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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Science

Corvelva and “Vaccinegate”: Italian antivaxers produce a dubious “scientific report” on fetal DNA in vaccines

The Italian antivaccine group Corvelva published a really bad “scientific report” claiming fetal DNA in vaccines is dangerous based on a dubious next generation sequencing analysis whose methods are not described. It’s not. To believe its claims, you have to believe that DNA can do anything.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience

Justice Clackson and his miscarriage of justice in the acquittal of David and Collet Stephan

On September 19, in a retrial ordered by the Supreme Court of Canada, Alberta Justice Terry Clackson issued a ruling acquitting David and Collet Stephan of failing to provide the necessities of life to their son Ezekiel, whose bacterial meningitis they had chosen to treat with quackery instead of medicine, leading to his death in 2012. The news reports showed that this was a very bad decision, but you have to read Justice Clackson’s actual decision to see that it’s an even worse decision than the news reports indicate, full of bad medicine, bad science, and even a hint of racism.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery

The tragic death of Evee Clobes: How antivaxers recruit grieving mothers to their cause

Evee Clobes was a six month old who died due to SIDS. Unfortunately, antivaxers used the grief of her mother Caitlin to recruit her to their cause. It’s an all too common tactic, because antivaxers know that grieving mothers are their most potent messengers.

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Bad science Medicine Politics Popular culture Pseudoscience

Antivaxers in the wake of SB 276 and SB 714

After the passage of SB 276 and SB 714, antivaxers are very unhappy. They show this by likening vaccine mandates to 9/11 and claiming they know the “real reason” for them, big pharma and government “punishing” them and taking away their rights.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Evolution Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery

Andrew Wakefield predicts a “mass extinction” due to vaccines in the pages of—where else?—JPANDS

In a new article in JPANDS, the official journal of the crank medical organization Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), Andrew Wakefield argues that vaccines are leading to a mass extinction. Wakefield’s argument is so full of misinformation and pseudoscience that I can only marvel at how much Wakefield and AAPS belong together.