Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

Overconfidence as a contributor to science denial among physicians and scientists

The pandemic has brought scientists who have rejected science with respect to COVID-19 public health measures a disturbing level of influence. Recent research suggests reasons why and who among the public susceptible to such misinformation remains persuadable.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics Pseudoscience Quackery

AAPS joins the legal thuggery against medical standards

The crank fake medical professional society Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) filed a lawsuit this week against medical specialty boards seeking to rein in COVID-19 misinformation. Coupled with previous suits, I can’t help but see this legal thuggery as increasingly coordinated with prior lawsuits by right wing groups.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Bad science Medicine Popular culture Television

Bill Maher: Antivax transphobe or transphobic antivaxxer? You be the judge!

Last Friday, Bill Maher went full transphobe, repurposing old antivax trope commonly used to deny a predominantly genetic component to autism and claim vaccine causation in order to mock the idea that there is a biological basis to being transgender and claim its prevalence is increasing now because it’s “trendy.”

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics Pseudoscience Quackery

Dr. Richard Amerling of AAPS goes full Godwin on COVID-19

Dr. Richard Amerling of the medical John Birch Society known as AAPS thinks medicine is being “Nazified,” because of course he does.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Pseudoscience

Scientific review articles as disinformation

Antivaxxers have always written dubious scientific review articles to try to make their wild speculations about vaccine science seem credible. Usually such articles wind up in bottom-feeding journals. Unfortunately a recent pseudo-review article was published by an Elsevier journal, making it seem more credible when it isn’t.