Monthly Archives: November 2016

Learn more about the MMR Vaccination scare:

Why did it take so long for the top medical journal is the UK, the Lancet, to withdraw an article by Dr. Wakefield?  Dr Wakefield, a bowel specialist,  suggested a link between MMR Vaccination and autism.  The original study was published in the Lancet in 1998.

Top five facts about the Lancet article and the Wakefield Study:

1. the Wakefield investigation could not be repeated.  A valid science study must be able to be repeated.
2. the study involved only 12 subjects.  While this might be fine if it was an early stage investigation, twelve is too small a sample to conclude that the MMR vaccination causes autism.  Twelve as a sample size is too small to be statistically valid.
3. Eight (8) of the 12 mothers in the study suggested that Autism developed 2 weeks after their child was vaccination.  In fact the test subjects were exhibiting autism traits 24 months before the MMR vaccination was given.
4. Dr. Wakefield contacted the 12 subjects two years before he did his investigation and recruited these families to participate in his “research”.  
5. Dr. Wakefield was paid by lawyers to promote the MMR Vaccination scare.

Learn more about vaccinations:

Vaccinations are not drugs – they are real chemicals.  Vaccinations stimulate an immune response.

Vaccinations are given to people who have no symptoms of a disease.  

Eighty percent of students are not able to spot the difference between a fake news story versus credible sources.  What are the best strategies to check whether or not web content is false?  

How can you become a fact checker?

FactCheck.org

Remember to ask the following 5 questions before you assume a fact is true:

1. Who created this message and why are they sending it?

2. What techniques are being used to attract my attention? 

3. What lifestyles, values and points of view are represented in the message? 

4. How might different people understand this message differently from me? 

5. What is omitted from this message?

The link to the research article describes why some compounds found in food, beet pigment and asparagus acid can cause your waste products (urine) to change colour or odour.

Learn more about science with Biographic from the California Academy of Science.

Case study #1  – Small Pox 

Case Study #2 Flue – What is the origin of outbreaks?