Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Clinical trials Computers and social media Medicine Quackery

Ivermectin is the new hydroxychloroquine, take 3: Conspiracy theories and grift

As the drip-drip-drip of negative evidence for ivermectin against COVID-19 continues to roll in, conspiracy theorists are doubling down. Why? It’s always about the grift.

Categories
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.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

Del Bigtree could have died because he refused transfusion from donors vaccinated against COVID-19

Del Bigtree almost bled to death from hemorrhoids, but still refused transfusion from donors vaccinated against COVID-19. Instead, he flew to Cancun to get “unvaccinated blood” at a quack cancer clinic. This sort of disinformation can kill. In Bigtree’s case, it almost did.

Categories
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.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Music Skepticism/critical thinking

About Eric Clapton’s adverse reaction to AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine

Last week Italian architect and film producer Robin Monotti Graziadei posted to his Telegram channel a report from Eric Clapton that he had had a bad reaction to the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. Can we tell what really happened? And why is Clapton saying he “should never have gone near the needle”?