I’ve been blogging on the MMR vaccine controversy here since 2003, writing letters to my professional journal about the safety of the vaccine since 2002, and prior to that arguing with kooks on the internet in internet newsgroups about vaccines. While over that time the claims supporting any link between MMR vaccine and autism were [...]
Despite the overwhelming amount of science failing to find a link between MMR vaccine and autism, as well as the dishonest and unethical behaviour of Wakefield, there are a number of journalists still prepared to push the hoax. One of these is Fiona Phillips. You can watch her talking about MMR on Question Time, and [...]
In an editorial full of fail in the Mail about the Wakefield judgment, two point stands out for me. The first is an amazing lack of knowledge about the public money spent on the Wakefield hoax:
And the parents? They were denied the legal aid (available to every Tom, Dick and terrorist [they really are beyond [...]
The Independent asked at the start of the GMC investigation into Andrew Wakefield the following question:
Are we wrong to detect the distant whirr of the same spin spin machine that so recently set about destroying the reputations of David Kelly, Andrew Gilligan and others?
Independent leader from February 24th 2004
This week they have finally come to [...]
The recent tragic death of Stephen Gately, which may have been due to a heart problem, was exploited by Jan Moir in her Daily Mail column to make a wider point:
All the official reports point to a natural death, with no suspicious circumstances. The Gately family are – perhaps understandably – keen to register their [...]
In the space of 4 days we have had a flurry of irresponsible news reporting about HPV vaccine following the death of a child. One of the rent-a-gobs that newspapers persist in obtaining quotes from is Jackie Fletcher, “leader” of the JABS campaigning group. JABS is largely concerned with propagating the hoax MMR vaccine-autism association, [...]
many of those prescribed Tamiflu are stockpiling it to be sure of having access to the powerful drug
Independent 10th of August
Doctors should stop giving Tamiflu to children as a routine treatment for swine flu, researchers concluded after finding the drug can cause more harm than good.
Independent 11th of August
To be fair, no wonder people are [...]
BBC news 8pm Radio 4 reported on the case of a school with a suspected case of Swine flu. The brief report ended with the following.
“The child and his 24 classmates are being treated with the vaccine Tamiflu”
Arrghhhh!
I recently linked to John Rentoul’s series of headlines in the form of a question to which the answer is no.
Here’s another. The Sunday Express asks:
IS THIS THE FACE OF MADDIE?
No.
And as if there wasn’t already sufficient evidence of the British newspaper industry acting like scum, the News of the World provide us with [...]