Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Religion

Same as it ever was: Antivaxxers target Orthodox Jews with COVID-19 misinformation

About a year before the COVID-19 pandemic, large measles outbreaks among Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn and Rockland County were linked to misinformation targeted to their communities by antivaxxers. History is repeating itself with COVID-19.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

Claiming the mantle of “reasonableness” by attacking even worse cranks

A couple of days ago, Joe Mercola tried to seem “reasonable” by contrasting himself to other quacks by “conceding” that SARS-CoV-2 actually exists. Last night Dr. Vinay Prasad tried to do the same thing by “analyzing” the appearances of conspiracy theorists on Joe Rogan’s show. The parallels are eerie.

Categories
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.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Politics Popular culture

After FDA approval of Comirnaty, antivaxxers claim it’s still “experimental”

On Monday the FDA granted full approval to Comirnaty, the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. By Tuesday, antivaxxers had a propaganda line that the vaccine is still “experimental.”

Categories
Bad science Clinical trials Medicine

Ecological fallacy: When a scientist (inadvertently, I hope) uses a favorite antivax form of study

A longtime favorite technique of antivaxxers has been to do bad ecological studies to imply that vaccines cause harm. Why is a Harvard investigator inadvertently using the ecological fallacy the same way antivaxxers used to do before COVID-19?