Category: Politics

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Politics Popular culture

Antivaxxers aren’t just antivaccine. They’re anti-public health.

Ohio Statehouse vs. Public Health

Why have antivaxxers allied themselves with COVID-19 deniers? Simple. Both share an unrelenting hostility to public health interventions.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics Science

It’s been a week since Joe Biden won. Now what for medical science policy?

Joe Biden

In 2016 and 2020, scientists expressed surprise and alarm at the results of the Presidential election. In 2016 it was alarm that someone as antiscience as Donald Trump was elected, and in 2020 it was over how close the election was, given Trump’s dismal record on science, medicine, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Are scientists out of touch? And now what, for federal science policy and the response to the COVID-19 pandemic?

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Antivaccine nonsense Politics Popular culture Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

Monitoring COVID-19 vaccine safety during a pandemic

National Vaccine Program Office is at HHS
The headquarters of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is seen in Washington Nov. 4. A rule issued in August by the department mandates coverage of contraception and sterilization in most private health insurance plans. The U.S. bishops, saying the directive does not offer appropriate exclusions for religious institutions, view the mandate as an attack on religious liberty. (CNS photo/Nancy Wiechec) (Nov. 4, 2011) See HOUSE-CONSCIENCE Nov. 2, 2011.

Last year, the Trump administration essentially disbanded the National Vaccine Program Office, folding it into an office focused on infectious diseases. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. What does this mean for monitoring the safety of the soon-to-be-approved COVID-19 vaccines?

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Bad science Medicine Politics Popular culture Skepticism/critical thinking

AIER likens anti-“lockdown” cranks to abolitionists. Hilarity ensues

AIER HQ

Cranks love a heroic persecution narrative, and the climate science-denying right wing think tank American Institute of Economic Research (AIER) has a doozy: COVID-19 “anti-lockdown” cranks like Scott Atlas and those behind the Great Barrington Declaration are the new abolitionists! This is a page from the antivax playbook.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics

Into the Light Vaccine Injury Awareness Walk 2020: Antivaxxers and COVID-19 grifters gather in Michigan

Into the Light: Vaccine Injury Awareness Walk 2020
Into the Light: Vaccine Injury Awareness Walk 2020. A who's who of Michigan antivaxxers.

Into the Light: Vaccine Injury Awareness Walk 2020 is coming to Grand Rapids, and antivaccine and COVID-19 pseudoscience and conspiracy theories are about to flow…again.