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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics Pseudoscience Quackery Religion Skepticism/critical thinking

Why is being an apostate such a big part of COVID-19 contrarian narratives?

There has long been a huge appeal in medicine that derives from being an “apostate”. Since COVID-19 hit, apostasy has become like a drug among too many doctors, and social media has amplified the popularity of “medical apostates” beyond anything I’ve seen previously.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Politics Skepticism/critical thinking

Martin Kulldorff promotes an old antivax narrative about “natural immunity”

Great Barrington Declaration author Martin Kulldorff, who is also the “scientific director” of the Brownstone Institute, a public health science denialist right wing “think tank,” is promoting an antivax narrative about “natural immunity” against COVID-19, because of course he is.

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Bad science Medicine Politics Science

The Great Barrington Declaration never would have worked

A new paper provides yet more evidence that the “let COVID-19 rip” strategy behind the Great Barrington Declaration would have made the pandemic even more disastrous than it has already been.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Quackery

Peter Götzsche is now officially antivaccine

Peter Gøtzsche, formerly leader of the Nordic Cochrane Center, has teamed with Maryanne Demasi to write a systematic review of the “harms” of COVID-19 vaccination. Besides accepting the highly dubious methodology behind one study, their preprint is yet another example of how EBM can be corrupted to promote antivax ideas.

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Bad science Medicine Politics Quackery

Reining in doctors promoting COVID-19 misinformation

The disinformation epidemic about COVID-19 has pushed state medical boards to consider disciplining physicians who promote COVID-19 disinformation. How would that work? What are the obstacles? Is it even possible? It should be, but it will be messy and complicated.