Tag: antivaccine

Did I Lie About My Conference Invitation? How Bad Faith Engagement Functions As A Distraction and Silencing Technique.

It's important to honestly and explicitly call out bad faith engagement for what it is and recognize how it functions as a common, but powerful rhetorical device.

/ June 25, 2024
New York Times

Why is The New York Times now promoting an anti-science agenda?

This essay stems from concerns about two editorials published in The New York Times recently. We felt that they were problematic in that the past is viewed through a blurred prism to produce revisionist history. By John P. Moore and Gregg Gonsalves.

, / June 22, 2024

How antivaxxers weaponize vaccine safety studies to falsely portray vaccines as dangerous, part 2: The children

A few months ago, I wrote about how antivaxxers misrepresent vaccine safety studies to portray vaccines as dangerous, using a large study of outcomes in adults as an example.. They're doing it again, but this time it's a large study of COVID-19 vaccines in children.

/ June 17, 2024
Cancer cells

Forget “turbo cancers” caused by COVID-19 vaccines. Does COVID itself cause cancer?

The Washington Post recently published an article asking if COVID-19 infection can cause cancer. Probably not, but cancer caused by a virus is more more plausible than "turbo cancer" caused by the vaccine.

/ June 10, 2024
conspiracy theory

The ultimate COVID-19 antivax conspiracy theory, courtesy of the Brownstone Institute and Jeffrey Tucker

I've long argued that antivax beliefs, indeed all science denial, is conspiracy theory. Leave it to The Brownstone Institute's Jeffery Tucker to make my point better for me than I ever could. Of course, Brownstone was always going to "go there."

/ May 27, 2024
NYT Vax injury

A poorly framed article on COVID-19 vaccine injury in the New York Times

A poorly framed article on people who believe that COVID-19 vaccines injured them is being trumpeted by antivaxxers. Where the New York Times and its reporter Apoorva Mandavilli go wrong?

/ May 6, 2024

Dr. Vinay Prasad vs. a VAERS study finding more reports of vaccine injury in red states

Dr. Vinay Prasad attacks an epidemiological study published in JAMA Open Network reporting that people in red states are more likely to report vaccine injuries, claiming that a more rigorous study would "not be difficult," when he knows that it would be very difficult.

/ April 8, 2024
Alex Jones

The Truth vs. Alex Jones: How the DSHEA of 1994 gave conspiracy mongers the means to fund their empires

As the HBO documentary The Truth vs. Alex Jones shows, Alex Jones promoted the conspiracy theory that the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax to sell his supplement line. It's a model that many Internet conspiracy theorists use, like Mike Adams. Did the DSHEA help create Alex Jones and the modern conspiracy industry?

/ April 1, 2024
Mark Sircus

Mark Sircus and “natural allopathic medicine”? Now I’ve heard everything from quacks

The term "allopathic medicine" was invented by homeopaths in the 19th century as a disparaging term for medicine. So to see a quack like Mark Sircus try to coopt it as "natural allopathic medicine" is quite something.

/ March 25, 2024
Rancourt and Kirsch

Denis Rancourt and “no virus”: COVID-19 symptoms were due psychological stress from the pandemic response!

It's hard to believe that in the 21st century there are still those who deny that viruses exist. However, virus denial and antivax go together and always have. Denis Rancourt, while far from the first or more vociferous virus denier, is an excellent example.

/ March 18, 2024