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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

“Can colleges mandate Ozempic?” Clever or clueless analogy? You be the judge!

Dr. Vinay Prasad compares college booster mandates to mandating Ozempic in obese students. How are these things different from each other? Let me count the ways. How disingenuous is Dr. Prasad? Let me count the ways.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics Popular culture Skepticism/critical thinking

Brownstone Institute embraces its inner antivaxxer

The Brownstone Institute, a spinoff of AIER and the “spiritual child of the Great Barrington Declaration,” is now embracing its inner antivaxxer by likening vaccine mandates to “othering,” including slavery and Nazi persecution of Jews during the Holocaust.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

Projection, thy name is Joe Mercola (and Aseem Malhotra)

In a classic case of projection, Joe Mercola claims a “pandemic of misinformed doctors.” He’s right, but not for the reason he thinks. The misinformed doctors are him and his fellow antivax docs.

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Bad science Medicine

Antivax and transphobia: Two crappy tastes that taste crappy together

There’s long been a lot of transphobia among antivaxxers. As anti-trans bigotry increases in society, more and more antivaxxers are anti-trans. Enter Toby Rogers, who thinks “overvaccination” causes the trans.

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Computers and social media Medicine Politics Popular culture

Attacks on scientists in the age of COVID-19: How “they” view “us”

Nature recently published a survey showing how common online and other attacks on scientists trying to communicate science-based information are. The hatred is nothing new. What’s new are COVID-19 and social media.