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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

Poor, poor, pitiful Prof. Gøtzsche: Antivaxxers and COVID-19 cranks are quoting him in support of their pseudoscience

Prof. Peter Gøtzsche really, really doesn’t like that COVID-19 deniers and antivaxxers are quoting him to support their misinformation. He has no one to blame but himself. He is a useful idiot for such people.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

Antivax pediatrician Liz Mumper suggests “criteria” for knowing COVID-19 vaccines are safe

Dr. Liz Mumper is associated with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s antivax organization Children’s Health Defense. She recently gave a presentation asking: How will we know that a COVID vaccine is safe? It’s a presentation that provides an excellent example of how to identify if someone is antivaccine.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Politics Religion Skepticism/critical thinking

Harmful messages from authority about the J&J COVID-19 vaccine

A week ago, the FDA approved the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use. Unfortunately, messaging by political and religious authorities has ranged from mixed to downright unhelpful.

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Antivaccine nonsense Cancer Medicine Quackery

COVID-19 vaccination, lymph nodes, and mammography guidelines

Reports of enlarged lymph nodes under the arm after COVID-19 vaccination have led doctors to tweak mammography guidelines. Antivaxxers, unsurprisingly, have tried to weaponize this observation to spread fear and confusion about these vaccines.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

COVID-19 vaccines, prion disease, and Alzheimer’s: Another old antivax lie is new again

Antivax immunologist J. Bart Classen recently published a paper claiming that mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines can cause prion disease leading to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s dementia. What are prions, and can these vaccines cause prion disease? Unsurprisingly, Classen is just wildly speculating based on highly implausible biology.