BioBlog

Featured image: Measles: the quackery that is homeopathic “vaccination”

Measles: the quackery that is homeopathic “vaccination”

Alison Campbell • Oct 22, 2019

A few days ago, a friend sent me a link to a health-related FB page that had published a post from a homeopathist, offering homeopathic “vaccination”¹ against measles (using something called a “Morbillinum nosode” at a “potency” of 200C, which I’ll explain shortly). I followed the link, left a comment asking for evidence that this actually, you know, works, & … Read More

Featured image: Zombie ants, updated

Zombie ants, updated

Alison Campbell • Oct 22, 2019

Back in 2010, I wrote about the strange tale of the zombie ants, which do the bidding of their fungal overlords. (They’re not an isolated example; a range of parasites change their hosts’ behaviour. See here and here for example – though as you’ll find, the toxoplasmosis story may be even more complex than first thought.) There’s … Read More

Featured image: Journalism, clickbait, & ideas of classical beauty – but not science

Journalism, clickbait, & ideas of classical beauty – but not science

Alison Campbell • Oct 21, 2019

A couple days ago the NZ Herald published a story with the headline, “Science says Bella Hadid is world’s most beautiful woman“, and followed up with the ridiculous statement that Supermodel Bella Hadid has been declared as the world’s most beautiful woman following a scientific study into what constitutes as a “perfect face”. Really, NZ Herald? Really? Were you … Read More

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Featured image: Measles: a ‘gotcha’ moment that is nothing of the sort

Measles: a ‘gotcha’ moment that is nothing of the sort

Alison Campbell • Sep 12, 2019

On Monday this week, Seven Sharp carried the story of a Whangārei school where so many of the students are immunised that the school has attained herd immunity against measles. This is an enviable achievement – tautoko, Hora Hora Primary School! Most of the comments are strongly supportive at the moment, but – predictably, not all. Including one, … Read More

Featured image: Measles & cancer, part 2

Measles & cancer, part 2

Alison Campbell • Sep 09, 2019

I’ve written previously about an anti-vaxx plague enthusiast claim that measles can cure cancer (it doesn’t). However, it seems that the search for positive attributes for a measles infection knows little bounds. Thus a friend shared this with me – it’s something posted by an antivaxxer in a FB thread: Presumably this is an example of having … Read More

Featured image: Measles: NOT a “benign childhood disease”

Measles: NOT a “benign childhood disease”

Alison Campbell • Sep 02, 2019

Pretty much everyone in NZ should be aware by now that the country is facing its biggest measles outbreak in years, with Counties Manukau being particularly hard-hit. Here’s the data for the week ending August 23rd, from ESR’s Public Health Surveillance page: This hasn’t stopped those opposed to vaccination plague enthusiasts pushing all their usual tropes, … Read More

Featured image: A new study on the heritability of autism spectrum disorder

A new study on the heritability of autism spectrum disorder

Alison Campbell • Jul 25, 2019

Science has known for a while now that there is a strong genetic component in autism spectrum disorders (ASD), although those opposed to vaccination tend to deny this. (David Gorski points this out in his commentary on this new 2019 paper.) In this paper, Bai et al. cite data from a meta-analysis of twin studies that estimated the heritability … Read More

Featured image: Plague enthusiasts: do they assume no-one checks?

Plague enthusiasts: do they assume no-one checks?

Alison Campbell • Jul 19, 2019

One of the things that strikes me about the commenters actively opposing vaccinations – e.g. on the many news stories about NZ’s measles outbreak – is their continued readiness to state and repeat mistruths and inaccuracies. You see it all the time, and I have to wonder – is there just this underlying assumption that no-one will actually check? … Read More