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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery

RFK Jr. is hosting a veritable antivax Quackapalooza

RFK Jr. will hold a “healthcare policy roundtable” next week. One look at its list of “experts” shows that it will be a Quackapalooza of antivax misinformation. Unfortunately, RFK Jr.’s candidacy is normalizing old long debunked antivax tropes.

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Antivaccine nonsense Computers and social media Medicine Politics Popular culture

Defeat The Mandates: Green Our Vaccines reconstituted for COVID-19

A month ago, Dr. Robert Malone announced the “Defeat the Mandates” rally on Joe Rogan’s podcast, to be held this Sunday. I sensed many echoes of Jenny McCarthy’s 2008 “Green Our Vaccines” rally, although what’s different is even more disturbing than the antivaccine misinformation that’s the same.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Politics Quackery

It’s always about the grift

Hawkers of ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, and other “miracle cures” for COVID-19 are just like snake oil salesmen going back to time immemorial. Sure, many, if not most, of them believe in their quackery, but it’s also always about the grift.

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Bad science Bioethics Clinical trials Medicine Quackery

Ivermectin is the new hydroxychloroquine, take 4: Fraud, incompetence, or both?

Ivermectin has been hyped without good evidence as a highly effective treatment for COVID-19. Yesterday it was reported that the main study that has driven positive meta-analyses was either fraudulent or so incompetent as to be meaningless. Bottom line: Ivermectin almost certainly doesn’t work.

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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.