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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics Popular culture

Antivaxxers vs. FDA’s VRBPAC and CDC’s ACIP.

The FDA’s VRBPAC and the CDC’s ACIP are the two committees that approve vaccines in the US and issue recommendations regarding who should receive which vaccine and when. Predictably, after the recent recommendation that children 5-11 receive the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is portraying committee members as thralls of big pharma.

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Bad science Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

Misuse of the VAERS database: An old antivax deception repackaged to spread fear of COVID-19 vaccines

With the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines continuing apace, so are the efforts of antivaxxers to portray the vaccines as dangerous. This time around, they’ve resurrected the old antivaccine trick of deceptively misusing the VAERS database to imply causation from VAERS reports. That’s not how VAERS works, however.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bioethics Clinical trials Medicine

Should we bypass phase 3 trials of a COVID-19 vaccine?

Steve Salzberg proposed, in essence, bypassing phase 3 trials for a COVID-19 vaccine. It was a very bad idea for a number of reasons. To his credit, Steve later admitted his mistake.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Children’s Health Defense: Ten lies about vaccines

Children’s Health Defense is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s antivaccine group. Recently it posted a list of ten “facts” about vaccines. In reality, it’s ten bits of disinformation, half-truths, and lies.

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

No, WHO scientists did not “question the safety of vaccines” at the Global Vaccine Safety Summit

The World Health Organization recently held its Global Vaccine Safety Summit. Antivaccine propagandist Del Bigtree cherry picked quotes to make it seem as though WHO scientists were questioning vaccine safety and made a video. Unfortunately, that video went viral. Fortunately, even those cherry picked quotes weren’t very convincing.