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Antivaccine nonsense Politics Popular culture Skepticism/critical thinking

Quoth antivaxxers: “Big pharma got Tucker Carlson!”

Tucker Carlson was fired on Monday. Antivaxxers are blaming big pharma because he had aired a segment attacking Pfizer and its COVID-19 vaccine.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery

“Amnesty” according to Emily Oster: “Admit you were wrong!”

Economist turned COVID-19 contrarian Emily Oster recently published an article in The Atlantic about offering amnesty and forgiveness over the pandemic. Shorter Oster: “Admit you were wrong!”

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics

Tucker Carlson lies about the ACIP

The CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is meeting today. Last night Tucker Carlson lied about it as mandating COVID-19 vaccines for children before they can go to school.

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Medicine Politics Popular culture Quackery

What do Tucker Carlson, testicular tanning, and fascism have in common?

Last week, Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson ran a trailer for The End of Men, a special claiming that men are getting weak due to low testosterone levels. It’s pure fascist worship of “masculinity” combined with “bromeopathy.”

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Clinical trials Medicine Politics Popular culture Skepticism/critical thinking

WTF happened to John Ioannidis?

John Ioannidis is one of the most published and influential scientists in the world, someone whose skewering of bad medical research we at SBM have frequently lauded over the years. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Since then, Prof. Ioannidis has been publishing dubious studies that minimize the dangers of the coronavirus, shown up in the media to decry “lockdowns,” and, most recently, “punched down”, attacking a graduate student for having criticized him. What happened? Did Prof. Ioannidis change, or was he always like this and I just didn’t see it? Either way, he’s a cautionary tale of how even science watchdogs can fall prey to hubris.