Results for: vaccines

How antivaxxers weaponize vaccine safety studies to falsely portray vaccines as dangerous

Antivaxxers have weaponized a huge multinational vaccine safety study of 99 million patient records that found rare adverse events and concluded that the risks of COVID-19 vaccines outweigh the benefits. How? A combination of the Nirvana fallacy and spin.

/ February 26, 2024
Pfizer COVID vaccine

“New school” antivax goes old school as Byram Bridle asks if COVID-19 vaccines will drive an “epidemic” of autism

Wakefield redux? Antivax scientist Byram Bridle just took the "new school" antivax movement old school by implying that COVID-19 vaccines might cause an "epidemic of autism." Everything old is new again, sort of.

/ January 22, 2024
EBM hierarchy

2023: The year that the evidence-based medicine (EBM) paradigm was weaponized against vaccines and public health

Evidence-based medicine (EBM) has been a very useful paradigm for assessing evidence in medicine. However, like any other framework, it can be misused, particularly when fundamentalist EBM methodolatry leads to its inappropriate application to questions for which it is ill-suited, a misuse that has been weaponized against public health during the pandemic.

/ January 1, 2024
Frameshift mutation

Do mRNA vaccines produce harmful “junk proteins” that “gunk up” the cell and cause unintended “off-target” immune responses?

A new study is making the rounds in the antivax crankosphere. The study found that the modified mRNA used in the Pfizer vaccine can cause a frame shift (to be explained) that results in the production of proteins besides the intended spike protein. The findings are, as you probably guessed, a big nothingburger compared to how they are being spun.

/ December 11, 2023
Steve Kirsch ad

Steve Kirsch’s “mother of all revelations” about the “deadliness” of COVID-19 vaccines goes poof

On Thursday, Steve Kirsch gave his long-hyped talk about "record-level data" from New Zealand that supposedly demonstrates that COVID-19 vaccines have killed more than 10 million people worldwide. His "analysis" of illegally obtained data from a "whistleblower" was so ridden with false assumptions and rookie errors that even some antivaxxers couldn't accept it.

/ December 4, 2023
Trust science?

Trust in science and vaccines continues to decline. Why?

Recent evidence shows that public trust in science and vaccines has declined markedly since the pandemic. Why is this, and is there anything we can do about it?

/ November 27, 2023
VAERS

Has MSU economics professor Mark Skidmore been “exonerated” over his retracted paper claiming that COVID vaccines killed 278,000?

Tech bro turned antivax influencer Steve Kirsch is claiming that Michigan State University economist Mark Skidmore has been "exonerated" after having had a paper retracted claiming 278K deaths from COVID-19 vaccines in 2021 alone. In reality, Skidmore just republished a revised version of his retracted paper in an antivax journal after the MSU IRB failed miserably in its oversight duties.

/ October 23, 2023
Harvey Risch

He pushed hydroxychloroquine three years ago: Harvey Risch and false claim of “turbo cancers” caused by COVID-19 vaccines

Last week, I discussed Dr. William Makis' false claims of "turbo cancers" due to COVID-19 vaccines. Now it's hydroxychloroquine-promoting epidemiologist Harvey Risch's turn.

/ October 9, 2023
Turbo cancer?

Dr. William Makis and “turbo cancer”: Falsely blaming COVID-19 vaccines for cancer

A prominent oncologist and cancer biologist, Wafik El-Deiry, recently amplified claims that COVID-19 vaccines cause "turbo cancer," wanting a "civil discourse about science and actual answers that are missing." Unfortunately, calls for "civil discourse" by an eminent oncologist about unfounded claims only lends undeserved credibility to them. So, once more into the fray...

/ October 2, 2023

Overhyping Vaccines Wasn’t Pro-Vaccine. It Was Pro-Stop-Worrying-About-COVID.

Overselling the vaccine in 2021 was not being pro-vaccine.  It was pro-stop-worrying-about-the pandemic, from the doctors who assured us herd immunity was imminent. 

/ October 1, 2023