffrey Sachs’ Quaint Destruction of the Anti-Vaccine Movement
No, Jeffrey Sachs did not destroy the anti-vaccine movement in under two minutes. That’s just part of the catchy title given to a flashy new video produced by Emma Fierberg for the online publication Business Insider. In the video, renowned economist and director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University Jeffrey Sachs attempts to explain why the people of…
Another Backward Epidemiological Cohort Study
Alright, let’s take a look at this awesome new study that’s all the rage with the media—the one reassuring us again that there’s positively no link between the MMR (mumps, measles, and rubella) vaccine and autism or autism spectrum disorders (ASD). A consulting firm called The Lewin Group, based in Falls Church, VA looked at the records of 95,727 children…
What the News Isn’t Saying About Vaccine-Autism Studies
A new study [published in April] found no link between vaccines and autism. It instantly made headlines on TV news and popular media everywhere. Many billed it as the final word, “once again,” disproving the notion that vaccines could have anything to do with autism. What you didn’t learn on the news was that the study was from a consulting firm that lists…
The Salk ‘Miracle’ Myth
An article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette titled “Sixty Years Later, Recalling the Jonas Salk Polio ‘Miracle’” written by Virginia Linn keeps the myth of the so-called miracle of the Salk polio vaccine alive and well. It also serves as a continuing testimony to the laziness (not to mention incompetence) of the mainstream media to do its historical homework. Ms. Linn’s piece…
Direct-to-Consumer Ads Prompt Patients to ‘Ask Their Doctor’ for Drugs
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertisements are a dime and dozen on American television, Internet and radio these days. The United States and New Zealand are the only countries that allow DTC drug ads and it wasn’t until 1997 that the Food and Drug Administration offered guidance on such advertising. Since then, spending in this area quadrupled. In fact, of the $27 billion…
Sting Operation Exposes the Dark Side of Science
Doctors, patients, policymakers and the general public are finding that the integrity of science is questionable, as less people trust journalism and science journals. One 2014 poll found that trust in media dropped 5 percentage points to 52 percent. This also stands true globally, as trust in media has dropped approximately 80 percent across all of the countries surveyed.
