Results for: COVID-19

COVID-19 vs. FDA and CDC

State legislatures consider bills prohibiting COVID-19 vaccination mandates and other public health measures

Bills seek to prevent the states and private employers from mandating COVID-19 vaccines and other pandemic mitigation measures. Some proposed legislation would severely handicap public health officials in combating future health emergencies.

/ March 11, 2021
Central Dogma of Molecular Biology

Antivaxxers misrepresent a study to falsely claim that COVID-19 vaccines cause cancer

The latest antivaccine propaganda claims that a 2018 research paper published by researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center shows that the RNA in the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines can cause cancer. As usual, it's a complete misapplication of a cherry picked study grounded in a lack of understanding of molecular biology. Same as it ever was.

/ March 8, 2021

Vitamin D shows no efficacy against moderate to severe COVID-19 infections

A new trial failed to find evidence that a massive dose of vitamin D improves outcomes in patients with moderate to severe COVID-19 infections.

/ March 4, 2021

A “not antivaccine” antivax pediatrician asks how we will know a COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective

Dr. Liz Mumper is associated with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s antivax organization Children's Health Defense. She recently gave a presentation asking: How will we know that a COVID vaccine is safe? It's a presentation that provides an excellent example of how to identify if someone is antivaccine.

/ March 1, 2021
Prions and Creutzfeldt‐Jakob disease

Can mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines cause prion disease or Alzheimer’s?

Antivax immunologist J. Bart Classen published a paper claiming that mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines can cause prion disease leading to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's dementia. What are prions, and can these vaccines cause prion disease? (Spoiler alert: The answer to the second question is almost certainly no. It's speculation based on highly implausible biology.)

/ February 22, 2021

The effectiveness of zinc and vitamin C on the duration of COVID-19 infections

Vitamin C and zinc have been heralded as treatments for colds for decades, but how well do they work against COVID-19? A new clinical trial provides the answer.

/ February 18, 2021
Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine

Lipid nanoparticles in COVID-19 vaccines: The new mercury to antivaxxers

When it comes to antivaccine misinformation and the COVID-19 pandemic, everything old is new again, at least if you haven't been paying attention. This time around, it's the resurrection of an old favorite antivaccine trope, the "toxins" gambit. Truly, lipid nanoparticles are the new mercury.

/ February 15, 2021
Central Dogma of Molecular Biology

The latest antivax false claim: mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 are not vaccines but “medical devices” or “gene therapy”

There's a new antivaccine talking point in town, and it's just as much disinformation as other antivaccine talking points. It's the claim that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are not really vaccines but "medical devices," "gene therapy," or "experimental biologics" and that they were falsely classified as vaccines in order to bypass safety testing. Here, we discuss why this claim is utter nonsense based...

/ February 8, 2021
Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine

The efforts of antivaxxers to portray COVID-19 vaccines as harmful or even deadly continue apace (VAERS edition)

With the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines continuing apace, so are the efforts of antivaxxers to portray the vaccines as dangerous. This time around, they've resurrected the old antivaccine trick of deceptively misusing the VAERS database to imply causation from VAERS reports. That's not how VAERS works, however.

/ February 1, 2021

The Anti-Vaxxer Playbook to Destroy Confidence in COVID-19 Vaccines

Major anti-vaccination voices and organizations have coalesced around three key messages to keep people from accepting the COVID-19 vaccine. Their playbook has now been exposed.

/ January 21, 2021