Category: Public Health
“Censorship” and “thoughtcrime”? Antivaxxers and COVID-19 contrarians attack California AB 2098
One of the oldest tropes favored by quacks of all stripes, including antivaxxers, is to portray any attempt at regulating their quackery as an assault on freedom of speech. It's therefore not surprising that after its passage by the California legislature prominent spreaders of COVID-19 misinformation are labeling AB2098, which seeks clarify and codify the power of the Medical Board of California...
Healthcare Costs of Air Pollution
More recent estimates of the health related costs of air pollution are staggering.
PreP for HIV/AIDS
Two pills and an injection are FDA-approved to prevent HIV infection. Not enough patients and providers know about them.
COVID-19 vaccines and the Nuremberg Code
Antivaxxers love to claim that vaccine mandates (especially COVID-19 vaccine mandates) violate the Nuremberg Code and call for Nuremberg-style tribunals to hold public health and vaccine advocates "accountable". As usual, they have no idea what they are talking about. This is also not a new antivax narrative, although what is unprecedented is that what was once fringe even among antivaxxers is now...
Science denial, overconfidence, and persuasion
The pandemic has brought scientists who have rejected science with respect to COVID-19 public health measures a disturbing level of influence. Recent research suggests reasons why and who among the public susceptible to such misinformation remains persuadable.
Antivaxxers rejoice at the “silver lining” from the pandemic, spillover of distrust of COVID-19 vaccines to all vaccines
Distrust of COVID-19 vaccines has lead to spillover of distrust to all childhood vaccines, and antivaxxers are rejoicing.
Conspiracy theories about monkeypox: Déjà vu all over again or same as it ever was?
Last Thursday, the Biden administration officially declared monkeypox to be a national public health emergency. Unsurprisingly, conspiracy theories abound, many of them recycled from COVID-19 and older antivax conspiracy theories.
The rise and fall of the lab leak hypothesis for the origin of SARS-CoV-2
Two new studies were published last week that strongly support a natural zoonotic origin for COVID-19 centered at the wet market in Wuhan, China. Naturally, lab leak proponents soberly considered this new evidence and thought about changing their minds. Just kidding! They doubled down on the conspiracy mongering, because of course they did.
New Studies on the Origin of COVID-19
New evidence strongly supports the conclusion that SARS-CoV-2 emerged from the wet markets of Wuhan, killing the lab-leak hypothesis.
Excess in Non-COVID Deaths
What are the true causes of the excess non-COVID deaths during the pandemic?