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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Bad science Computers and social media Medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience

Antivaccine activity on Twitter: It’s not entirely what you think

Twitter is a favorite place for antivaxers to promote their message. A recent study suggests how the antivaccine Twitter community has changed.

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Antivaccine nonsense History Holocaust

The “Nuremberg Code” gambit

Antivaxxers love to claim that vaccine mandates (especially COVID-19 vaccine mandates) violate the Nuremberg Code. As usual, they have no idea what they are talking about.

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Bad science Medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

Christopher Shaw uses the results of an abusive FOIA request to intimidate a scientist

Scientist turned antivaccine activist Christopher Shaw tried to intimidate an Alzheimer’s disease expert named Catherine Roe for having withdrawn from an antivaccine crankfest called One Conversation using the results of an abusive FOIA request. Sadly, this is now a common tactic.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Computers and social media Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

2021: The year the weaponization of VAERS went mainstream

Misuse of the VAERS database to spread fear, uncertainty, and doubt about vaccines has been a favorite technique of antivaxxers for decades. Unfortunately, 2021 was the year when this particular antivax trope was turbocharged. (Note: Orac will be taking a week off after this—see note in post.)

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Bad science Medicine Pseudoscience

James Lyon-Weiler and IPAK are running a dubious “vaxxed versus unvaxxed” study

An antivaccine group in Washington is raising money for a dubious “vaxxed/unvaxxed” study for IPAK, James Lyons-Weiler, a bioinformatics scientist turned antivaxer, who plans on analyzing data from a large practice.