Misuse of the VAERS database to spread fear, uncertainty, and doubt about vaccines has been a favorite technique of antivaxxers for decades. Unfortunately, 2021 was the year when this particular antivax trope was turbocharged. (Note: Orac will be taking a week off after this—see note in post.)
The BMJ’s outgoing editor Fiona Godlee and incoming editor wrote open letter to Mark Zuckerberg over Facebook’s labeling Paul Thacker’s conspiracy-filled Pfizer story as lacking context. It did not go well. Actually, it was downright embarrassing.
Dr. Robert Malone, “inventor of mRNA vaccines,” while still straining to maintain a pretense of being provaccine, went full antivaccine this week and is drifting farther and farther from reality and deeper and deeper into conspiracy theories.
RFK Jr. has long been a leader in the antivaccine movement. Unfortunately, the pandemic has turbocharged his influence, and he’s cranked his antivax fear mongering to 11.
Increasingly, antivaxxers and antimaskers have been targeting state medical boards. In Tennessee, it has been political. In California, it has been more physical. The antivax war on state medical boards has begun.
