There is clear evidence showing that vaccines save lives and mostly safe. But I’ve found a few groups that promote the idea that they are harmful. If you see information coming from these sources saying vaccines are bad, report the post or share it with me. But first, let me introduce you to the seven worst sources for vaccine information (and most other health advice too).

References and Further Reading

WHO: https://www.who.int/immunization/programmes_systems/financing/analyses/1_economics_of_immunization_policies.pdf?ua=1

NIH: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1140944/

Antivax: Poking holes in their claims: https://www.berationable.com/rationable-blog/2019/7/20/antivax-poking-holes-in-their-arguments

Providing vaccines for free: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-28156436

Big Pharma & Vaccines: https://www.skepticalraptor.com/skepticalraptorblog.php/the-myth-of-big-pharma-vaccine-profits-updated/

Vaccines & Autism: https://skepticalinquirer.org/2017/05/vaccines_autism_and_the_promotion_of_irrelevant_research_a_science-pseudosc/

How many doctors exist: https://www.reference.com/world-view/many-doctors-world-ef3c66521bd289a8

Jenny McCarthy's son: https://hollywoodlife.com/2010/02/26/jenny-mccarthy-says-her-son-evan-never-had-autism/

Vaccines Journal: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/vaccine

Social Medicine: https://www.infectiousdiseaseadvisor.com/home/topics/prevention/social-medicine-the-effect-of-social-media-on-the-anti-vaccine-movement/

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia: https://www.chop.edu/centers-programs/vaccine-education-center

CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/

UNICEF: https://www.unicef.org/topics/vaccines

Intro and outro music: Don't Stop performed by Nothing More, from their album, The Stories We Tell Ourselves. The sound clips have been used with their permission.

Questions, suggestions or just want to get in touch? Find me on Instagram and Twitter @berationable and on Facebook @Rationable. Join the conversation on the Rationable Conversations Facebook group and email me at [email protected]. For more content like this, visit www.berationable.com.

Anecdotes are all around us, and we encounter them every day. It’s the way we humans share information. But there's a problem when it’s presented as evidence for a scientific claim. Then it’s called anecdotal evidence or argument from personal experience, which is also a logical fallacy called...you guessed it...the Anecdote Fallacy. This is the weakest form of evidence anyone can present for any claim they make. So, should we believe them?

Further Reading & References

Questions, suggestions or just want to get in touch? Find me on Instagram and Twitter @berationable and on Facebook @Rationable. Join the conversation on the Rationable Conversations Facebook group and email me at [email protected]. For more content like this, visit www.berationable.com.

Anecdotes are all around us, and we encounter them every day. It’s the way we humans share information. But there's a problem when it’s presented as evidence for a scientific claim. Then it’s called anecdotal evidence or argument from personal experience, which is also a logical fallacy called...you guessed it...the Anecdote Fallacy. This is the weakest form of evidence anyone can present for any claim they make. So, should we believe them?

Further Reading & References

Keto Diet: https://www.berationable.com/rationable-blog/2018/11/19/is-the-ketogenic-diet-the-best-way-to-lose-weight

Alternative Medicine: https://www.berationable.com/rationable-blog?category=Alternative%20Medicine

RCTs: * https://www.berationable.com/rationable-blog/2019/6/11/what-is-evidence-part-1-randomised-controlled-trials

Anecdotal Evidence: *What is Anecdotal Evidence: https://youtu.be/ntEwAnrj0IU
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anecdotal_evidencehttps://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2016/12/19/the-argument-from-personal-experience-debunked/https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Anecdotal_evidence

Evolution of Cognitive Biases: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/9781119125563.evpsych241

Confirmation Bias; https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/science-choice/201504/what-is-confirmation-bias

The Dunning Kruger Effect: https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/dunning-kruger-effect/

https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/anecdotal

Argument from personal experience Debunked: https://youtu.be/i48zNH_olps

Why People Believe Weird Things: Science, Pseudoscience, and Critical Thinking by Michael Shermer: https://amzn.to/2SUPwCZ

Questions, suggestions or just want to get in touch? Find me on Instagram and Twitter @berationable and on Facebook @Rationable. Join the conversation on the Rationable Conversations Facebook group and email me at [email protected]. For more content like this, visit www.berationable.com.

It all started with Andrew Wakefield publishing a sham study on how vaccines give children autism. Now, the movement has taken on a life of its own with celebrity endorsers, social media influencers, alternative medicine “gurus” all propagating this idea. Today, we dig into what antivaxxers believe, why it's wrong and how we can help stop the movement.

References and Further Reading:

Questions, suggestions or just want to get in touch? Find me on Instagram and Twitter @berationable and on Facebook @Rationable. Join the conversation on the Rationable Conversations Facebook group and email me at [email protected]. For more content like this, visit www.berationable.com.

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Thank you!

It all started with Andrew Wakefield publishing a sham study on how vaccines give children autism. Now, the movement has taken on a life of its own with celebrity endorsers, social media influencers, alternative medicine “gurus” all propagating this idea. Today, we dig into what antivaxxers believe, why it's wrong and how we can help stop the movement.

