When Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed from an on-field cardiac arrest most likely due to chest trauma, antivaxxers quickly blamed COVID-19 vaccines. The reason was a particularly nasty preexisting variant of the “died suddenly” myth in which athletes are dropping dead from the vaccine. They aren’t.
We met “Dr.” Jane Ruby last week attacking Novavax, but she’s so much more antivaccine than just ranting about “moth DNA” in Novavax. Truly, she reaches Mike Adams level of bonkers.
A couple of days ago, Joe Mercola tried to seem “reasonable” by contrasting himself to other quacks by “conceding” that SARS-CoV-2 actually exists. Last night Dr. Vinay Prasad tried to do the same thing by “analyzing” the appearances of conspiracy theorists on Joe Rogan’s show. The parallels are eerie.
Steve Kirsch has a “secret plan to end the vaccine madness.” In reality, it’s not secret, but a conglomeration of antivaccine conspiracy theories, misinformation, and pseudoscience.
The BMJ’s outgoing editor Fiona Godlee and incoming editor wrote open letter to Mark Zuckerberg over Facebook’s labeling Paul Thacker’s conspiracy-filled Pfizer story as lacking context. It did not go well. Actually, it was downright embarrassing.
