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Anti-Semitism Antivaccine nonsense Holocaust Holocaust denial Medicine Politics Popular culture Pseudoscience

Anne Frank: RFK Jr. now versus RFK Jr. in 2015

At the Defeat the Mandates rally on Sunday, RFK Jr. invoked Anne Frank in an antivaccine speech. Then he apologized. Shorter RFK Jr.: “Oops, I did it again!” Why is anyone surprised? This has always been RFK Jr.’s MO.

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Bad science Clinical trials Medicine

Ecological fallacy: When a scientist (inadvertently, I hope) uses a favorite antivax form of study

A longtime favorite technique of antivaxxers has been to do bad ecological studies to imply that vaccines cause harm. Why is a Harvard investigator inadvertently using the ecological fallacy the same way antivaxxers used to do before COVID-19?

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Autism Bad science Bioethics Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery

Quackademic medicine at the Marcus Center for Cellular Cures: Stem cells for autism

Stem cells are an unproven therapy for autism, but that isn’t stopping Duke University’s Marcus Center for Cellular Cures from teaming with a for-profit stem cell company to market this quackery for big bucks.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics

Florida Sen. Manny Diaz wants to “review” all vaccine mandates

Florida State Senator Manny Diaz wants to “review” all vaccine mandates in Florida, not just COVID-19 mandates. This was always the endgame for the antivaccine movement, and COVID-19 might just make it happen in some states, thanks to the embrace of antivaccine and antimask “freedumb” by Republican politicians

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Bad science Medicine Popular culture

A bogus statistic about medical errors rears its ugly head in STAT

The claim that medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the US is one of those slasher statistics that just won’t die. This time around STAT News gave space to Michael Saks and Stephan Landsman to parrot that claim credulously in the service of selling their book.