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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

Conspiracy theories about monkeypox sound an awful lot like COVID-19

A week and a half ago the Biden administration officially declared monkeypox to be a national public health emergency. Unsurprisingly, conspiracy theories abound, many of them recycled from COVID-19 and older antivax conspiracy theories.

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Medicine Popular culture Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Is the lab leak conspiracy theory dead?

Two new studies published last month strongly support a natural zoonotic origin for COVID-19 centered at the wet market in Wuhan, China. Naturally, lab leak proponents soberly considered this new evidence and thought about changing their minds. Just kidding! They doubled down on the conspiracy mongering, because of course they did.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics

Paul Thomas and the antivax legal assault on state medical boards

The Oregon Medical Board restricted and disciplined antivax pediatrician Paul Thomas. He’s striking back with a $35 million frivolous lawsuit. Is this the wave of the future as state medical boards try to protect the public from antivax doctors?

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

How to identify most antivaxxers with a simple question

Here’s a helpful question to determine if someone saying “I’m not antivax” is either fooling themselves or lying.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience

When “old school” antivaxxers meet the “new school” antivaxxers

An old school “vaccines cause autism” antivaxxer hosted new COVID-19 antivaxxers at an antivax conference last month. Although one new antivaxxer, Geert Vanden Bossche, was discomfited and pushed back against old antivax tropes, the rest joined Del Bigtree in spewing longstanding antivax tropes.