Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics

Lying with statistics in Florida, COVID-19 vaccine edition

Remember that Florida Department of Health study that suggested that COVID-19 vaccines were more dangerous to young men than COVID? Surprise! It turns out that important results were left out, all to lie with statistics and make the vaccines look worse.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Popular culture

Trust in science and vaccines is declining. Is it too late to reverse the decline?

Recent evidence shows that public trust in science and vaccines has declined markedly since the pandemic. Why is this, and is there anything we can do about it?

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics

A “not antivax” COVID-19 contrarian: “RFK Jr. makes ‘reasonable’ points”

Podcaster Joe Rogan conveyed a “debate” challenge by antivax conspiracy theorist RFK Jr. to Dr. Peter Hotez. COVID-19 contrarian Dr. Vinay Prasad, wanting to be on Rogan’s podcast, sucked up to both, saying RFK Jr. made many “reasonable” points. What gives? And should scientists ever agree to debate cranks?

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine

Just in time for Halloween, Mark Skidmore’s zombie antivax pseudoscience rises again

Tech bro turned antivax influencer Steve Kirsch is claiming that Michigan State University economist Mark Skidmore has been “exonerated” after having had a paper retracted claiming 278K deaths from COVID-19 vaccines in 2021 alone. In reality, Skidmore’s paper is zombie pseudoscience that’s back from the grave.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Clinical trials Medicine

Undermining the childhood vaccine schedule with EBM fundamentalism

“Not antivax” COVID contrarian Dr. Vinay Prasad demonstrates why skepticism is necessary and how evidence-based medicine (EBM) fundamentalism harms childhood health by inadvertently (I hope) echoing a very old antivax trope about randomized clinical trials for the childhood vaccine schedule, you know, to “rebuild confidence.”