Month: June 2023

Anti-Vaccine Doctors: “Kids Don’t Need the Vaccine Because They Are Less Likely to Acquire SARS-CoV-2 and Because Most Already Had COVID-19”

Those of us who thought about vaccines before the pandemic know perfectly well that anti-vaxxers start with their conclusions and work backwards to retrofit the "evidence." Doctors who do the same shouldn't be regarded any differently.

/ June 30, 2023

Does Intermittent Fasting Work?

New research, same old narrative.

/ June 28, 2023
Debate

RFK Jr. and Joe Rogan: Putting the old denialist technique of bad faith “Debate me, bro!” challenges on steroids

Joe Rogan conveyed a challenge by antivax crank turned Presidential candidate RFK Jr. to vaccine scientist Dr. Peter Hotez to "debate me, bro!" In the week since, wealthy right wingers have added money to the inducement, and through an awful op-ed by Ross Douthat this weekend, even the New York Times has amped up the pressure for a "debate" about vaccines with...

/ June 26, 2023

Steve Kirsch and Brandolini’s law

The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it.

/ June 24, 2023

Science-Based Satire: Could Spontaneous Human Combustion Become a Chronic, Treatable Disease? Maybe. Yeah, I think so.

Do humans spontaneously burst into flames? Can these mysterious cases be predicted and kept at bay by homeopathic remedies? No. They don't and they can't. I made it all up. Is it just me, or is getting really hot in here.

/ June 23, 2023

Can Kinesiology Tape Increase Oxygen Delivery and Improve Sports Performance?

USA Track & Field is endorsing a kinesiology tape that is claimed to improve cell oxygenation.

/ June 22, 2023

Update on GMOs and Health

Thirty years on, there is even more evidence that GMO food are safe.

/ June 21, 2023

Courage

If I were King of the Vaccines. Some thoughts on influenza vaccine, hospitalization, death and courage.

/ June 20, 2023
Dr. Rashid Buttar

When an antivax physician “dies suddenly”: The case of Dr. Rashid Buttar

Last month, Dr. Rashid Buttar, a prominent antivax "integrative medicine" practitioner, died suddenly. Because he hadn't been vaccinated, antivaxxers struggled mightily to reconcile his death with their conspiracy theory about COVID-19 vaccines killing thousands "suddenly." It turns out, however, that that Dr. Buttar had not been a well man since 2016 and was as much a victim of quackery as his patients...

/ June 19, 2023

The Pandemic As Spectacle

Though calls for "debates" are made by unserious people, unserious people can do serious damage when they are willing to spread disinformation about vaccines, all because a doctor with principles isn't willing to play his part in their absurd theater.

/ June 18, 2023