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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 Skepticism/critical thinking

Nazis. With the Brownstone Institute it’s always Nazis.

The Brownstone Institute is once again promoting the tired narrative that public health interventions for COVID-19 are incipient fascism and those supporting them Nazis. Unfortunately, this false narrative resonates.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics Popular culture

Radical COVID-19 antivax sentiment is metastasizing to childhood vaccines

COVID-19 has radicalized the antivaccine movement. Unfortunately, that radicalization is metastasizing to encompass all vaccines.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Pseudoscience

An antivaccine slasher myth originated in The BMJ

Recently, a claim that Pfizer’s own documents demonstrate that the efficacy of its COVID-19 vaccine was only 12% went viral. This is a slasher stat, so-named because like the killers in slasher movie series, even when it appears to be dead it always reappears to kill again. This particular myth originated in The BMJ in 2021.

Categories
Politics Quackery Television

Did Columbia University cut ties with Dr. Oz?

Decades after “America’s Quack” Dr. Oz pioneered “integrating” quackery into medicine and after many years of promoting diet scams and quackery on a nationally syndicated daily television show, Columbia University might actually have quietly downgraded his status. What took so long?