Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Popular culture

Doctors who should know better dumpster dive in VAERS

“Dumpster diving” is a term used to describe studies using data from the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System database by authors, almost always antivaxxers, who don’t understand its limitations. Last week, non-antivax doctors who should know better fell into this trap when they promoted their study suggesting that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are more dangerous to children than the disease.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

Neil deGrasse Tyson demonstrates why debating cranks is a horrible idea

Astrophysicist and famed science communicator Neil deGrasse Tyson appeared on The Highwire, an antivax video podcast, to “debate” its host, antivax propagandist Del Bigtree. This incident demonstrates quite well why it is almost never a good idea for a scientist to agree to “debate” science deniers.

Categories
Bad science Medicine Politics Quackery

“America’s Frontline Doctors” sue over deaths from COVID-19 vaccines. Hilarity ensues.

This week, “America’s Frontline Doctors” (who are doctors, but hardly “frontline”) announced a lawsuit over 45,000 “covered up deaths” due to COVID-19 vaccines. Hilarity ensued, as the bad science and conspiracy theories were epic, as has been the grift.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine

DMED: Another database abused by antivaxxers

Antivaxxers have found another health database to abuse, DMED, to falsely claim that COVID-19 vaccines cause all sorts of horrible things.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics Popular culture

Antivaxxers vs. FDA’s VRBPAC and CDC’s ACIP.

The FDA’s VRBPAC and the CDC’s ACIP are the two committees that approve vaccines in the US and issue recommendations regarding who should receive which vaccine and when. Predictably, after the recent recommendation that children 5-11 receive the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is portraying committee members as thralls of big pharma.