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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics Popular culture

Antivaxxers vs. FDA’s VRBPAC and CDC’s ACIP.

The FDA’s VRBPAC and the CDC’s ACIP are the two committees that approve vaccines in the US and issue recommendations regarding who should receive which vaccine and when. Predictably, after the recent recommendation that children 5-11 receive the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is portraying committee members as thralls of big pharma.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine

Antivaccine “purebloods”

Antivaxxers frequently make the false claim that mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines “permanently alter your DNA”. These claims are really a concern about “impurifying” their “purity of essence” and have now gone into some truly disturbing territory, such as antivaxxers calling themselves “purebloods.”

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Quackery

Leonard C. Goodman lays down antivax tropes to argue against vaccinating children

Leonard C. Goodman is a criminal defense attorney who thinks he understands COVID-19 vaccines. Instead, he’s credulously parroting antivaccine disinformation for The Chicago Reader.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine

Paxlovid is NOT “#Pfizermectin”

Pfizer recently announced that its new drug Paxlovid was 89% effective in preventing hospitalization due to COVID-19 and is seeking emergency use authorization for it. Antivaxxers claim that ivermectin targets the same protease and is being “suppressed” to protect Pfizer’s profits, even coining the hashtag #Pfizermectin. What’s the real story? Hint: Antivaxxers…exaggerate. And distort.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Cancer Medicine Politics Quackery

Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski and the problem of COVID-19 misinformation

The 45 year career of cancer quack Stanislaw Burzynski, whom multiple medical authorities including the Texas Medical Board and FDA have failed to stop, serves as a warning about how difficult it will be to discipline physicians for spreading COVID-19 disinformation.