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Antivaccine nonsense Homeopathy Medicine Quackery

Larry Cook: A time warp cornucopia of antivax quackery

Larry Cook is a longtime antivaxxer turned anti-COVID-19 vaccine. This month, he updated his “vaccine injury treatment guide.” It’s pure quackery. Same as it ever was.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics Quackery

“Censorship”: The word disinformation artists use when called out

COVID-19 minimizers and antivaxxers at the Brownstone Institute, the “spiritual child of the Great Barrington Declaration,” really don’t like having their disinformation called out.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bioethics Computers and social media Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

“Subscription science” and real conflicts of interest

Antivaccine activists and quacks often weaponize legitimate concerns about industry conflicts of interest in medicine into the “shill gambit,” in which they accuse critics and defenders of science-based medicine of being in the pay of big pharma. However, the rise of physician-influencers and, in particular, Subscription Substack show that not all conflicts of interest are from industry or even financial.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

“CDC whistleblower” conspiracy theory, resurrected by “new school” antivaxxers

In 2014, Andrew Wakefield unveiled Brian Hooker’s “CDC whistleblower” conspiracy theory featuring William Thompson, a CDC scientist who claimed that a vaccine-autism link was being covered up. Now, Steve Kirsch and other COVID-19 antivaxxers are resurrecting it.

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Antivaccine nonsense Clinical trials Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

Retracted papers never die in the age of COVID-19

Last month, a study showed that papers about COVID-19 that are retracted tend to be cited far more than average and continue to be heavily cited after retraction. Clearly, scientific publishing and the scientific community need to do better.