Antivaccine activist Del Bigtree posted a rant denying the severity of COVID-19, blaming the chronically ill for having made themselves vulnerable to severe disease through their lifestyle choices, and urging the young and healthy to “catch this cold”. His rant shows exactly why COVID-19 conspiracy theorists and antivaxxers have such an affinity for each other and resist public health initiatives.
Antivaxxers Amy Becker and Mark Blaxill try to use COVID-19 death statistics to claim that declines in vaccination due to lockdowns in response to the pandemic caused a decline in the number of children dying every week, thus wildly speculating that vaccines cause SIDS. It does not go well.
Kelly Brogan and fellow conspiracy theorists Sayer Ji and Ali Zeck liken submission to public health measures for COVID-19 to childhood trauma and the Stockholm syndrome. What they’re really saying is, “Wake up, sheeple!
Brian Hooker and Neil Z. Miller, two antivaccine propagandists disguising themselves as scientists, published yet another terrible “vaxxed/unvaxxed” study purporting to show unvaccinated children are healthier. How awful was the study? Let Orac tell you!
Conspiracy theories are at the heart of nearly all medical pseudoscience, be it antivaccine beliefs or quackery. COVID-19 has been a magnet for conspiracy theories.
