Category: Vaccines
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.
Contrarian Doctors, The Pandemic is Over Again, Again
I predicted last year that contrarian doctor would continue to say "the pandemic is over". How did this prediction hold up?
The Alternative to Vaccinating Children Isn’t Just “Not Vaccinating” Them
It's putting them on an inevitable collision course with the virus—without any protection from the vaccine.
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.
TB Or Not TB? Don’t Rely on a Blood Test
TB can't be diagnosed with a blood test.
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.
Polio’s Resurgence
Surely we can keep iron lungs relegated to museums, can't we?
The Return of Polio
Once again we lose the chance to eradicate polio, but the goal still remains relatively close.
Novavax: It’s the vaccine that scares antivaxxers, not moth DNA or any ingredient in any vaccine
The Novavax COVID-19 vaccine was recently granted emergency use approval by the FDA. Company executives and some public health officials have expressed hope that this recombinant protein-based vaccine will be more palatable to the vaccine-hesitant than existing vaccines using new (and therefore scarier) mRNA and adenovirus platforms. The reaction to the use of moth cells to produce the Novavax vaccine shows that...
Is COVID-19 “the forever plague”?
A recent article claims that Omicron reinfections confer "no immunity" such that it's possible to be reinfected with Omicron variants every two to three weeks and calls COVID-19 the "forever plague". Although it makes a reasonable point that "natural" postinfection immunity doesn't last long because of variants, the article is undermines its reasonable criticisms of COVID policy with maximal fear mongering.