There is currently a measles epidemic in the UK, most specifically England and Wales. By the late 1990s measles had been reduced to almost zero in England. It was no longer considered endemic, and there were but a few sporadic cases. This was undeniably the result of the MMR (mumps, measles, rubella) vaccine.

Then Andrew Wakefield happened. He published his 1998 Lancet paper laying the foundation for his claim that the MMR vaccine was associated with a form of regressive autism and GI disorder. Since then his research has been thoroughly refuted, his co-authors jumped ship after it was disclosed that Wakefield had undisclosed conflicts of interest, eventually the Lancet withdrew the paper, and Wakefield was struck off (lost his license to practice medicine) due to ethical violations. In short, Wakefield and his research were as thoroughly discredited as it is possible to be.

Congratulations to the Tampa Bay Times, which on Monday won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Editorial Writing - their ninth Pulitzer.  They did so by diligently following up on a topic well known to skeptics, anti-fluoridation pseudoscience and conspiracy theories.  

In October 2011 the county commission of Pinellas County, Florida (part of the paper's coverage area and location of the city of St. Petersburg) voted to end fluoridation of the water supply.  When it went into effect in January 2012, this anti-science decision made the county's water system one of the largest in the United States without fluoridation - affecting over 700,000 people.  

Here is a rundown of the mysterious, the weird and the wacky news from the past week courtesy of Doubtful News.

The theme this week was oddball happenings: A beaver attack kills a man, a giant wasp nest was found in the Canary Islands, a suspected dead hamster comes back to life and a guy thinks zombies are chasing him so he steals a truck. Bad excuse.

Sports people are superstitious and so, goat heads appear and freak people out.

Check out these cool and rather funny videos of an active plant that caught the attention of some bike riders.

Here is a recap of the stories that appeared last week at Science-Based Medicine, a multi-author skeptical blog that separates the science from the woo-woo in medicine.  

The “No Compassion” Gambit (David Gorski) http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/the-no-compassion-gambit/ Skeptics who question quack cancer cures and other alternative medicine beliefs are frequently accused of having no compassion for the patients. But they are the ones who are truly compassionate. Instead of offering false hopes and useless treatment regimens that diminish quality of life, skeptics offer reality and promote what is really in the patient's best interests in the long run.  

Adventures on the Alimentary Canal (Harriet Hall) http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/adventures-on-the-alimentary-canal/ Mary Roach, a hands-on investigative reporter billed as America’s funniest science writer, has a new book out: Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal. It’s full of informative and entertaining vignettes about the digestive system, from historical misadventures to cutting edge science. Includes tidbits like this: men fart more but women’s farts smell worse.