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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics Skepticism/critical thinking

Antivaccine organizations got $850,000 in COVID-19 bailout money from the Paycheck Protection Program

The Washington Post reported yesterday that antivaccine groups got $850,000 from the Paycheck Protection Program under the CARES Act. How could this happen?

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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”

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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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Pseudoscience Science

Harlem Vaccine Forum: Is Al Sharpton antivaccine?

Rev. Al Sharpton is hosting the Harlem Vaccine Forum. Unfortunately, his “forum” looks like an antivaccine quackfest.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Pseudoscience

An antivaccine slasher myth originated in The BMJ

Recently, a claim that Pfizer’s own documents demonstrate that the efficacy of its COVID-19 vaccine was only 12% went viral. This is a slasher stat, so-named because like the killers in slasher movie series, even when it appears to be dead it always reappears to kill again. This particular myth originated in The BMJ in 2021.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Pseudoscience Quackery

Richard Moskowitz goes full COVID-19 conspiracy theorist for Age of Autism

Dr. Richard Moskowitz has been a quack MD and homeopath since the 1970s. It is thus unsurprising that he has now pivoted to COVID-19 conspiracy theories and disinformation.