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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics

RFK Jr. “in his own words”: Fiercely antivax

An antivaxxer challenged her readers to judge RFK Jr. by his own words before deciding if he’s antivax. Challenge accepted. He’s antivax as hell.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Computers and social media Medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery

Criticism and quality control ≠ “Censorship and defamation”

Minerva published an op-ed disguised as a “study” decrying “censorship and defamation.” It was really just criticism and quality control, but the usual suspects are all over it as evidence of evil.

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Bad science Complementary and alternative medicine Integrative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Quackademic medicine, COVID-19 edition, part 1: Magic amulets

“Quackademic medicine” is a term coined to describe the increasing infiltration of pseudoscience and quackery into medical academia. Unsurprisingly, we’re starting to see quackademic medicine turn its attention to COVID-19. In this case, traditional Chinese medicine is invoked to claim that magic amulets might prevent COVID-19,

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery

Even in a deadly pandemic, germ theory denial persists

As hard as it is to believe, in the middle of a global pandemic that’s claimed so many lives and so thoroughly disrupted society, there are people who still deny germ theory. How can this be?

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Bad science Computers and social media Medicine Science Skepticism/critical thinking

“Metabolic optimization” probably won’t save you from COVID-19

A favorite claim by those favoring “holistic” therapies is that using diet to “optimize metabolism” can prevent or treat COVID-19. These claims are of a piece with similar claims for many other diseases and are just as exaggerated.