We will, after some consideration, skip
Danielle & Andy Mayoras. Yes, their take on the Sarah Hershberger case,
discussed here is misinformed and stupid – and reflects a rather common mindset that makes
people think they can legitimately have their opinions count in fields where
they have no expertise and said opinions nevertheless conflict with those of
experts. Yet, we are willing to overlook lone-standing lapses of judgment and
haven’t really found any other example of the Mayorases weighing in on woo.
Jacquelyn McCandless’s forays into nonsense
are more thorough. McCandless is an anti-vaxxer. In particular, McCandless
believes that heavy metals and vaccines, especially the MMR, are the trigger(s) of autism.
They demonstrably aren’t.
McCandless, however, does not only believe that they are, but that oral
chelation will reverse autism, which it won’t.
McCandless has nothing remotely resembling evidence that it will, but she – surely coincidentally – is, in fact, a practitioner of chelation
therapy. Her beliefs about these issues have been published on the quack website Medical Voices.
McCandless is, in fact, an MD, though being
a medical practitioner and having a professional degree is of course no
guarantee that you understand how science and evidence work. She has also
written a book, Children with Starving
Brains: A Medical Treatment Guide for Autism Spectrum Disorder
(contributors: Jack Zimmermann and Teresa Binstock) that we strongly recommend
you to avoid. Apparently the book offers “a
message of hope in the midst of a worldwide epidemic of autism, ADD and ADHD,”
which the author suggests is triggered by “pesticides
and heavy metals in vaccines”. There is no such epidemic.
The rest of the book is basically one big, baseless toxins gambit aimed at the chemically illiterate.
Diagnosis:
Pseudoscientist and conspiracy theorist. Yes, she is an MD, but anyone with a
real medical condition would apparently do well to keep their distance.
Dangerous.
No comments:
Post a Comment