COVID-19 minimizers and antivaxxers at the Brownstone Institute, the “spiritual child of the Great Barrington Declaration,” really don’t like having their disinformation called out.

COVID-19 minimizers and antivaxxers at the Brownstone Institute, the “spiritual child of the Great Barrington Declaration,” really don’t like having their disinformation called out.
Antivaccine activists and quacks often weaponize legitimate concerns about industry conflicts of interest in medicine into the “shill gambit,” in which they accuse critics and defenders of science-based medicine of being in the pay of big pharma. However, the rise of physician-influencers and, in particular, Subscription Substack show that not all conflicts of interest are from industry or even financial.
Thanks to Elon Musk, two-year-old videos showing people claiming to have “seizures” and “spasms” due to #CovidVaccines have resurfaced and gone viral. Antivaxxers are partying like it’s 2009—or 2021.
COVID-19 contrarian Dr. Vinay Prasad attacks the pandemic “misinformation police.” He needs new material, having recycled the same tropes he used to attack skeptics before the pandemic.
Earlier this week, Mother Jones published an article about Pennsylvania GOP Senate candidate Dr. Oz’s (a.k.a. America’s Quack) promotion of antivax quack Joe Mercola, who is now a leading source of COVID-19 disinformation. We warned you about this when it happened. Few listened.