Vaccination | Chaos Central

The Craig Egan/Tenpenny Saga. Part 3: Tenpenny Returns

Jan 9, 2017 | Alt-med, Conspiracy theories, Skepticism, Vaccination | 0 Comments

Dr. Tenpenny on Vaccines is back on Facebook. If you don't partake in Facebook I suppose you won't be able to see what she's up to, but she has websites as well. Feel free to look her up on the innerwebs. Tenpenny Integrated Medical Centers, the page for her business where she offers up all manner of unscientific therapies, has also returned. They are both up and running, though feeling just a bit more sedate than usual. At the same time...

The Craig Egan/Tenpenny Mystery. The Saga Continues.

Jan 8, 2017 | Conspiracy theories, Health, Vaccination | 3 Comments

I just saw the following in a Facebook post. I just got a call at work from the FBI. The agent asked me if I knew who Dr Tenpenny was and if I was "trolling" her page. I explained the best I could and offered full cooperation. If that was me I would be describing a moment of shitting myself. The FBI. Is calling me. Why is the FBI calling me? Shit. But it turns out that writer went by the name of Craig Egan. Yesterday I suggested...

The tale of Craig Egan, the mythological scourge of the anti-vaccine crowd.

Jan 7, 2017 | Alt-med, Conspiracy theories, Health, Skepticism, Vaccination | 6 Comments

Image from http://www.cover4face.com/ Not long ago, say about 6 weeks, there was a Facebook page called Proud Parents of Unvaccinated Children (PPUC). Its purpose was to celebrate having children who were unvaccinated so as to trade suggestions and advice about how to keep kids unvaccinated. That advice ranged from merely misinformed to utterly bizarre. It was a hotbed of conspiracy theory, new age, libertarian, pseudo-science, outright lies...

Do you believe in contagion?

Jul 31, 2013 | Alt-med, Health, Vaccination | 0 Comments

I was at a workshop this last weekend. One of the attendees had a cold and announced that anyone who believed in contagion might want to avoid hugging her. And I thought, what???? Is that a joke? Can she be serious? Who could not "believe in contagion"? It's not like it's a concept that originated in the last couple of centuries with the advent of science. It's been around a long time. Doubting that diseases are communicable would...

What do you do when you see misinformation on the internet?

Aug 29, 2012 | Skepticism, Vaccination | 0 Comments

I spent a while last night and this morning making this up. Please take the poll and please pass it on. There's a facebook share button at the bottom of this post. If you click on it you'll share this blog post on Facebook. If you don't use Facebook (and I know there are a few holdout reading this), please pass on the poll any way you like. Getting this message out is an interest of mine, which you already know if you've been reading my...

The Immunization Initiative and the rest of it.

Aug 23, 2012 | Alt-med, Health, Vaccination | 1 Comment

I've been working on two causes at causes.com. The first one was The Anti-Anti-Vaccine Campaign. The intention was and is to encourage people to challenge anti-vaccine propaganda that shows up on their Facebook newsfeed. It's still alive but I haven't worked out how to promote it very effectively. The people at causes.com said it was too negative and appealed to too small a segment of the population for them to add it to their featured...

Influenza. I’ve created a quiz.

Jul 26, 2012 | Vaccination | 2 Comments

Please click on the image below and take the quiz. And while you're at it why not take the pledge and get a flu shot this year (and every year).

This vaccination thing (or how I’m planning to change the world.)

Jul 6, 2012 | Vaccination | 2 Comments

If you've been reading this you know that I started a "Cause" on Facebook last week called the Anti-Anti-Vaccine Campaign. I had no idea what I was doing, but I'd seen Causes on Facebook, had a thought and acted on it. It's been an interesting experience. I've dipped my toe into a highly charged pond and have gotten my first glimpse into how it works. It's very early days but I'm starting to develop some ideas about the concept behind what...

Comments I’ve gotten.

Jun 27, 2012 | Skepticism, Vaccination | 2 Comments

I get comments. The other day I had a rush of blood to my head and started a cause on Facebook. It was about discouraging anti-vaccination propaganda on Facebook. No big deal, right? I got some pretty quick response. There are now 88 people who've taken the pledge. Since I've done almost nothing to promote it I think this is fairly encouraging. The other thing I've been getting is a flood of anti-vaccination comments. I'm trying to find...

Anti-anti-vaccine campaign.

Jun 22, 2012 | Skepticism, Vaccination | 1 Comment

I got a rush of blood to my head this morning and created a "cause". (Unfortunately, it's faded away. It's no longer on the net). If you don't want to click on the link, here's what it says: Most people who post or share anti-vaccine propaganda on Facebook are not fanatics. This campaign is about politely but firmly encouraging them to stop doing that. Remarkably, this works and will help clean up the conversation on Facebook. Opposition to...

Success!

Jun 13, 2012 | Logical fallacies, Vaccination | 6 Comments

Yesterday's post was about my reaction to a Facebook post by a well known yoga teacher of my acquaintance. I said that when I see anti-vaccination propaganda I tend to respond and challenge the post in hopes of getting the writer to stop posting that sort of propaganda. I know I'm unlikely to change their opinion, but at least I may be able to decrease the antivax background noise, at least a little. Well, in yesterday's case it worked. The...

Don’t suffer anti-vaccination propaganda gladly

Jun 12, 2012 | Health, Logical fallacies, Vaccination | 4 Comments

My wife teaches yoga. I practice yoga. I make it clear that I'm a consumer of yoga and not a yogi. I don't pay attention to the philosophy or spiritual side, but I like the fact that at 64 I can touch my toes and do a few other things that I might not otherwise be able to do. As the spouse of a member of the community I know lots of other teachers. Yesterday I saw a post on Facebook by a senior yoga teacher who I've known for years and like a...

An anti-anti-vaccine rant

May 9, 2012 | Vaccination | 2 Comments

When you create a blog on Wordpress you get site stats that tell you various things about who's looking at your blog. This blog is new enough that each little bit of information is of interest to me. One of those bits of information is where referrals come from. So far today the site stats say that there have been 4 referrals from Facebook. That makes sense because I announced a couple of my posts on Facebook so friends have been dropping...

Having an open mind.

May 7, 2012 | Conspiracy theories, Vaccination | 5 Comments

Source: thehealthyhomeeconomist.com via Simone on Pinterest I was having a discussion with someone on Facebook today about vaccination. He kept making claims, and I kept asking for links or evidence or anything I could actually discuss. None were forthcoming. He talked about experts that "report serious concerns with the vaccination regime". He didn't name any experts. He didn't...