More truth-based weapons against the antivaxxers

A few antivax links for your amusement: 1) When challenged about their bizarre and provably false beliefs, a lot of antivaxxers claim that they have personal experience with their kid. That's anecdotal and uses a small sample size, and so is prone to all sorts of logical failings. But what if the sample size is much larger and uses scientific reasoning? Then you get something like this good spanking of antivax nonsense by an actual pediatrician. Tip o' the syringe to David Whalley. 2) The Australian Vaccination Network is one of the most pernicious and awful of the antivax groups, as regular readers know. They may be on their way out -- science, apparently, can inoculate us against such infections -- but it's still worth keeping up with the sort of offal they spew, since other groups do it as well. This article by The Australian Skeptics is an excellent exposé of AVN mendacity. 3) Healthday has an alarming article about the San Diego 2008 measles outbreak which exposed over 800 people because one family decided not to vaccinate their kid. Yes, one family started an minor epidemic that cost over $170,000 to contain and nearly killed one infant. I hope antivaxxers are proud of that one. 4) Orac once again leaps into the fray with a magnificent exposure of some bold antivax lies. It's amazing to me just how low some antivaxxers are wiling to go -- cheating, twisting, distorting, and out-and-out lying -- to promote their agenda of bringing back preventable diseases. They say they care about kids. Maybe they do. But making sure children get measles, rubella, pertussis, and other life-and-limb-threatening diseases is sure a funny way of showing it.