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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Quackery

Antivax quacks: It’s always (also) about the grifter and grift

When it comes to the behavior of antivax quacks, I like to say: Come for the quackery and ideology, stay for the grift. A Washington Post story this week confirms this characterization.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics Popular culture

When RFK Jr. lies that he’s “not antivaccine”

Earlier this month, CNN host Kasie Hunt interviewed antivax presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Although she did better than most journalists confronting him for his past antivax statements in that she played a clip of one of his antivax statements, she clearly hadn’t anticipated his response, which should have been very predictable given that he’s been using it for at least 15 years. I guess it’s time for another primer.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics

No matter how much he tries, RFK Jr. can’t hide his antivax nature

A week ago Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gave the keynote speech at the second annual meeting of his antivax organization, Children’s Health Defense. Once again, he demonstrated that not only is he still antivax as hell, but that his proposals are even more bizarre than before. Truly, it was a homecoming for him.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics Popular culture

COVID-19 as an “ethnically targeted” bioweapon: RFK Jr. embraces antisemitism and racism

A couple of weeks ago, RFK Jr. shared an antisemitic conspiracy theory that COVID-19 might have been an :”ethnically targeted” bioweapon that spared the Chinese and Ashkenazi Jews, showing how conspiracy theories ultimately devolve into antisemitism. Then he denied it. Same as it ever was.

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Antivaccine nonsense Clinical trials

“No saline placebo-controlled vaccine trials”: An old antivax trope

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has resurrected the antivax claim that the childhood vaccine schedule has never been tested in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with a saline placebo controls (and therefore the vaccine schedule is unsafe). This is an old and deceptive antivax half-truth that ignores both what constitutes a scientifically valid placebo and the ethical requirements for RCTs.