Tag: COVID-19

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

RFK Jr. doesn’t like being called antivaccine and antimask

RFK Jr. in Berlin: Science denial at its worst
RFK Jr. at an antimask anti-"lockdown" rally.

RFK Jr. is angry—so very, very angry—because Terry Gross had pro-science guests on her NPR show “Fresh Air” who called him antivaccine and antimask.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery

Even in a deadly pandemic, germ theory denial persists

A particularly silly form of germ theory denial
This is the sort of silly analogy that germ theory deniers consider compelling. Dr. Gorski can only respond: Why not both? It’s not as though we don’t have to use just one (vaccines) or the other (sanitation, better diet, etc.). Science-based medicine uses anything that sciences shows to be effective and safe.

As hard as it is to believe, in the middle of a global pandemic that’s claimed so many lives and so thoroughly disrupted society, there are people who still deny germ theory. How can this be?

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Andrew Wakefield spews nonsense about how the COVID-19 vaccine will “permanently alter your DNA”

Andrew Wakefield, the measles, and JPANDS
Thanks, Andy, for the measles.

Andrew Wakefield’s back, and—surprise! surprise!—he’s a COVID-19 conspiracy theorist who doesn’t understand biology. He thinks RNA vaccines are “genetic engineering” that will “permanently alter your DNA.”

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Bad science Bioethics Medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Looking back on 2020: Too many physicians behaving badly

Physicians behaving badly

Looking back on 2020, if there’s one thing that the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us, it’s that crises reveal character. Unfortunately, even as many doctors bravely risked their lives taking care of COVID-19 patients, the character of too many other physicians was been found wanting, as they spent 2020 denying the pandemic and spreading misinformation. What can be done?

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine

Bell’s palsy, syncope, and death: The impending antivax tsunami of fake COVID-19 vaccine “adverse reactions”

Bell's palsy
Bell's palsy.

Reports of Bell’s palsy and syncopy after vaccination with RNA-based COVID-19 vaccines remind us how antivaxxers will weaponize anything bad happening after vaccination. Sadly, I predict an impending tsunami of confusing correlation with causation.