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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

“CDC whistleblower” conspiracy theory, resurrected by “new school” antivaxxers

In 2014, Andrew Wakefield unveiled Brian Hooker’s “CDC whistleblower” conspiracy theory featuring William Thompson, a CDC scientist who claimed that a vaccine-autism link was being covered up. Now, Steve Kirsch and other COVID-19 antivaxxers are resurrecting it.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics

“New school” anti-(COVID-19)-vaxxers are all-in on “old school” vaccines-cause-autism antivax

Over the last month, Orac has noticed that “new school” COVID-19 antivaxxers are rediscovering old school “vaccines cause autism” pseudoscience in a huge way. Also, there’s transphobia. Lots of transphobia. WTF is going on?

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Antivaccine nonsense Clinical trials Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

Retracted papers never die in the age of COVID-19

Last month, a study showed that papers about COVID-19 that are retracted tend to be cited far more than average and continue to be heavily cited after retraction. Clearly, scientific publishing and the scientific community need to do better.

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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.

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Announcements Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Movies

Sign up for a virtual screening of “Virulent: The Vaccine War”

Science-Based Medicine is hosting a virtual screening of Virulent: The Vaccine War. Get your virtual ticket to stream it and be part of the Q&A with the filmmakers hosted by Drs. Gorski and Novella on Jan. 29?