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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

ICAN and Del Bigtree’s “victory” against the CDC: A huge nothingburger

Del Bigtree’s antivaccine group ICAN has claimed a huge “victory” over the CDC over the bogus antivax claim that vaccines cause autism. It’s really a huge nothingburger, a grifting fundraising tactic.

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Antivaccine nonsense Skepticism/critical thinking

What does antivax really mean since COVID-19?

In 2010 I wrote about how I define “antivaccine.” Has my definition changed since COVID-19? Yes and no, but that’s why an update was needed. So what does “antivax” mean now, since COVID-19?

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine

Steve Kirsch’s New Zealand “mother of all revelations” about COVID-19 vaccines fizzles

Steve Kirsch recently gave a talk about “record-level data” from New Zealand that supposedly demonstrates that COVID-19 vaccines have killed more than 10 million people worldwide. His “analysis” of illegally obtained data from a “whistleblower” was so ridden with false assumptions and rookie errors that even some antivaxxers couldn’t accept it.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Evolution Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Geert Vanden Bossche is to COVID-19 vaccines as Andrew Wakefield is to MMR

Geert Vanden Bossche is a scientist who published an open letter warning of global catastrophe due to deadly variants of COVID-19 selected for by mass vaccination. His argument sounds a lot like an argument Andrew Wakefield once made for MMR. There’s even grift likely involved!

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience

When “old school” antivaxxers meet the “new school” antivaxxers

An old school “vaccines cause autism” antivaxxer hosted new COVID-19 antivaxxers at an antivax conference last month. Although one new antivaxxer, Geert Vanden Bossche, was discomfited and pushed back against old antivax tropes, the rest joined Del Bigtree in spewing longstanding antivax tropes.