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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine

VAERS and plasmid DNA “contamination” of COVID-19 vaccines: The nonsense continues

This week, a new preprint made the social media rounds falsely claiming a correlation between “contamination” of COVID-19 vaccines with plasmid DNA and VAERS reports of adverse events. How does its methodology stink? Let me count the ways.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine

Dr. Vinay Prasad embraces antivax “do not comply” messaging

COVID-19 “contrarians” like Dr. Vinay Prasad have long complained about being labelled “antivaccine,” which they view as unfair. Why, then, do they embrace antivax messages like “do not comply,” even if they don’t use the exact words?

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine

Vaccines and SIDS: Steve Kirsch amps up the stupid

Antivaxxers have long claimed that childhood vaccines cause sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Now “new school” antivaxxer Steve Kirsch has resurrected this hoary old lie using the thinnest of evidence plus a lot of handwaving.

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Antivaccine nonsense Skepticism/critical thinking

“I’m a rational theorist, not a conspiracy theorist.”

Conspiracy theorists hate being called conspiracy theorists. After they try to rebrand themselves as “rational theorists,” hilarity ensues.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science

A mouse “died suddenly” of “turbo cancer” after COVID-19 vaccination

Last week, Stew Peters Tweeted out a link to a study in which a mouse “died suddenly” of “turbo cancer” after being vaccinated with the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. This study is even more ridiculous than the usual “turbo cancer” study.