Tag: antivaccine

Bacterial pneumonia

The COVID-as-bacterial-pneumonia conspiracy theory rises again

In yet another example of everything hold being new again, antivaxxers have resurrected the claim that deaths due to COVID-19 are actually due to bacterial pneumonia, just as antivaxxers used to say the same thing about influenza deaths. It is, of course, another case of confusing cause and effect in order to obfuscate.

/ September 4, 2023
Sherri Tenpenny and magnetism

The Ohio State Medical Board has finally suspended the medical license of antivax quack Sherri Tenpenny

Last week, the Ohio State Medical Board suspended the medical license of Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, a longtime antivax quack. The only question is: What took them so long, and why did it take the pandemic for them to act? Also, is there less to this action than meets the eye?

/ August 14, 2023

Sensible Medicine: Medical Misinformation and Medical Groupthink From the Medical Establishment

We all have biases, including in-group loyalty. It's often easy to see such bias in others, though nearly impossible to see in oneself.  As such, it's both normal and dangerous to imagine that only those who disagree with you are vulnerable to groupthink, while you are perfect beacon of independent, rational thought- along with everyone who agrees with you.

/ August 11, 2023

The Grand Debunk of the antivaxxer book “Turtles All the Way Down” (part 4/10)

The debunking resumes with the fourth installment in debunking the antivaxxer book “Turtles All the Way Down”: Chapter 4, “Epidemiology 101," in which the antivax authors put a biased spin on basic concepts in epidemiology as a lead-in to their obviously intended purpose of claiming that all the studies finding vaccines to be safe and effective should be discounted.

/ August 10, 2023
America's Frontline Doctors

COVID-19 has exposed the toothlessness of state medical boards

A report in The Washington Post last week revealed just how badly state medical boards have been failing when dealing with physicians spreading COVID-19 misinformation and using quackery to prevent and treat the disease. None of this is anything new, unfortunately. The pandemic has merely stress tested state medical boards, and most have failed because of political choices made long ago.

/ July 31, 2023

The Grand Debunk of the antivaxxer book “Turtles All the Way Down” (part 3/10)

The third installment in debunking the antivaxxer book “Turtles All the Way Down”: Chapter 3, “Deficient by Design: The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS)”.

/ July 25, 2023
Natto, from which nattokinase is extracted.

“Base Spike Detox” and Signature Spike Support Formulas: Nattokinase quackery to treat COVID-19 and COVID-19 “vaccine injury”

Dr. Peter McCullough and a number of "anti-COVID-19 vaccine" antivaxxers out there has pivoted to quackery to "detox" from the supposedly malign effects of COVID-19 vaccines. Everything old is new again, this time with nattokinase.

/ July 24, 2023
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

RFK Jr.: A fart-filled argument gives way to an antisemitic conspiracy theory that COVID-19 is an “ethnically targeted” bioweapon

Last week, RFK Jr. endured hilariously bad press about an NYC press event at which two of his supporters argued over climate change, one with lots of farts. However, the fart jokes soon gave way to darker side of the event, a Q&A in which RFK Jr. shared an antisemitic conspiracy theory claiming that COVID-19 might have been "targeted" against Caucasians and...

/ July 17, 2023
RFK Jr. no saline placebo

RFK Jr. resurrects an old antivax half-truth about “saline placebos” in randomized controlled trials of vaccines

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.

/ July 3, 2023
Debate

RFK Jr. and Joe Rogan: Putting the old denialist technique of bad faith “Debate me, bro!” challenges on steroids

Joe Rogan conveyed a challenge by antivax crank turned Presidential candidate RFK Jr. to vaccine scientist Dr. Peter Hotez to "debate me, bro!" In the week since, wealthy right wingers have added money to the inducement, and through an awful op-ed by Ross Douthat this weekend, even the New York Times has amped up the pressure for a "debate" about vaccines with...

/ June 26, 2023