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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Politics Quackery

It’s always about the grift

Hawkers of ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, and other “miracle cures” for COVID-19 are just like snake oil salesmen going back to time immemorial. Sure, many, if not most, of them believe in their quackery, but it’s also always about the grift.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics Popular culture

In which Orac experiences schadenfreude over Ben Garrison’s COVID-19

Ben Garrison, whose fame comes from his QAnon-invoking and Trump-supporting cartoons, has COVID-19 and is treating it with ivermectin. Because of course he is. Orac’s schadenfreude is tempered by the knowledge that when Garrison recovers he’ll attribute his good fortune to the quackery he’s using.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics

Florida Sen. Manny Diaz wants to “review” all vaccine mandates

Florida State Senator Manny Diaz wants to “review” all vaccine mandates in Florida, not just COVID-19 mandates. This was always the endgame for the antivaccine movement, and COVID-19 might just make it happen in some states, thanks to the embrace of antivaccine and antimask “freedumb” by Republican politicians

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Bioethics Medicine Politics

Gov. Ron DeSantis further embraces the Great Barrington Declaration by appointing Dr. Joseph Ladapo as Florida Surgeon General

Yesterday, Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Dr. Joseph Ladapo, an apostle of the Great Barrington Declaration’s eugenics lite “focused protection” approach to COVID-19, as Florida Surgeon General. If you want to see the harm caused by the GBD and crank “COVID contrarian” physicians, look no further.

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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.