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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

RFK Jr. doesn’t like being called antivaccine and antimask

RFK Jr. is angry—so very, very angry—because Terry Gross had pro-science guests on her NPR show “Fresh Air” who called him antivaccine and antimask.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine

Bell’s palsy, syncope, and death: The impending antivax tsunami of fake COVID-19 vaccine “adverse reactions”

Reports of Bell’s palsy and syncopy after vaccination with RNA-based COVID-19 vaccines remind us how antivaxxers will weaponize anything bad happening after vaccination. Sadly, I predict an impending tsunami of confusing correlation with causation.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Pseudoscience

Vaccines cause female infertility: Another antivax lie resurrected and repackaged for COVID-19

Antivaxxers have been claiming that vaccines cause female infertility for as long as I can remember. So it’s not surprising that they are now claiming that COVID-19 vaccines will make women infertile. Their assertion is based on a highly speculative and incredibly unlikely immunologic mechanism. Same as it ever was.

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Bad science Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Quacks misuse Koch’s postulates to deny that SARS-CoV-2 causes COVID-19

Science denialists and quacks love abusing Koch’s postulates to deny that various microorganisms are the true cause of disease; so it was inevitable that they’d do it for COVID-19.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Politics Popular culture

Antivaxxers aren’t just antivaccine. They’re anti-public health.

Why have antivaxxers allied themselves with COVID-19 deniers? Simple. Both share an unrelenting hostility to public health interventions.