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Announcements Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

R.I.P. SkepDoc

Orac is greatly saddened to announce that Dr. Harriet Hall, a.k.a. The SkepDoc, passed away unexpectedly on Wednesday night.

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Naturopathy Quackery

Resurrecting old tropes about naturopathy

Way back in prepandemic times, naturopaths claimed that they could help with the shortage of primary care docs. They’re doing it again in 2023. They were wrong then and are wrong now.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics Popular culture Skepticism/critical thinking

If 2022 was the “year of the gaslighter,” expect a lot more gaslighting in 2023

“Gaslighting” is a term that refers to the manipulation of someone in order to lead them to question their own reality and even sanity. Last month, a COVID-19 minimizer and antivaxxer declared 2022 the “year of the gaslighter,” revealing yet again that it’s always projection with science-denying propagandists. Unfortunately, 2023 looks to hold a lot more of the same in store.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking Sports

Why did antivaxxers seize on the Damar Hamlin case?

When Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed from an on-field cardiac arrest most likely due to chest trauma, antivaxxers quickly blamed COVID-19 vaccines. The reason was a particularly nasty preexisting variant of the “died suddenly” myth in which athletes are dropping dead from the vaccine. They aren’t.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking Sports

Damar Hamlin’s collapse: To antivaxxers, it’s always the vaccines

On Monday, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest after a tackle. The most likely diagnosis is commotio cordis, cardiac arrest after chest trauma. That didn’t stop antivaxxers from undergoing all-too-familiar contortions to blame it on vaccines.