Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics Popular culture

Antivaxxers vs. FDA’s VRBPAC and CDC’s ACIP.

The FDA’s VRBPAC and the CDC’s ACIP are the two committees that approve vaccines in the US and issue recommendations regarding who should receive which vaccine and when. Predictably, after the recent recommendation that children 5-11 receive the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is portraying committee members as thralls of big pharma.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Clinical trials Medicine

How antivaxxers weaponized an abstract by a Goop doctor against COVID-19 vaccines

Antivaxxers are weaponizing an abstract by Goop doctor Dr. Steven Gundry claiming that COVID-19 vaccines hugely increase the risk of heart attacks. Same as it ever was.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine

Does spike protein from COVID-19 vaccines interfere with DNA damage repair?

A study claiming that COVID-19 spike protein gets into the nucleus and inhibits DNA damage repair, thus increasing the chances of cancer, has gone viral. Even if it shows exactly what the authors claim it shows, it is not evidence that COVID-19 vaccines are unsafe.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Clinical trials Medicine

WTF happened to The BMJ?

The BMJ recently published an “exposé” by Paul Thacker alleging patient unblinding, data falsification, and other wrongdoing by a subcontractor. It was a highly biased story embraced by antivaxxers, with a deceptively framed narrative and claims not placed into proper context, leading me to look into the broader question: WTF happened to The BMJ? (Updated and revised from a week ago.)

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Religion

Same as it ever was: Antivaxxers target Orthodox Jews with COVID-19 misinformation

About a year before the COVID-19 pandemic, large measles outbreaks among Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn and Rockland County were linked to misinformation targeted to their communities by antivaxxers. History is repeating itself with COVID-19.