"A statement of fact cannot be insolent." The miscellaneous ramblings of a surgeon/scientist on medicine, quackery, science, and pseudoscience (and anything else that interests him).

Tag: pseudoscience

Poor, poor, pitiful Prof. Gøtzsche: Antivaxxers and COVID-19 cranks are quoting him in support of their pseudoscience

Post author By Orac
Post date March 10, 2021
68 Comments on Poor, poor, pitiful Prof. Gøtzsche: Antivaxxers and COVID-19 cranks are quoting him in support of their pseudoscience

Prof. Peter Gøtzsche really, really doesn’t like that COVID-19 deniers and antivaxxers are quoting him to support their misinformation. He has no one to blame but himself. He is a useful idiot for such people.

Tags antivaccine, COVID-19, COVID-19 denial, COVID-19 vaccine, John Ioannidis, lockdown, methodolatry, Peter Gøtzsche, Physicians for Informed Consent, pseudoscience, public health, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., United Health Professionals, vaccines

Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

COVID-19 vaccines, prion disease, and Alzheimer’s: Another old antivax lie is new again

Post author By Orac
Post date March 1, 2021
56 Comments on COVID-19 vaccines, prion disease, and Alzheimer’s: Another old antivax lie is new again

Antivax immunologist J. Bart Classen recently published a paper claiming that mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines can cause prion disease leading to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s dementia. What are prions, and can these vaccines cause prion disease? Unsurprisingly, Classen is just wildly speculating based on highly implausible biology.

Tags Alzheimer's disease, antivaccine, COVID-19, COVID-19 vaccine, J. Bart Classen, misinformation, prion, prions, pseudoscience, vaccines

Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

ICAN and Del Bigtree’s “victory” against the CDC: A huge nothingburger

Post author By Orac
Post date January 27, 2021
243 Comments on ICAN and Del Bigtree’s “victory” against the CDC: A huge nothingburger

Del Bigtree’s antivaccine group ICAN has claimed a huge “victory” over the CDC over the bogus antivax claim that vaccines cause autism. It’s really a huge nothingburger, a grifting fundraising tactic.