Dan Olmsted: A Journalist for All Seasons
When I learned early last week that Dan Olmsted was no longer here, like everyone who knew him, I was shocked and then felt very sad that the world had lost a brave and tenacious investigative journalist who created a powerful platform for a public discussion about autism and vaccines. I first heard his name in 2003 when I…
I Was Told To Ask the “Older” Generation About Vaccines… So I Did
If you’re young, and you don’t support vaccines, you’ve probably been told at least a few dozen times that the reason you don’t vaccinate is because you’ve had the luxury of living in a time where “vaccine preventable diseases” aren’t prevalent. Just ask a grandparent or someone who had polio and they’ll tell you the story of how vaccines saved the day and just how devastating measles and chicken pox really were. Their testimonies are valid… unless of course you actually have a grandparent whose lived an entire century and can tell you how things really were, or you have a friend who had polio and…
How I Lost My Faith in Scientists
On December 21, 2013, The Huffington Post published an article entitled “Americans Have Little Faith in Scientists, Science Journalists: Poll.” The article noted that, according to a HuffPost/YouGov poll, “only 36 percent of Americans reported having ‘a lot’ of trust that information they get from scientists is accurate and reliable.
CDC’s Rasmussen Paper on Zika and Microcephaly: Poor Case for ‘Smoking Gun’
History is filled with watershed moments which radically alter the way something is viewed and, thus, significantly influence the progression of future events. With regard to the way the mainstream medical community, public health officials, political leaders, and the general public in the United States have come to view the Zika virus and its relationship…
Our Expanding Waistlines and Diminishing Brains
I was looking at some old family photographs from the 1960s and 1970s the other day and I was struck by how almost no one in the pictures was overweight, much less obese. Currently, in the United States, more than two-thirds of people are either overweight or obese. During the 1960s, the average American woman weighed 140 pounds.
Stranger and Stranger Vaccines: Are We Being Fleeced?
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines a vaccine as a “biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease.” The WHO further states that a vaccine “typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism” and that it is “often made from weakened or killed forms of the…