Results for: COVID-19
The Grand Debunk of the antivaxxer book “Turtles All the Way Down” (part 2/10)
The second installment in debunking the antivaxxer book "Turtles All the Way Down": Chapter 2, supposedly concerned with “The Science of Adverse Events”.
Praise for Dr. Monica Gandhi
Ideally, leaders of American medicine would have had the courage to correct misinformation spread by their fellow doctors. At a bare minimum, they didn't have to lavish praise on a doctor who repeatedly polluted our COVID landscape with obvious misinformation and falsely pacified people the worst was over, when in fact the worst was yet to come.
The Grand Debunk of the antivaxxer book “Turtles All the Way Down” (part 1/10)
This book — written by "Anonymous", edited by Children's Health Defense lawyer Mary Holland and Children's Health Defense Publisher Liaison and Thinking Moms’ Revolution co-founder Zoey O’Toole, and published by "The Turtles Team" — purports to use only mainstream references to prove its points. But the book employs all the standard tropes in a master class of science denial and antivax tactics...
When Doctors Have Different Standards of Evidence for the Virus and the Vaccine
817,000 Americans had already died of COVID by December 23, 2021, and 244,000 more would die the next year. Millions more survived, but were injured. These numbers could have been lower if doctors had not become defense attorneys for SARS‑CoV‑2 and prosecutors against the vaccine, and instead applied similar standards of evidence to both.
RFK Jr. resurrects an old antivax half-truth about “saline placebos” in randomized controlled trials of vaccines
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has resurrected the antivax claim that the childhood vaccine schedule has never been tested in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with a saline placebo controls (and therefore the vaccine schedule is unsafe). This is an old and deceptive antivax half-truth that ignores both what constitutes a scientifically valid placebo and the ethical requirements for RCTs.
RFK Jr. and Joe Rogan: Putting the old denialist technique of bad faith “Debate me, bro!” challenges on steroids
Joe Rogan conveyed a challenge by antivax crank turned Presidential candidate RFK Jr. to vaccine scientist Dr. Peter Hotez to "debate me, bro!" In the week since, wealthy right wingers have added money to the inducement, and through an awful op-ed by Ross Douthat this weekend, even the New York Times has amped up the pressure for a "debate" about vaccines with...
Steve Kirsch and Brandolini’s law
The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it.
When an antivax physician “dies suddenly”: The case of Dr. Rashid Buttar
Last month, Dr. Rashid Buttar, a prominent antivax "integrative medicine" practitioner, died suddenly. Because he hadn't been vaccinated, antivaxxers struggled mightily to reconcile his death with their conspiracy theory about COVID-19 vaccines killing thousands "suddenly." It turns out, however, that that Dr. Buttar had not been a well man since 2016 and was as much a victim of quackery as his patients...
The Pandemic As Spectacle
Though calls for "debates" are made by unserious people, unserious people can do serious damage when they are willing to spread disinformation about vaccines, all because a doctor with principles isn't willing to play his part in their absurd theater.
A Letter to My Critics: To Refute Me, Stand Up For Your Own Words
Calling me a "lockerdowner" generates likes and retweets from "free-thinkers", but it doesn't refute anything I wrote. Since you obviously need help, I'd like to give you a clear roadmap to refute my ideas. All you have to do is stand up for your own words and make the affirmative case that the purposeful infection of unvaccinated children and young adults was...