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Antivaccine nonsense Skepticism/critical thinking

“I’m a rational theorist, not a conspiracy theorist.”

Conspiracy theorists hate being called conspiracy theorists. After they try to rebrand themselves as “rational theorists,” hilarity ensues.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics Popular culture

Rev. Al Sharpton’s Harlem antivaccine confab has been canceled!

Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network was scheduled to host an antivaccine confab this Saturday. Then the press got wind of it. Let’s just say that it’s not happening any more—for now.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery

An attempt to “Null”-ify Wikipedia on science

Love it or hate it, Wikipedia is a main go-to rough and ready source of information for millions of people. Although I’ve had my problems with Wikipedia and used to ask whether it could provide reliable information on medicine and, in particular, alternative medicine and vaccines, given that anyone can edit it, I now conclude that Wikipedia must be doing OK, at least in these areas. After all, some of the highest profile promoters of alternative and “integrative” medicine hate Wikipedia, to the point of attacking it and concocting conspiracy theories about it.

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Bad science Medicine Popular culture

A bogus statistic about medical errors rears its ugly head in STAT

The claim that medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the US is one of those slasher statistics that just won’t die. This time around STAT News gave space to Michael Saks and Stephan Landsman to parrot that claim credulously in the service of selling their book.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics Skepticism/critical thinking

Antivaccine organizations got $850,000 in COVID-19 bailout money from the Paycheck Protection Program

The Washington Post reported yesterday that antivaccine groups got $850,000 from the Paycheck Protection Program under the CARES Act. How could this happen?