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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine

COVID-19 vaccines as part of a “depopulation agenda”

It’s ba-ack. Antivaxxers are once again claiming that COVID-19 vaccines are part of a “depopulation agenda.” Same as it ever was.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bioethics Medicine

To unblind or not to unblind COVID-19 vaccine trials?

Antivaccine alternative health tycoon Joe Mercola claims that the unblinding of participants in the clinical trials of Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines was intended to “blow up the trials” and undermine the science, making it impossible ever to identify long term adverse events. What he’s really doing is deceptively oversimplifying complex ethical and scientific issues surrounding these trials in the middle of a deadly pandemic, all in the service of his grift.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Biology Medicine Science

No, mRNA COVID-19 vaccines do NOT “hack the software of life”

Antivaxxers and COVID-19 conspiracy theorists were always going to spin conspiracies about COVID-19 vaccines. Unfortunately, some scientists have made it so much easier for them by having likened mRNA vaccines to “hacking the software of life” and being unclear on what gene therapy is.

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Antivaccine nonsense Computers and social media Medicine

The “Disinformation Dozen” vs. public health

A new report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate shows that nearly two thirds of antivaccine disinformation on social media comes from 12 sources, dubbed the “disinformation dozen.”

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Dr. David Brownstein strikes again peddling quackery for COVID-19

Dr. David Brownstein is a “holistic” physician who practices in Orac’s neck of the woods. Unfortunately, he just wrote a book promoting an unproven protocol involving vitamins, nebulized hydrogen peroxide and iodine, and intravenous ozone to treat COVID-19. There is no evidence that his protocol works, other than a very poor quality case series.