Tag: COVID-19
The Next Pandemic
COVID-19 may have been a dress-rehearsal for more serious pandemics to come. How do we prepare?
A “not antivaccine” antivax pediatrician asks how we will know a COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective
Dr. Liz Mumper is associated with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s antivax organization Children's Health Defense. She recently gave a presentation asking: How will we know that a COVID vaccine is safe? It's a presentation that provides an excellent example of how to identify if someone is antivaccine.
Can mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines cause prion disease or Alzheimer’s?
Antivax immunologist J. Bart Classen published a paper claiming that mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines can cause prion disease leading to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's dementia. What are prions, and can these vaccines cause prion disease? (Spoiler alert: The answer to the second question is almost certainly no. It's speculation based on highly implausible biology.)
The effectiveness of zinc and vitamin C on the duration of COVID-19 infections
Vitamin C and zinc have been heralded as treatments for colds for decades, but how well do they work against COVID-19? A new clinical trial provides the answer.
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.
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.
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...
Shameless self-promotion: Dr. Gorski on the Thinking Critically podcast
Dr. Gorski appeared on the Thinking Critically podcast to discuss the antivaccine movement, COVID-19, medical conspiracy theories, and his journey to skepticism.
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.