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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics Popular culture

Rev. Al Sharpton’s Harlem antivaccine confab has been canceled!

Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network was scheduled to host an antivaccine confab this Saturday. Then the press got wind of it. Let’s just say that it’s not happening any moreā€”for now.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Science denial: A form of conspiracy theory

Regular readers of this blog know that many forms of quackery and science denial have conspiracy theories associated with them, but a further examination suggests that all science denial a form of conspiracy theory. In the middle of a deadly pandemic, it is a form of conspiracy theory with potentially deadly consequences.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science History Holocaust Medicine Politics

Are public health responses to COVID-19 like the Cultural Revolution?

Over at the “spiritual child of the Great Barrington Declaration,” an anonymous graduate student likens COVID-19 responses to the Cultural Revolution. Wait, I thought COVID mitigations were the Holocaust! I’m so confused!

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics Science

It’s been a week since Joe Biden won. Now what for medical science policy?

In 2016 and 2020, scientists expressed surprise and alarm at the results of the Presidential election. In 2016 it was alarm that someone as antiscience as Donald Trump was elected, and in 2020 it was over how close the election was, given Trumpā€™s dismal record on science, medicine, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Are scientists out of touch? And now what, for federal science policy and the response to the COVID-19 pandemic?

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Computers and social media Medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery

Criticism and quality control ā‰  “Censorship and defamation”

Minerva published an op-ed disguised as a “study” decrying “censorship and defamation.” It was really just criticism and quality control, but the usual suspects are all over it as evidence of evil.