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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Computers and social media Medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

“Censorship!”: The common bogus complaint of science deniers

Once more, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. cries “Censorship!” over efforts to counter COVID-19 and antivaccine disinformation. Hilarity ensues.

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Antivaccine nonsense Clinical trials Medicine

WTF happened to The BMJ?

The BMJ recently published an “exposé” by Paul Thacker alleging patient unblinding, data falsification, and other wrongdoing by a subcontractor. It was a highly biased story embraced by antivaxxers, with a deceptively framed narrative and claims not placed into proper context, leading me to look into the broader question: WTF happened to The BMJ? (Updated and revised from a week ago.)

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery

Dr. Carrie Madej: COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are transhumanism!

There’s a new quack in town. Dr. Carrie Madej is making waves with the message that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are “transhumanism.” Too bad she fails Biology 101 in her fevered ramblings.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Last year was the worst season for influenza mortality in decades

Barbara Loe Fisher, Joe Mercola, and other antivaxers frequently deny that the flu is dangerous and that all the promotion of flu vaccines every year is a plot by big pharma to make money based on fear. The CDC argues otherwise, reporting that influenza mortality last season was higher than iit’s been in decades. Roughly 80,000 people are estimated to have died last season from influenza or complications from the flu.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Quackery

Barbara Loe Fisher cries “McCarthyism!” over vaccines

Barbara Loe Fisher is back. This time, instead of Nazis and the Holocaust, she’s comparing vaccine mandates and bad press about antivaxers to McCarthyism and their “persecution” to that faced by anyone suspected of Communism in the early 1950s.