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Medicine Science Skepticism/critical thinking

On “doing your own research”

Ethan Siegel at Forbes argues that you “must not ‘do your own research.’” While the title grates, Siegel is correct that most of us are not really capable of “doing our own research” about most scientific and medical questions because we lack the necessary background. We must therefore be humble and be very, very careful about “doing our own research.”

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Bad science Medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience

Brian Hooker and Neil Z. Miller publish another terrible “vaxxed/unvaxxed” study

Brian Hooker and Neil Z. Miller, two antivaccine propagandists disguising themselves as scientists, published yet another terrible “vaxxed/unvaxxed” study purporting to show unvaccinated children are healthier. How awful was the study? Let Orac tell you!

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

COVID-19: A magnet for medical conspiracy theories

Conspiracy theories are at the heart of nearly all medical pseudoscience, be it antivaccine beliefs or quackery. COVID-19 has been a magnet for conspiracy theories.

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

Del Bigtree wastes the CDC’s time during the COVID-19 pandemic with an abusive FOIA lawsuit

In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, antivaxxer Del Bigtree wastes the CDC’s time with an abusive FOIA request and lawsuit to dishonestly claim that there’s no evidence some vaccines don’t cause autism.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Children’s Health Defense: Ten lies about vaccines

Children’s Health Defense is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s antivaccine group. Recently it posted a list of ten “facts” about vaccines. In reality, it’s ten bits of disinformation, half-truths, and lies.