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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics Popular culture

The soft eugenics of MAHA: Measles and RFK Jr.

I’ve long said that the antivax movement is borderline eugenicist (or at least social Darwinist) in nature. Given the ongoing measles outbreak, with two children dead so far, it’s time for me to take a look at the “soft eugenics” of the antivax movement and, more generally, the MAHA movement.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics

Jay Bhattacharya’s attack Chihuahua smears Orac for criticizing him and the Great Barrington Declaration

Hack conspiracy “journalist” and attack Chihuahua Paul Thacker defends Nominee for NIH Director, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, and his Great Barrington Declaration by rehashing the same old attacks on its critics. I appear to be living rent-free in their heads.

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History Medicine Science

The frequent crank fallacy of the appeal to Semmelweis

A proponent of the Great Barrington Declaration is comparing rejection of its “natural herd immunity” approach to the pandemic to the rejection of Ignaz Semmelweis and his findings (and Galileo, too). It’s a deceptive comparison beloved of all manner of scientific cranks.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics

Stanford University promotes disastrous “natural herd immunity” approaches to the pandemic

A week and a half ago, Stanford University announced a conference on pandemic policy that features several of the usual suspects who spread misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Truly, Stanford has become the “respectable” academic face of efforts to undermine public health.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Popular culture

John Ioannidis attacks The BMJ as “biased” about COVID-19 in a preprint. Irony meters everywhere explode

Kasper Kepp and John Ioannidis have published a preprint accusing The BMJ of “COVID advocacy” bias in its publications. Although The BMJ has been bad on COVID-19 and vaccines, in this case the “bias” is the rejection of COVID-19 minimization and “natural herd immunity.”