References and Further Reading:

Vaccines, Autism, And The Promotion Of Irrelevant Research: A Science-Pseudoscience Analysis

UNICEF: https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/record-number-infants-vaccinated-2017

WHO: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/autism-spectrum-disorders; https://www.who.int/publications/10-year-review/vaccines/en/ ; https://www.who.int/vaccine_safety/initiative/detection/immunization_misconceptions/en/index1.html

Ice Cream & Homicide: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2013/07/warm-weather-homicide-rates-when-ice-cream-sales-rise-homicides-rise-coincidence.html

Vaccines & Autism: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24814559

Influenza Epidemics: https://7news.com.au/news/health/flu-deaths-hit-300-as-season-passes-peak-c-209939; https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/flu-season-in-india-how-prepared-are-you/story-scuyWrIdWgkUZ0Rs2av0aO.html

Diseases that Vaccines prevent: https://www.who.int/immunization/diseases/en/

Kulkarni SV, Narain JP, Gupta S, Dhariwal AC, Singh SK, Macintyre C R. Influenza A (H1N1) in India: Changing epidemiology and its implications. Natl Med J India [Epub ahead of print] [cited 2019 Jul 20]. Available from: http://www.nmji.in/preprintarticle.asp?id=253355

Science Based Medicine: https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/how-to-respond-to-anti-vaxxers/ and https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/antivaccine-hero-andrew-wakefield-scientific-fraud/

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia: https://www.chop.edu/centers-programs/vaccine-education-center

Questions, suggestions or just want to get in touch? Find me on Instagram and Twitter @berationable and on Facebook @Rationable. Join the conversation on the Rationable Conversations Facebook group and email me at [email protected]. For more content like this, visit www.berationable.com.

Intro and outro music: Don't Stop performed by Nothing More, from their album, The Stories We Tell Ourselves. The sound clips have been used with their permission.

Questions, suggestions or just want to get in touch? Find me on Instagram and Twitter @berationable and on Facebook @Rationable. Join the conversation on the Rationable Conversations Facebook group and email me at [email protected]. For more content like this, visit www.berationable.com.

Today, we dive into one of the longest standing claims about losing weight. No matter which new fad diet pops up, you’ll always have someone say, “Just start having several small meals a day. Trust me, it works!” And it does sound plausible. The “logic” people usually put behind it is that it’s easier for your body to digest small portions, plus it boosts your metabolism every time you eat. In this episode, we discuss what metabolism is and how to boost it. I also explain terms like caloric restriction, deficit and surplus; TDEE; BMI and BMR, and the roles that have to play in our bodies and fat loss.

Further reading and references:

Questions, suggestions or just want to get in touch? Find me on Instagram and Twitter @berationable and on Facebook @Rationable. Join the conversation on the Rationable Conversations Facebook group and email me at [email protected]. For more content like this, visit www.berationable.com.

I’m sure you’ve heard or said that “Science doesn’t know everything”. This is usually in defence of an idea that probably isn’t scientific, like homeopathy or god. And that’s okay. Because I agree with you. Science doesn’t know everything, and probably never will. And here’s why.

** Further Reading & References**

Homeopathy: https://www.berationable.com/rationable-blog/2019/03/20/does-homeopathy-work

RCTs: https://www.berationable.com/rationable-blog/2019/6/11/what-is-evidence-part-1-randomised-controlled-trials

Questions, suggestions or just want to get in touch? Find me on Instagram and Twitter @berationable and on Facebook @Rationable. Join the conversation on the Rationable Conversations Facebook group and email me at [email protected]. For more content like this, visit www.berationable.com.

Just because you might not be a scientist, doesn't mean you can't look for and understand the evidence behind a claim. Now you can get started by investigating randomised controlled trials.

Further Reading:

The blog version of this episode: https://www.berationable.com/rationable-blog/2019/6/11/what-is-evidence-part-1-randomised-controlled-trials

For more articles like this, and much more, visit www.berationable.com.

Get in touch with me on Twitter and Instagram at @berationable and on Facebook at @rationable.

Last year, I wrote a blog about the future of the LGBTQ+ community in India after the overthrowing of Section 377. This is what Indians need to do to make ours a more inclusive society.

It’s at times like these that we feel India is headed in the right direction. After all, this is a massive step forward in a country whose belief systems are still very conservative, to say the least. And it is most definitely worth celebrating that we have recognised a truth that many nations still haven’t. But we do have a long way to go.

Just because you might not be a scientist, doesn't mean you can't look for and understand the evidence behind a claim. Now you can get started by investigating randomised controlled trials.

Further Reading:
If you want to buy the books, I’d appreciate it if you could use the links I’ve added below. I’ll get a small commission which supports Rationable and everything that it does.

Bad Pharma by Ben Goldacre

Trick or Treatment by Simon Singh and Edzard Ernst

How to read a paper: The basics of evidence-based medicine by Trisha Greenhalgh

Steven Novella's discussions on p-hacking:https://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/get-rid-of-statistical-significance/https://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/p-hacking-and-other-statistical-sins/

Rationable's article on Homeopathy: https://www.berationable.com/rationable-blog/2019/03/20/does-homeopathy-work

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randomized_controlled_trial

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Lind

https://emj.bmj.com/content/20/2/164

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/

The blog version of this episode: https://www.berationable.com/rationable-blog/2019/6/11/what-is-evidence-part-1-randomised-controlled-trials

Intro and outro music: Don't Stop performed by Nothing More, from their album, The Stories We Tell Ourselves. The sound clips have been used with their permission.

Questions, suggestions or just want to get in touch? Find me on Instagram and Twitter @berationable and on Facebook @Rationable. Join the conversation on the Rationable Conversations Facebook group and email me at [email protected]. For more content like this, visit www.berationable.com.