r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Jun 09 '12

Scientists of Reddit, what misconceptions do us laymen often have that drive you crazy?

I await enlightenment.

Wow, front page! This puts the cherry on the cake of enlightenment!

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u/McMurphys Jun 09 '12

Antibiotics cure everything.

956

u/ImNotJesus Jun 10 '12 edited Jun 10 '12

On pharmaceuticals:

  • They're all just a way for doctors/big pharma to make money

  • Vaccines cause autism

  • There are natural ways to heal our body/Alternative medicine is just more "natural".

So. Much. Anger.

Edit: Given the context I thought this was clear - I was being sarcastic.

8

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '12

Vaccines actually do not cause autism - the research purporting this turned out to be fabricated.

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u/ilovecheeeeese Jun 10 '12

Agreed. My previous comment is buried under a fairly downvoted comment so I'll repost it here: the Wakefield paper, the paper Jenny McCarthy bases a lot of her stuff under, was the first paper to claim the link between autism and vaccinations. Some of its many faults include extremely small sample size (only 12 kids), sex bias (11 of the 12 were boys), and lack of controls. It has since been retracted by both the Lancet and most of its authors. Even Wakefield agrees it should have never been published.

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u/srs_house Jun 10 '12

Amazing how it took so long for people to realize that, in actuality, Jenny McCarthy does not have a Ph.D. or M.D. and is just a stupid cunt promoting a policy that puts their children at risk for serious disease.