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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics Popular culture

Radical COVID-19 antivax sentiment is metastasizing to childhood vaccines

COVID-19 has radicalized the antivaccine movement. Unfortunately, that radicalization is metastasizing to encompass all vaccines.

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Antivaccine nonsense Computers and social media Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery

Substack: The new wretched hive of scum and quackery

With social media companies like Twitter and Facebook/Meta deplatforming those spreading misinformation, COVID-19 quacks, antivaxxers, and conspiracy theorists are flocking to Substack, where they can monetize their misinformation.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Politics Quackery

It’s always about the grift

Hawkers of ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, and other “miracle cures” for COVID-19 are just like snake oil salesmen going back to time immemorial. Sure, many, if not most, of them believe in their quackery, but it’s also always about the grift.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Computers and social media Medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

The FSMB against physicians promoting COVID-19 misinformation

The Federation of State Medical Boards issued a statement that doctors spreading COVID-19 misinformation should be disciplined. It’s toothless, of course, as evidenced by the rarity of a state medical board taking action against such doctors.

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Bad science Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Casedemic: The latest COVID-19 conspiracy theory to downplay the severity of the pandemic

Antivaccine activists and pandemic minimizers Del Bigtree and Joe Mercola are promoting the myth of the “casedemic” that claims that the massive increase in COVID-19 cases being reported is an artifact of increased PCR testing and false positives due to too sensitive a threshold to the test. As they have done for vaccines and vaccine-preventable diseases many times before, they are vastly simplifying and exaggerating a scientific controversy to cast doubt on the scope and deadliness of the pandemic.