Results for: anti-vaccination
“Debate me, bro!”: Debate challenges by science deniers in the age of COVID-19
Quacks, science deniers, and conspiracy theorists love to challenge doctors, scientists, and science communicators to "live public debates" over the science they deny. I just say no, and you should say no too if you are in a position to receive such a challenge.
Mercola and Kennedy sue Sen. Elizabeth Warren for combating their COVID misinformation
Quack tycoon Joseph Mercola and anti-vaccine crank Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., have filed a lawsuit against U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren claiming she violated their First Amendment rights when she complained that Amazon was peddling COVID misinformation, citing Mercola’s recent misinformation-filled book on COVID as an example.
Tennessee hamstrings medical board fight against COVID misinformation and unproven treatments
A new Tennessee law hampers the state medical board's efforts to rein in COVID misinformation and will make disciplining physicians prescribing unproven COVID treatments impossible until the board goes through cumbersome rule-making procedures, an effort that could outlast the pandemic.
Quack Protection Acts advance in state legislatures
Proposed laws in Wisconsin and Massachusetts would protect quacks who defraud patients with useless, and sometimes dangerous, nostrums, by essentially allowing them to practice medicine without a license. These Quack Protection Acts should not pass.
COVID-19 vaccines versus “purity of essence,” revisited
Antivaxxers frequently make the false claim that mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines "permanently alter your DNA". These claims are really a concern about "impurifying" their "purity of essence" and have now gone into some truly disturbing territory, such as antivaxxers calling themselves "purebloods".
The “Natural Immunity is Real Act”: Real or an act?
Republican legislators have proposed a law requiring federal agencies to acknowledge, accept, truthfully present and incorporate "consideration of natural immunity" in their COVID regulations. It's just political theatrics based on a flawed understanding of infection-induced "natural" immunity.
How we got here with political and health misinformation: The case of “Hacker X” and Mike Adams
Ars Technica recently published a story about Hacker X, who helped Mike Adams expand his online empire of health fraud into an empire of fake news and political disinformation, thus intertwining health and political misinformation into the deadly combination we see now.
The Road to Hitler is Paved with… Masks and Vaccines?
The next time a healthcare worker or educator is attacked by a "freedom-loving" anti-vaxxer, it's reasonable to wonder who convinced the assailant that life-saving public health measures are in fact a ruse to pave the way for the next Hitler. Warning: This article contains offensive images about the Holocaust and sexual assault
Legislative Alchemy: Naturopathic licensing bill now before Wisconsin Senate Committee
Naturopaths are pushing for licensing in Wisconsin with a bill allowing them to practice as primary care doctors, prescribe drugs, and employ quack diagnostic testing and remedies. A powerful regulatory board controlled by naturopaths could expand their scope of practice at will.
“Natural immunity” versus the vaccine for COVID-19
Antivaxxers have long appealed to "natural immunity" as being somehow inherently superior to vaccine-induced immunity, which is apparently "artificial". This is a trope that comes from alternative medicine concepts about purity and contamination that is now endangering us in the age of the pandemic.