Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

“I know you are, but what am I?” John Leake and Peter McCullough vs. conspiracy theories

COVID-19 cranks and antivaxxers John Leake and Dr. Peter McCullough are unhappy at correctly being labeled conspiracy theorists. So what does Leake do? Engage in projection, of course!

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery

Nattokinase: The latest COVID-19 spike protein “detox” quackery

The latest big thing among all the hippest COVID-19 quacks and antivaxxers is nattokinase, which is claimed to bust clots and “detox” spike protein.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking Sports

Why did antivaxxers seize on the Damar Hamlin case?

When Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed from an on-field cardiac arrest most likely due to chest trauma, antivaxxers quickly blamed COVID-19 vaccines. The reason was a particularly nasty preexisting variant of the “died suddenly” myth in which athletes are dropping dead from the vaccine. They aren’t.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking Sports

Damar Hamlin’s collapse: To antivaxxers, it’s always the vaccines

On Monday, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest after a tackle. The most likely diagnosis is commotio cordis, cardiac arrest after chest trauma. That didn’t stop antivaxxers from undergoing all-too-familiar contortions to blame it on vaccines.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Pseudoscience

Scientific review articles as disinformation

Antivaxxers have always written dubious scientific review articles to try to make their wild speculations about vaccine science seem credible. Usually such articles wind up in bottom-feeding journals. Unfortunately a recent pseudo-review article was published by an Elsevier journal, making it seem more credible when it isn’t.