Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Quackery Surgery

An autistic child pays the price for Andrew Wakefield’s antivaccination “research”

Andrew Wakefield is an incompetent “scientist.” Of that, there is no longer any doubt whatsoever, given how poorly he and his collaborators did the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) studies that he did looking for measles RNA sequences in colon biopsy specimens taken from autistic children, studies in which they failed to do even the most […]

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Politics

Antivaxxers will testify before a Senate committee…again

Sen. Ron Johnson is at it again, this time promoting an antivax hearing called Voices of the Vaccine Injured at the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

Steve Kirsch: From anti-COVID vaccine to irredeemably bonkers antivax

Tech bro turned COVID-19 misinformation superspreader and antivaxxer Steve Kirsch has now fully embraced “old school” vaccine-autism conspiracy theories, demonstrating how anti-COVID-19 vaccine antivaxxers frequently become just antivaxxers.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

“CDC whistleblower” conspiracy theory, resurrected by “new school” antivaxxers

In 2014, Andrew Wakefield unveiled Brian Hooker’s “CDC whistleblower” conspiracy theory featuring William Thompson, a CDC scientist who claimed that a vaccine-autism link was being covered up. Now, Steve Kirsch and other COVID-19 antivaxxers are resurrecting it.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Medicine

Antivax rhetoric from Dr. Lee Hieb in 2015: The Song Remains the Same

The names change, but the song remains the same. Such is antivax rhetoric during the age of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cue Dr. Lee Hieb from 2015, who very much resembles a familiar figure in 2022.