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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Bad science Medicine

Quack tycoon Joe Mercola abandons an old antivax friend

Antivax Grande Dame Barbara Loe Fisher is lamenting how without warning her old friend, quack tycoon Joe Mercola, cut off his regular financial support of her antivax org. What’s going on here?

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine Quackery

Ivermectin goes from being the new hydroxychloroquine to being the new MMS

A recent VICE story described a Telegram channel devoted to promoting veterinary ivermectin to treat autism. It has echoes of autism quackery going back at least to the use of MMS (a kind of bleach) to “cure” autism by eliminating “parasites.”

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Politics Popular culture

The GOP was the antivax party before Ron DeSantis, but now he’s turbocharged its resistance

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has apparently decided that riding the antivax wave is his key to the GOP nomination. This wouldn’t have represented a viable strategy if the GOP hadn’t become the antivax party over the last decade or so.

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Bad science Medicine

Antivax and transphobia: Two crappy tastes that taste crappy together

There’s long been a lot of transphobia among antivaxxers. As anti-trans bigotry increases in society, more and more antivaxxers are anti-trans. Enter Toby Rogers, who thinks “overvaccination” causes the trans.

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Bad science Medicine Popular culture Television

Bill Maher: Antivax transphobe or transphobic antivaxxer? You be the judge!

Last Friday, Bill Maher went full transphobe, repurposing old antivax trope commonly used to deny a predominantly genetic component to autism and claim vaccine causation in order to mock the idea that there is a biological basis to being transgender and claim its prevalence is increasing now because it’s “trendy.”