Tag: COVID-19

Christian Elliot and viral disinformation

Christian Elliot’s “18 Reasons I Won’t Be Getting a Covid Vaccine”: Viral antivaccine misinformation

Christian Elliot is a self-proclaimed "natural health nerd" and entrepreneur who recently published 18 reasons why he wouldn't take the COVID-19 vaccine. Unfortunately, it's viral disinformation based on conspiracy theories, bad science, pseudoscience, and nonsense.

/ April 19, 2021

Ivermectin is the new hydroxychloroquine

Ivermectin has been touted as a potential antiviral to treat COVID-19 infections. There is no good evidence it is effective.

/ April 15, 2021

Johnson & Johnson Vaccine and Blood Clots

Reports of blood clots with the J&J vaccine are very similar to AstraZeneca, with a similar dilemma.

/ April 14, 2021
Gen. Jack D. Ripper

COVID-19 vaccines versus “purity of essence”

Antivaxxers frequently make the false claim that mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines "permanently alter your DNA". These claims are really a concern about "impurifying" their "purity of essence".

/ April 12, 2021

Update on AstraZeneca Vaccine and Blood Clots

A link between the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine and a rare type of blood clots is now more likely, but the benefits of vaccination still outweigh the risks.

/ April 7, 2021
COVID-19 vaccines hacking

Antivaxxers, COVID-19 vaccines, and “hacking the software of life”

Antivaxxers and COVID-19 conspiracy theorists were always going to spin conspiracies about COVID-19 vaccines. Unfortunately, some scientists have made it so much easier for them by having likened mRNA vaccines to "hacking the software of life" and being unclear on what gene therapy is.

/ April 5, 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

The Origins of SARS-CoV-2

The joint WHO-China investigation report concludes that a lab origin for COVID-19 is "extremely unlikely" but doubts remain.

/ March 31, 2021
John Ioannidis with Laura Ingraham on Fox News

What the heck happened to John Ioannidis?

John Ioannidis is one of the most published and influential scientists in the world, someone whose skewering of bad medical research we at SBM have frequently lauded over the years. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Since then, Prof. Ioannidis has been publishing dubious studies that minimize the dangers of the coronavirus, shown up in the media to decry "lockdowns," and, most recently,...

/ March 29, 2021

COVID-19 vaccination and screening mammography

Reports of enlarged lymph nodes under the arm after COVID-19 vaccination have led doctors to tweak mammography guidelines. Antivaxxers, unsurprisingly, have tried to weaponize this observation to spread fear and confusion about these vaccines.

/ March 22, 2021