Bad Science Book

Ben Goldacre, defender of reason and expert quackery smacker, now not only has a blog and a Guardian column called Bad Science, but a book too. The Guardian has two lengthy abstracts from the book, both certainly worth reading. The first is on how the media, and not Andrew Wakefield, is responsible for the MMR scare and the second on the medicalization of everyday life. The bottom line of the former extract:

It is madness to imagine that one single man can create a 10-year scare story. It is also dangerous to imply - even in passing - that academics should be policed not to speak their minds, no matter how poorly evidenced their claims. Individuals like Wakefield must be free to have bad ideas. The media created the MMR hoax, and they maintained it diligently for 10 years. Their failure to recognise that fact demonstrates that they have learned nothing, and until they do, journalists and editors will continue to perpetrate the very same crimes, repeatedly, with increasingly grave consequences.

I'm looking forward to the book coming out in South Africa - I'll no doubt quickly devour it when it does.

(HT: Mind Hacks)