There’s a new paper out analyzing how antimask activists weaponize the tools of data visualization and scientific argumentation to produce convincing antimask propaganda. Antimaskers are claiming that it shows that they are more “scientific” than those supporting the consensus viewpoint with respect to COVID-19 and masks. What it really shows is that they are good at weaponizing the tools of data visualization and scientific arguments to come to the conclusions that they want to come to.
“Dr.” Joe Mercola just celebrated 23 years of his website. It’s actually been 23 years of promoting quackery and antivaccine misinformation, culminating in a lot of COVID-19 disinformation.
Harassment by cranks and antivaxxers is all too often the price of defending science-based medicine. Is it worth it? How can we stop it?
There will be no new material today and probably not Monday either. I’m in New York attending the Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism (NECSS). I’ll be giving a talk this afternoon, “Cancer Quackery and Fake News: Targeting the Most Vulnerable.” I’ll be back Tuesday or Wednesday.
Yesterday, social media giant Facebook announced that it was acting against medical misinformation by using keyphrases to deprioritize results promoting misinformation and scams? Is it enough, and is it too late?
