Antivaccine beliefs occur at the same prevalence on the left and right, only the GOP promotes policies to make opting out of vaccines easier. All over the country, Republican politicians are opposing making school vaccine mandates stricter, proposing laws to loosen vaccination requirements, and falling for antivaccine pseudoscience.
Category: Antivaccine nonsense
Measles outbreaks among Orthodox Jewish communities in New York and Michigan: Compare and contrast
There's an ongoing measles outbreak among the Orthodox Jewish community in southeast Michigan. The genesis of the outbreak is more complex than the usual "antivaxers did it" narrative, and this outbreak shows how we're all interconnected.
Daily Beast reporter Jackie Kucinich falls prey to the perils of reporting on antivaxer Del Bigtree
So I’m finally back. As many of you surmised, I needed surgery; I had it two and a half weeks ago; and I’m back. I’ll say little more than that it was spine surgery and that no fusion was involved, hence my relatively rapid return to work. I must say, a lot of things happened in my absence. I was also fairly active on Twitter, mainly because I was rather bored not being able to do a lot and sitting in front of a computer screen was too painful until recently while using a smart phone was not. Now that …
Oakland County, Michigan: Measles arrives close to home
Measles has arrived in the form of an outbreak on Oakland County, MI. That's too close for comfort to Orac. Way, way too close for comfort.
Chad Hermann and Todd Wolynn: On the nature of the antivaccine movement and lighting the signal fires of Gondor
Chad Hermann and Todd Wolynn published a study about antivaxers that basically confirmed a lot of what we know about how they use Facebook to harass their perceived enemies. More important is the work they're doing provide a way for those targeted by antivaxers for harassment to light signal fires to attract reinforcements.
Harassment of doctors and grieving mothers: A feature, not a bug, of the antivaccine movement
Harassment of its opponents is a feature, not a bug, of the antivaccine movement, even if the victims are grieving mothers. The idea is to harass and intimidate their opponents into silence.
Connecticut Rep. Josh Elliott: Unintentional false balance about vaccines in a legislative forum
Connecticut Rep. Josh Elliott set up a legislative forum with four scientists and physicians and antivaccine crank Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. This is false balance at its worst and exactly how you don't do it. [Note ADDENDUM]
The annals of “I’m not antivaccine,” part 27: Vaccine mandates as “medical rape” (again)
It's ba-ack. In response to efforts to make personal belief exemptions harder to obtain, an old and particularly vile antivax trope is back: Vaccine mandates as rape, with a new #metoo-inspired twist, namely "vaccine injured" children as victims of sexual assault whose assaulters are trying to silence them.
Amazon, Facebook, and other streaming and social media platforms are finally cracking down on antivaccine misinformation
Over the last two weeks, Amazon, YouTube, Facebook, and other social media platforms started to crackdown on the spread of antivaccine misinformation on their services. Will it be enough?
Antivaxer Dr. Gary Kohls strikes back against Orac in The Duluth Reader
Dr. Gary Kohls is an antivaccine doctor who writes for The Duluth Reader. After Orac criticized him, he decided to strike bacik. It did not go well. Let's just say that Dr. Kohls is good at hypocrisy and projection.