Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery

RFK Jr. is hosting a veritable antivax Quackapalooza

RFK Jr. will hold a “healthcare policy roundtable” next week. One look at its list of “experts” shows that it will be a Quackapalooza of antivax misinformation. Unfortunately, RFK Jr.’s candidacy is normalizing old long debunked antivax tropes.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

Neil deGrasse Tyson demonstrates why debating cranks is a horrible idea

Astrophysicist and famed science communicator Neil deGrasse Tyson appeared on The Highwire, an antivax video podcast, to “debate” its host, antivax propagandist Del Bigtree. This incident demonstrates quite well why it is almost never a good idea for a scientist to agree to “debate” science deniers.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Quackery

Antivax quacks: It’s always (also) about the grifter and grift

When it comes to the behavior of antivax quacks, I like to say: Come for the quackery and ideology, stay for the grift. A Washington Post story this week confirms this characterization.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

Toby Rogers knows statistics but not vaccines

Toby Rogers is an economist. He knows multivariate statistics. He doesn’t know epidemiology and pharmacovigilance. Does that stop him from fear mongering about vaccines? You know the answer!

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics Quackery

Paul Thomas: An antivax pediatrician de-licensed (for now)

A week and a half ago, the Oregon Medical Board suspended the licenses of two physicians, one for bragging about not wearing a mask around his patients, the second being Dr. Paul Thomas, an antivaccine pediatrician, whose continued practice was deemed a threat to his patients. It’s time for more state medical boards to step up, as Oregon’s has.