Category: Computers and social media

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Antivaccine nonsense Computers and social media Medicine

Elon Musk amplifies dubious claims of “spasms” and “seizures” after COVID-19 vaccines

COVID misinformation seizures spasms

Thanks to Elon Musk, two-year-old videos showing people claiming to have “seizures” and “spasms” due to #CovidVaccines have resurfaced and gone viral. Antivaxxers are partying like it’s 2009—or 2021.

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Antivaccine nonsense Computers and social media Medicine Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

Did Anthony Fauci have a “conflict of interest” because his wife is Chief of Bioethics at NIH?

Drs Anthony Fauci and Christine Grady
Drs Anthony Fauci and Christine Grady.

While Orac was off last week, Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk resurrected an antivax conspiracy theory that Anthony Fauci’s wife was “supposed to make sure” that he “behaves ethically.”

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Antivaccine nonsense Computers and social media Medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

Dr. Vinay Prasad whines about the “misinformation police.” Hilarity ensues.

Dr. Vinay Prasad vs. the "misinformation police"

COVID-19 contrarian Dr. Vinay Prasad attacks the pandemic “misinformation police.” He needs new material, having recycled the same tropes he used to attack skeptics before the pandemic.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Computers and social media Medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery

Criticism and quality control ≠ “Censorship and defamation”

Criticism ≠ censorship
Criticism ≠ censorship.

Minerva published an op-ed disguised as a “study” decrying “censorship and defamation.” It was really just criticism and quality control, but the usual suspects are all over it as evidence of evil.

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Computers and social media Medicine Politics Popular culture Science Skepticism/critical thinking

John Ioannidis and Vinay Prasad team up to lecture social media about “obsessive criticism”

Irony meter meets obsessive criticism
Orac never thought he'd ever be using an irony meter meme in a discussion of something that Prof. Ioannidis has written, but here we are.

Formerly respectable academics John Ioannidis and Vinay Prasad published a complaint about “obsessive criticism” on social media. Hilarity ensued, and many irony meters were reduced to sparking, smoking, sputtering ruin.

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