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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics

“Poor, poor pitiful me”: Was Martin Kulldorff fired by Harvard?

Martin Kulldorff, co-author of the eugenicist Great Barrington Declaration that advocated a “let ‘er rip” strategy to address the pandemic to achieve “natural herd immunity,” laments being “fired” from Harvard. Is it possible to know what really happened? Orac provides educated speculation. (NOTE ADDENDUM.)

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics

How “natural herd immunity” approaches to the pandemic destroyed public health

Jeffrey Tucker recently bragged that “natural herd immunity” approaches to the pandemic like his Great Barrington Declaration had “changed everything.” Unfortunately, he wasn’t wrong and worse, these changes were not a good thing.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics

Brownstone flack Gabrielle Bauer admits that the Great Barrington Declaration was wrong

Gabrielle Bauer of the Brownstone Institute tacitly admits that the central premise of the Great Barrington Declaration was badly wrong, but brushes it off a just “details.”

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics

“Heroism” in the face of COVID-19?

Brownstone Institute flack Haley Kynefin claims that COVID-19 “inverts the Heroic Archetype” in yet another instance of how antivaxxers claim “heroism” and portray science advocates as “cowardly.”

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

Overconfidence as a contributor to science denial among physicians and scientists

The pandemic has brought scientists who have rejected science with respect to COVID-19 public health measures a disturbing level of influence. Recent research suggests reasons why and who among the public susceptible to such misinformation remains persuadable.