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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Pseudoscience

Can you get Omicron every three weeks?

A recent article claims that Omicron reinfections confer “no immunity” such that it’s possible to be reinfected with Omicron variants every two to three weeks and calls COVID-19 the “forever plague.” Although it makes a reasonable point that “natural” postinfection immunity doesn’t last long because of variants, the article is undermines its reasonable criticisms of COVID policy with maximal fear mongering.

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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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Bad science Medicine Politics Popular culture Skepticism/critical thinking

AIER likens anti-“lockdown” cranks to abolitionists. Hilarity ensues

Cranks love a heroic persecution narrative, and the climate science-denying right wing think tank American Institute of Economic Research (AIER) has a doozy: COVID-19 “anti-lockdown” cranks like Scott Atlas and those behind the Great Barrington Declaration are the new abolitionists! This is a page from the antivax playbook.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

Surprise! Relatively small decreases in vaccine uptake can lead to big increases in vaccine-preventable disease!

Whenever vaccine uptake falls to a level below that needed to maintain herd immunity, the risk of outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases climbs. It doesn’t take that dramatic of a decline. Here’s a study that shows how a small decrease in vaccine uptake can lead to a large increase in disease.

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Andrew Wakefield claims “natural Herd Immunity” is better than anything vaccines can do, never mind all that suffering

Andrew Wakefield, his claims to the contrary, is antivaccine to the core. To be honest, I’m not sure if he was always antivaccine. After all, around 20 years ago when he was doing his “research” into whether the MMR vaccine causes autism, he was being generously funded by a barrister seeking to sue vaccine manufacturers […]