Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

What makes a COVID-19 “contrarian” doctor—or any quack?

In 2008, I tried to answer the question: How do doctors become contrarians, quacks, and antivaxxers? A Twitter encounter suggested to me not just answers but that an update to that post is massively overdue.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine

Caution over COVID-19 is “irrational anxiety”?

Before the pandemic, antivaxxers likened concern about childhood diseases to mental illness. In the age of COVID-19, Dr. Vinay Prasad accuses medicine of “legitimizing” irrational anxiety and says we should treat COVID like the flu—with one telling omission.

Categories
Computers and social media Medicine Politics Popular culture Science Skepticism/critical thinking

John Ioannidis and Vinay Prasad team up to lecture social media about “obsessive criticism”

Formerly respectable academics John Ioannidis and Vinay Prasad published a complaint about “obsessive criticism” on social media. Hilarity ensued, and many irony meters were reduced to sparking, smoking, sputtering ruin.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

Claiming the mantle of “reasonableness” by attacking even worse cranks

A couple of days ago, Joe Mercola tried to seem “reasonable” by contrasting himself to other quacks by “conceding” that SARS-CoV-2 actually exists. Last night Dr. Vinay Prasad tried to do the same thing by “analyzing” the appearances of conspiracy theorists on Joe Rogan’s show. The parallels are eerie.

Categories
Bad science History Hitler Zombie Holocaust Holocaust denial Politics

Dr. Vinay Prasad goes full Godwin over COVID-19 public health measures

Dr. Vinay Prasad predicts the end of American democracy (just like Nazi Germany) due to the erosion of rights due to COVID-19 restrictions. It does not go well, thanks to his exaggeration and lack of understanding of history.

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