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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Clinical trials Medicine

Now Steve Kirsch wants to “collaborate” with provaccine scientists?

Steve Kirsch is known for his ludicrous challenges issued to vaccine advocates to “debate” vaccines. Now he wants to “collaborate” with provaccine scientists to test whether vaccines cause autism. His proposal is equally ludicrous.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics

Brownstone flack Gabrielle Bauer admits that the Great Barrington Declaration was wrong

Gabrielle Bauer of the Brownstone Institute tacitly admits that the central premise of the Great Barrington Declaration was badly wrong, but brushes it off a just “details.”

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics

“Heroism” in the face of COVID-19?

Brownstone Institute flack Haley Kynefin claims that COVID-19 “inverts the Heroic Archetype” in yet another instance of how antivaxxers claim “heroism” and portray science advocates as “cowardly.”

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

What makes a COVID-19 “contrarian” doctor—or any quack?

In 2008, I tried to answer the question: How do doctors become contrarians, quacks, and antivaxxers? A Twitter encounter suggested to me not just answers but that an update to that post is massively overdue.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

Overconfidence as a contributor to science denial among physicians and scientists

The pandemic has brought scientists who have rejected science with respect to COVID-19 public health measures a disturbing level of influence. Recent research suggests reasons why and who among the public susceptible to such misinformation remains persuadable.