The Conspiratorial Move and the Struggle for Evidence-Based Medicine
The Conspiratorial Move and the Struggle for Evidence-Based Medicine
This chapter concludes the book by drawing parallels between the AIDS denialist movement and the anti-vaccination movement—another example of organized opposition to medical science which employs the same conspiratorial moves and symbolic roles of AIDS denialism. In an interesting parallel, poor political leadership also boosted skepticism toward vaccines in 2002 when then UK prime minister Tony Blair equivocated over whether his son had been vaccinated or not—while the press published stories about his wife's support for alternative and mystical therapies. Pro-science advocates defended medical science in the public sphere, especially on the Internet, by setting up dedicated websites exposing cultropreneurs as “quacks,” posting critiques of pseudoscientific and mystical claims, and engaging in debates through comment threads and blogs.
Keywords: AIDS denialism, AIDS, Tony Blair, anti-vaccination movement, therapies
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