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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Biology Medicine Science

No, mRNA COVID-19 vaccines do NOT “hack the software of life”

Antivaxxers and COVID-19 conspiracy theorists were always going to spin conspiracies about COVID-19 vaccines. Unfortunately, some scientists have made it so much easier for them by having likened mRNA vaccines to “hacking the software of life” and being unclear on what gene therapy is.

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Antivaccine nonsense Biology Medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

Cries the antivaxxer: “Vegans, don’t take a COVID-19 vaccine because it uses horseshoe crab blood!”

Antivaxxers are now urging vegans not to use a COVID-19 vaccine because blood from horseshoe crabs will be used in its manufacture. This is no different than their weaponization of beliefs against other vaccine ingredients.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Biology Medicine Pseudoscience

James Lyons-Weiler and Paul Thomas: Incompetently demonizing aluminum vaccine adjuvants

James Lyons-Weiler has published an analysis claiming that Paul Thomas’ “Vaccine-Friendly Plan” is safer than the current CDC-recommended vaccine schedule because contains less aluminum. Unsurprisingly, The modeling behind the analysis is risibly incompetent. Same as it ever was.

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Bad science Biology Clinical trials Medicine Quackery

The Lung Institute and the stem cell hard sell

The Lung Institute is more evidence that all for-profit stem cell clinics are predatory clinics selling snake oil. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. OF. THEM. If there’s an exception, I haven’t found it yet.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Biology Medicine Science

Tetyana Obukhanych swings at the measles immune amnesia studies—and whiffs!

Tetyana Obukhanych has a PhD in immunology but has somehow become antivaccine. This week, she tried to refute two recent studies on immune amnesia induced by measles virus infection. Let’s just say that it did not go well.