Recently, antivaxxers were all over social media after Tucker Carlson touted a “revelation” that the phase 3 clinical trial used to support licensure of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine didn’t examine its ability to block transmission as meaning that its inability to block transmission had been “covered up”. It wasn’t, and antivaxxers are ignoring everything we’ve learned over the last two years to make the claim that vaccines “don’t prevent transmission”.
The CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is meeting today. Last night Tucker Carlson lied about it as mandating COVID-19 vaccines for children before they can go to school.
This month Florida State Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo released a non-peer-reviewed “study” that recommends against males aged 18 to 39 receiving mRNA COVID-19 vaccines based on bad epidemiology and science. This is the first time that we’ve seen a state government weaponize bad science to spread antivaccine disinformation as official policy, a dangerous new escalation in antivaccine propaganda.
Right wing cranks at Judicial Watch used a FOIA request to find a CDC plan to promote COVID-19 vaccination with provaccine messaging. Hilarity ensued when Mike Adams found out.
One of the oldest tropes favored by quacks of all stripes, including antivaxxers, is to portray any attempt at regulating their quackery as an assault on freedom of speech. It’s therefore not surprising that after its passage by the California legislature prominent spreaders of COVID-19 misinformation are labeling AB 2098, which seeks clarify and codify the power of the Medical Board of California to discipline physicians for spreading COVID-19 misinformation, as creating “thoughtcrimes.”
