Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

Paul Thacker amplifies antivaccine messaging by attacking science communicators

In his eagerness to attack skeptics for what, in the wake of reports of blood clots associated with the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, he sees as “vaccine cheerleading,” anti-GMO hack Paul Thacker has inadvertently amplified antivaccine messaging. Or was it inadvertent?

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Computers and social media Medicine Quackery

Once again, Facebook reporting algorithms facilitate harassment of pro-science advocates by antivaccine cranks

Nearly eleven years ago, back in April 2005, I opened my work e-mail (I was working at a different university back then) and saw an e-mail from someone whose name I had seen before, one Mr. William P. O’Neill. Opening the e-mail, I was shocked to find an e-mail to Orac; worse, the e-mail was […]

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Humor Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

I am Spartacus! or: Orac applies some Insolence to a rather confused antivaccine blogger

I’ve used my current pseudonym since at least the late 1990s, first on Usenet and then on the first incarnation of this blog. Not surprisingly in retrospect (although it surprised me at the time), people who didn’t like me began trying back in the 1990s to “unmask” me. It began with Holocaust deniers. No, I’m […]