Merseyside Skeptics Society

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The Merseyside Skeptics Society (MSS) is a group based in Merseyside, UK which calls itself

a non-profit organisation which aims to develop and support the skeptical community on Merseyside. The society was founded in February 2009 and holds regular social events in Liverpool City Centre.[1]

The group runs a website called merseysideskeptics.org.uk. Its founder is Mike Hall, who registered the web domain on 30 January 2009.[2]

Activities

The MSS, in its website section called AntiAntiVax, defends vaccinations of many types against their critics.[3]

It criticizes alternative and complementary therapies/medicines and has prominent links (headed "Great Resources"[4]) to the Quackwatch website, Skeptic magazine, and the James Randi Educational Foundation.[5]

Affiliations

There is considerable similarity in the stance of MSS with that of Sense About Science, with both groups claiming to stand up for science. The MSS states on its website, "we adhere to principles of scientific skepticism, a position which seeks to establish the veracity of scientific and historical claims through a logical and impartial evaluation of the available evidence."[6]

There is also considerable overlap in the campaigns of Sense About Science (SAS) and the MSS. The MSS website has a prominent link to Sense About Science's "Keep libel laws out of science" campaign.[7] Just as (as of February 2010) SAS's "Keep libel laws out of science" campaign focused almost entirely on the case of science writer Simon Singh, who was sued by the British Chiropractic Association for claiming that chiropractic was "bogus" (see Sense About Science, so does the MSS.[8] As at February 2010, both organisations fail to mention on their sites the prominent case of SAS funder GE Healthcare suing radiologist Henrik Thomsen for libel, after Thomsen drew attention to what he believed were serious health risks of GE Healthcare's Omniscan product (see GE Healthcare, Sense About Science).

Similarly, both the MSS and SAS criticise alternative medicine and prominently publicised the MSS's stunt of a mass overdose of homeopathic remedies, called "Homeopathy: There's Nothing In It" (on the basis that none of the overdosers suffered any immediate ill effects from the overdose).[9][10]

People

Funding

Clients

Publications

Contact

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Resources

Notes

  1. Who are we?, Merseyside Skeptics Society website, accessed 27 Feb 2010
  2. Merseyside Skeptics web domain WhoIs? screengrab, taken 27 Feb 2010
  3. The Truth About The Evils Of Vaccination, MSS website, accessed 27 Feb 2010
  4. Great Resources, MSS website, accessed 27 Feb 2010
  5. Podcasts page, MSS website, accessed 27 Feb 2010
  6. What isn’t skepticism?, MSS website, accessed 27 Feb 2010
  7. Merseyside Skeptics link to SAS libel laws campaign, MSS website, accessed 27 Feb 2010
  8. Libel laws and Simon Singh, MSS website, accessed 27 Feb 2010
  9. Libel laws and Simon Singh, MSS website, accessed 27 Feb 2010
  10. Alternative Medicine, SAS website, screenshot taken 27 Feb 2010