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Bad science Medicine Politics Popular culture

The “lab leak” hypothesis is becoming a conspiracy theory

Scientists have generally concluded that evidence points to a natural origin for SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, as a far more likely explanation for the pandemic than a laboratory origin. Recently, there has been a lot of media chatter about the “lab leak” hypothesis. Is there new evidence? Nope. The “lab leak” hypothesis is fast becoming a conspiracy theory.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

Antivaxxers and the “deadly” SARS-CoV-2 spike protein

Antivaxxers are citing three papers to support their claim that spike protein produced by COVID-19 vaccines is dangerous. Unsurprisingly and as usual, they’re misinterpreting the studies and misrepresenting their significance. COVID-19 vaccines are, in fact, very safe.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Politics

Mike Adams is forced to walk back his violent rhetoric about executing those promoting COVID-19 vaccination

Antivaccine rhetoric opposing COVID-19 vaccines has become more violent, so much so that Mike Adams has now had to walk back his call to execute scientists.

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Antivaccine nonsense Blogging Holocaust Holocaust denial Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Legal thuggery: A favored technique by disinformation merchants to silence critics

What do Didier Raoult, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Portuguese quacks have in common? They’re using legal thuggery to silence criticism.

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Antivaccine nonsense Computers and social media Medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

How antimaskers co-opt techniques of scientific data analysis to generate COVID-19 propaganda

There’s a new paper out analyzing how antimask activists weaponize the tools of data visualization and scientific argumentation to produce convincing antimask propaganda. Antimaskers are claiming that it shows that they are more “scientific” than those supporting the consensus viewpoint with respect to COVID-19 and masks. What it really shows is that they are good at weaponizing the tools of data visualization and scientific arguments to come to the conclusions that they want to come to.