Tag: antivaccine movement

Mercola versus flu vaccines and COVID-19

Joe Mercola: An antivaccine quack tycoon pivots effortlessly to profit from spreading COVID-19 misinformation

Joe Mercola is a physician whose nearly quarter-century of promoting quackery and antivaccine misinformation has garnered him a net worth north of $100 million. It is therefore not surprising that in the age of the pandemic, he has pivoted to fatten his bottom line promoting misinformation and conspiracy theories about COVID-19 and the COVID vaccines.

/ July 26, 2021

“COVID-19 vaccines are going to sterilize our womenfolk,” Take 2

Antivaxxers have long claimed that vaccines, particularly HPV vaccines, can damage the ovaries and cause female infertility. That claim has been resurrected for COVID-19 vaccines. The first example relied on a dubious "similarity" between the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and a placental protein. This time, it's the lipid nanoparticles attacking the ovaries, echoing very old claims about polysorbate-80. Truly, everything old is new...

/ June 7, 2021

The Causes of Vaccine Hesitancy

The vaccine hesitant are now the front lines of the battle to contain COVID.

/ May 19, 2021

COVID vaccine manufacturers should explore legal action against anti-vaxxers spreading disinformation

Perhaps it's time for vaccine manufacturers to consider defamation suits against anti-vaxxers who spread false information about COVID vaccines. Lawsuits by voting technology companies against Fox and others over false "rigged" election claims could serve as a template.

/ May 6, 2021

The “Disinformation Dozen” spreading anti-vaccine messaging on social media

Just twelve individuals are generating two-thirds of all of the anti-vaccine messaging on Twitter and Facebook.

/ April 1, 2021

A Race Against Vaccine Hesitancy

The vaccine program is in a race against the emergence of new strains of the virus. Vaccine hesitancy may be the margin of victory or failure.

/ February 10, 2021

All science denial is a form of conspiracy theory

Regular readers of this blog know that many forms of quackery and science denial have conspiracy theories associated with them, but a further examination suggests that all forms of science denial are a form of conspiracy theory. In the middle of a deadly pandemic, science denial represents a form of conspiracy theory with potentially deadly consequences.

/ January 25, 2021
coronavirus

Antivaxxers launch a preemptive disinformation war against a COVID-19 vaccine that doesn’t yet exist

We don't yet have a vaccine against COVID-19, but that hasn't stopped the antivaccine movement from launching a preemptive disinformation war on social media against it. Unfortunately, as a recent study demonstrates, on Facebook at least, they have been so successful that it is possible that antivaccine messaging will surpass pro-vaccine messaging on FB within a decade.

/ May 25, 2020

MMR is Safe and Effective

A new systematic review shows convincingly that the MMR vaccine is safe and effective.

/ May 6, 2020

The Psychology of Vaccine Denial

A new study sheds a bit more light on anti-vaccine attitudes.

/ April 15, 2020