Tag: antivaccine
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.
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...
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.
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.
It was inevitable that antivaxxers would claim that COVID-19 vaccines make females infertile
Antivaxxers have been claiming that vaccines cause female infertility for as long as I can remember. So it's not surprising that they are now claiming that COVID-19 vaccines will cause miscarriages or even make women infertile. Their assertion is based on a highly speculative and incredibly unlikely immunologic mechanism. Same as it ever was.
The Oregon Medical Board suspends the medical license of antivax pediatrician Dr. Paul Thomas
Late last week, the Oregon Medical Board suspended the licenses of two physicians, one for bragging about not wearing a mask around his patients, the second being Dr. Paul Thomas, an antivaccine pediatrician, whose continued practice was deemed a threat to his patients. It's time for more state medical boards to step up, as Oregon's has.
No, the Moderna and Pfizer RNA vaccines for COVID-19 will not “permanently alter your DNA”
With the new mRNA vaccines developed by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna likely to be available soon, antivaxxers have been ramping up the fear mongering. Their latest claim is that mRNA vaccines will "permanently alter your DNA" or even "make you transhuman." Such claims rest on an utter ignorance of the totality of what we know about the biology of DNA, RNA, and how...
Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump. Now what for science-based medicine?
In 2016 and 2020, scientists expressed surprise and alarm at the results of the Presidential election. In 2016 it was alarm that someone as antiscience as Donald Trump was elected, and in 2020 it was over how close the election was, given Trump's dismal record on science, medicine, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Are scientists out of touch? And now what, for federal...
Vaccine safety monitoring in the age of the COVID-19 pandemic
Last year, the Trump administration essentially disbanded the National Vaccine Program Office, folding it into an office focused on infectious diseases. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. What does this mean for monitoring the safety of the soon-to-be-approved COVID-19 vaccines?
The confluence of antivaccine beliefs and conspiracy theories in COVID-19 denial
It surprised some people that after the COVID-19 pandemic hit our shores antivaxxers so quickly joined forces with COVID-19 conspiracy theorists. It shouldn't have been a surprise. Antivaxxer beliefs are themselves rooted deep in conspiracy theories.