The short answer to the question in the title of this post is no. The long answer is that antivaxxers are now taking the trope of “shedding” to the new extreme of “self-spreading, self-propagating transmissible vaccines” and applying it to COVID-19 vaccines.
Antivax pediatrician Dr. Larry Palevsky recently demonized COVID-19 vaccines by resurrecting the old antivaccine trope of vaccinated people “shedding” and causing illness in the unvaccinated. This time, he claims, the shedding of spike protein causes illness and menstrual problems in the unvaccinated. It’s utter nonsense.
Kerry Bentivolio, Republican candidate for Congress in the 11th Congressional District in Michigan (Orac’s district), hosted an antivaccine roundtable with Orac’s state representative Jeff Noble, three antivaxers, and the antivaccine group Michigan for Vaccine Choice. Orac attended and now reports the craziness.
One of the things I’ve noticed over the last decade of covering pseudoscience and quackery from a skeptical point of view is that no pseudoscientific trope ever really dies. This is particularly true of antivaccine tropes. No matter how many times this piece or that of antivaccine misinformation is slapped down, sooner or later it […]
