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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics Popular culture

Urgency of Normal, the Great Barrington Declaration, and the antivax movement

On Monday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis convened a roundtable including “Urgency of Normal,” Great Barrington Declaration authors, and antivaxxers. This was no coincidence, given the common talking points and causes between the groups.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bioethics Medicine

To unblind or not to unblind COVID-19 vaccine trials?

Antivaccine alternative health tycoon Joe Mercola claims that the unblinding of participants in the clinical trials of Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines was intended to “blow up the trials” and undermine the science, making it impossible ever to identify long term adverse events. What he’s really doing is deceptively oversimplifying complex ethical and scientific issues surrounding these trials in the middle of a deadly pandemic, all in the service of his grift.

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Bad science Clinical trials Medicine Politics

Remdesivir: Gilead wins with unimpressive results announced by press release

On Wednesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci announced positive results for the antiviral drug remdesivir treating COVID-19. They were unimpressive and, suspiciously, announced by press release rather than scientific paper. It’s all very fishy, but one thing’s for sure. Gilead Sciences will make boatloads of money.

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Politics Quackery Television

Did Columbia University cut ties with Dr. Oz?

Decades after “America’s Quack” Dr. Oz pioneered “integrating” quackery into medicine and after many years of promoting diet scams and quackery on a nationally syndicated daily television show, Columbia University might actually have quietly downgraded his status. What took so long?

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Antivaccine nonsense History Holocaust Holocaust denial Politics World War II

COVID-19 vaccines and the Nuremberg Code, revisited

Antivaxxers love to claim that vaccine mandates (especially COVID-19 vaccine mandates) violate the Nuremberg Code and call for Nuremberg-style tribunals to hold public health and vaccine advocates “accountable”. As usual, they have no idea what they are talking about. This is also not a new antivax narrative, although what is unprecedented is that what was once fringe even among antivaxxers is now mainstream.