Tag: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Autism Awareness Month

Autism prevalence increases to 1 in 38, and antivaxxers blame vaccines without using the word “vaccine”

The CDC updated its estimates for the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders. Predictably, antivaxxers blame the increasing prevalence of ASDs reported, particularly in Black children, on "environmental factors," which is antivax code for, "Vaccines are to blame."

/ March 27, 2023
Babies

Vaccines and infant mortality rates: A false relationship promoted by the antivaxxers…again, 12 years later

Since COVID-19, in the antivax world everything old is new again. Even hoary chestnuts of bad science used 12 years ago to falsely claim that vaccines kill babies. That's right, Gary S. Goldman and Neil Z. Miller are back to defend their 2011 "study," and RFK Jr. is flogging it as slam-dunk "evidence" that vaccines kill babies.

/ February 13, 2023
Clots

Died Suddenly: A tsunami of antivax misinformation and conspiracy theories

Everything old is new again when it comes to antivax tropes. Stew Peters' antivax pseudodocumentary Died Suddenly resurrects the old antivax conspiracy that vaccines kill, the plan being to cause “depopulation” that will allow “global elites” to control the world. Dr. Gorski watched the whole movie so that you don't have to.

/ December 5, 2022
Ducks quack

The making of COVID-19 “contrarian” doctors

In 2009, I tried to answer the question: How do doctors become quacks and antivaxxers? A Twitter encounter suggested to me that an update to that post is massively overdue.

/ October 24, 2022
Pfizer COVID vaccine

The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine doesn’t prevent transmission: Antivax disinformation goes viral again

Last week, antivaxxers were all over social media after Tucker Carlson touted a "revelation" that the phase 3 clinical trial used to support licensure of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine didn't examine its ability to block transmission as meaning that its inability to block transmission had been "covered up". It wasn't, and antivaxxers are ignoring everything we've learned over the last two years...

/ October 17, 2022
Spillover to vaccine tyranny

Antivaxxers rejoice at the “silver lining” from the pandemic, spillover of distrust of COVID-19 vaccines to all vaccines

Distrust of COVID-19 vaccines has lead to spillover of distrust to all childhood vaccines, and antivaxxers are rejoicing.

/ August 15, 2022
Amazon Prime

Mercola and Kennedy sue Sen. Elizabeth Warren for combating their COVID misinformation

Quack tycoon Joseph Mercola and anti-vaccine crank Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., have filed a lawsuit against U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren claiming she violated their First Amendment rights when she complained that Amazon was peddling COVID misinformation, citing Mercola’s recent misinformation-filled book on COVID as an example.

/ January 27, 2022
How RFK Jr. sees the members of ACIP and VRBPAC

Are the FDA’s VRBPAC and the CDC’s ACIP hopelessly compromised by conflicts of interest over COVID-19 vaccines?

The FDA's VRBPAC and the CDC's ACIP are the two main committees that approve vaccines to be sold in the US and issue recommendations regarding who should receive them and when. In the wake of the recent recommendation that children 5-11 receive the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is now portraying committee members as thralls of big pharma. But are...

/ November 29, 2021
Comirnaty

Yes, the FDA really HAS given full approval to the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine

After the FDA announcement a week ago that Comirnaty, the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine developed by BioNTech and Pfizer, had been approved, it took less than a day for antivaxxers to spin a conspiracy theory claiming that the FDA hadn't really approved the Pfizer vaccine at all and that Comirnaty wasn't available, all to protect Pfizer from liability. It's a superficially plausible conspiracy...

/ August 30, 2021
COVID-19 vs. FDA and CDC

Legislatures and litigation: anti-vaxxers continue attacks on COVID mitigation

Anti-vaxxers are attacking COVID-19 mandates in state legislatures and in court even as COVID-19 cases numbers and hospitalizations remain high among the unvaccinated.

/ June 3, 2021