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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Bad science Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

Vaccine holocaust: The wildest antivaccine conspiracy theory ever. It even has aliens!

Mike Adams made a video about the “vaccine holocaust.” It’s the wildest antivaccine conspiracy theory ever. It even has aliens, and there are people dropping dead in the streets like in “The Omega Man.” All it needs are mutants. Where’s Charlton Heston when you need him?

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Antivaccine nonsense Politics Popular culture

SB 277 and bogus medical exemptions to vaccine mandates in California

In 2015 California passed SB 277, which eliminated nonmedical exemptions to school vaccine mandates. Unfortunately quacks are writing bogus exemptions. What can be done?

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Cancer Clinical trials Medicine Politics Skepticism/critical thinking

Accelerated approval for cancer drugs: The FDA failing to protect patients

There is a tension inherent in the drug approval process between the desire to approve new drugs rapidly in order to treat suffering people and the need to be cautious, to make sure that new drugs are safe and effective before they are approved for sale. This weighing of the risks of too-rapid approval of […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Computers and social media Medicine Politics Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery

Jessica Biel: The latest celebrity antivaxer comes out

Actress Jessica Biel Joined Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to lobby California lawmakers to reject SB 276, a bill to stop bogus vaccine exemptions. Despite her claims that she’s “not antivax,” lobbying with a long time antivax crank like RFK, Jr. and expressing to legislators your belief that vaccines are both dangerous and ineffective are pretty much the definition of antivax.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Popular culture Television

False balance on vaccines in Portland, courtesy of KATU and Genevieve Reaume

False balance is the bane of a science communicator’s existence. KATU’s Genevieve Reaume provided false balance in abundance in a story about the measles outbreak and the antivaccine movement.