Benjamin Franklin refused to have one of his children vaccinated against smallpox. The four-year-old boy died, and Franklin wrote later of how mistaken he was to expose him to the needless risk. — Michael Specter Copy Share Image
Until the Nineteen-Eighties, when Deng Xiaoping designated the area as China's first special economic zone, Shenzhen had been a tiny fishing village. Suddenly, eleven… — Michael Specter Copy Share
There are people who could watch a hurricane like Sandy blow out of the Atlantic every other day and blame it on anything but… — Michael Specter Copy Share
We're lying ourselves into believing things are untrue, like organic food will solve all our problems, or vitamins will make us healthy, or we… — Michael Specter Copy Share
I started to write about science and medicine at the 'Washington Post,' in the early days of the AIDS epidemic. — Michael Specter Copy Share
Clearly, some of the reason people embrace alternatives and reject vaccines is that they are angry and mistrustful of government and of pharmaceutical conglomerates.… — Michael Specter Copy Share
The numbers matter: underreporting of Lyme disease obscures the true burden of the illnesses, on individuals as well as on health-care systems. It also… — Michael Specter Copy Share
There is a major problem with reliance on placebos, like most vitamins and antioxidants. Everyone gets upset about Big Science, Big Pharma, but they… — Michael Specter Copy Share
Denialist arguments are often bolstered by accurate information taken wildly out of context, wielded selectively, and supported by fake experts who often don't seem… — Michael Specter Copy Share
Your dollar cheeseburger isn't a dollar if you factor in what it's going to cost in health care. — Michael Specter Copy Share
To suggest that organic vegetables, which cost far more than conventional produce, can feed billions of people in parts of the world without roads… — Michael Specter Copy Share
The history of agriculture is the history of humans breeding seeds and animals to produce traits we want in our crops and livestock. — Michael Specter Copy Share
With a hundred and seventy-eight machines to sequence the precise order of the billions of chemicals within a molecule of DNA, B.G.I. produces at… — Michael Specter Copy Share
Be sceptical, ask questions, demand proof. Demand evidence. Don't take anything for granted. But here's the thing: When you get proof, you need to… — Michael Specter Copy Share
Nobody celebrates when they avoid an illness they never expected to get. — Michael Specter Copy Share
