Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

What makes a COVID-19 “contrarian” doctor—or any quack?

In 2008, I tried to answer the question: How do doctors become contrarians, quacks, and antivaxxers? A Twitter encounter suggested to me not just answers but that an update to that post is massively overdue.

Categories
Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking Surgery

Dr. Charlie Teo is back in the news

I wrote about neurosurgeon Dr. Charlie Teo and his supposedly near-miraculous resections of “inoperable” brain tumors. He’s back, and it turns out that I was likely way too easy on him a decade ago.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

The COVID-19 “vaccine holocaust” accelerates in antivax messaging

The antivax lie that vaccines are killing lots of people long predates COVID-19, but now the idea of the “vaccine holocaust” has reached the ridiculously implausible proportions of 20 million dead and 2 billion injured. How did antivaxxers do this?

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics

Tucker Carlson lies about the ACIP

The CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is meeting today. Last night Tucker Carlson lied about it as mandating COVID-19 vaccines for children before they can go to school.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery

America’s Quack Dr. Oz, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, and the failure of medical academia

Earlier this week, Mother Jones published an article about Pennsylvania GOP Senate candidate Dr. Oz’s (a.k.a. America’s Quack) promotion of antivax quack Joe Mercola, who is now a leading source of COVID-19 disinformation. We warned you about this when it happened. Few listened.