Results for: autism
“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...
Peer review fail: Vaccine publishes antivax propaganda disguised as “reanalyses” of Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial data
In order portray COVID-19 vaccines as dangerous, Peter Doshi has now managed to get poorly designed and performed "reanalyses" of the clinical trial data used by the FDA to grant emergency use approval of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines published in two reputable journals, The BMJ and Vaccine? What happened?
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.
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...
Melatonin poisonings in children are increasing
Melatonin use is increasing, and accelerated during the pandemic. Overdoses are also increasing in children, and in rare cases are linked to serious harms.
Gender-Affirming Care is Not Experimental, Part II
A lot of the "facts" about providing healthcare to transgender youth turn out to be not actually facts. We present here a summary of the evidence relating to transition-related health care for transgender adolescents.
Medical debt vs. universal health insurance: The interface between SBM and policy
This blog has long argued that the best medicine is science-based medicine (SBM). The problem is that in the US SBM is often not accessible, except at ruinous cost, which is why I argue that we have to broaden our definition of SBM to include the systems that deliver it and pay for it.
“New school” COVID-19 antivaxxers are becoming less and less distinguishable from “old school” antivaxxers
Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, a new generation of antivaxxers has arisen. Most view themselves as pro-vaccine, just not pro-COVID-19 vaccines. Recent developments, however, have demonstrated that "new school" antivaxxers are increasingly indistinguishable from "old school" antivaxxers and that this fusion is increasingly endangering all public health, not just COVID-19 public health interventions.