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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics

The GOP has become the party of antivaxers, 2019 edition

Antivaccine beliefs occur at the same prevalence on the left and right, only the GOP promotes policies to make opting out of vaccines easier. All over the country, Republican politicians are opposing making school vaccine mandates stricter, proposing laws to loosen vaccination requirements, and falling for antivaccine pseudoscience.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine

Harlem Vaccine Forum: RFK Jr.’s fiasco of an attempt to court African-Americans

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. reached out to the African-American Community in Harlem with his antivaccine message. It didn’t go so well. First, Rev. Al Sharpton, whose National Action Committee was going to host it, bailed due to negative publicity. Then RFK Jr. was kicked out of his venue during his speech because the event went way over time. RFK Jr.’s efforts do, however, show how white antivaxers are a danger to African-Americans and other minority communities through their active, albeit hamfisted, attempts to promote antivaccine misinformation to them.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Religion

Ginger Taylor, MS dubiously invokes “religious freedom” to argue against vaccination

On the eve of Easter and Passover, Ginger Taylor, MS (the MS is in Dunning-Kruger, apparently) tried to invoke several religions to argue for the right not to vaccinate on religious grounds. As usual, it did not go well.

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Bad science Medicine Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

The L.A. Times: Painfully false balance on antivax pediatrician Dr Bob Sears

Yesterday, Melody Gutierrez published a profile of antivax pediatrician Dr. Bob Sears in the L.A. Times. Unfortunately, it’s the worst case of false balance about vaccines or an antivaxer that I’ve seen in a long time.

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Anti-Semitism Antivaccine nonsense Autism Bad science

Measles outbreaks among Orthodox Jewish communities in New York and Michigan: Compare and contrast

There’s an ongoing measles outbreak among the Orthodox Jewish community in southeast Michigan. The genesis of the outbreak is more complex than the usual “antivaxers did it” narrative, and this outbreak shows how we’re all interconnected.