Tag: SARS-CoV-2
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is definitely coming for your vaccines, part 3: Antivax rhetoric and incompetence at ACIP
The CDC's newly reconstituted antivax Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices met last week. The results weren't as horrific as I'd expected, but not for lack of trying. In this post, I'll focus on one presentation as a lens through which to look at the meeting as a whole.
What do mRNA vaccines, Synthroid, and pharmaceuticals have in common (according to MAHA)?
If you want to understand why Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has halted $500 million in funding for mRNA vaccine development, look no further than Synthroid and herbal medicines.
The Semmelweis gambit: A red flag for defending bad science and quackery
A proponent of the Great Barrington Declaration is comparing rejection of its "natural herd immunity" approach to the pandemic to the rejection of Ignaz Semmelweis and his findings. It's a deceptive comparison beloved of all manner of scientific cranks.
“Panel stacking”: John Ioannidis versus a Delphi consensus statement on COVID-19
My former science idol John Ioannidis has published a paper citing a Delphi consensus statement on COVID-19 as evidence that the scientific community is "biased" against his anti-"lockdown" pro-virus views. His descent continues apace.
The New York Times promotes “lab leak” conspiracy theories
Last week, the New York Times ran an op-ed by Alina Chan, Queen of lab leak conspiracy theories and then gave it a prominent place in its Sunday Magazine this weekend. How is it wrong? Let me count the ways.
Antivax quacks are continuing to make up fantastical biological mechanisms for COVID-19 vaccine “shedding”
A couple of weeks ago, I discussed why antivax quacks' claimed biological mechanisms for COVID-19 vaccine "shedding" reminded me of homeopaths. Confabulation about fantastical scientific mechanisms continues, courtesy of "A Midwestern Doctor."
Hospital Measures Prevented COVID Transmission
A new study finds that hospital measures to limit the spread of COVID-19 worked, and we probably should keep them.
The Wellness Company: How antivaccine grift becomes plain old quackery
The Wellness Company, promoted by Dr. Peter McCullough, is the product of a trend in which antivax doctors have predictably become just quacks. At least in this case, there is an amusing quack fight at the heart of it all.
Do mRNA vaccines produce harmful “junk proteins” that “gunk up” the cell and cause unintended “off-target” immune responses?
A new study is making the rounds in the antivax crankosphere. The study found that the modified mRNA used in the Pfizer vaccine can cause a frame shift (to be explained) that results in the production of proteins besides the intended spike protein. The findings are, as you probably guessed, a big nothingburger compared to how they are being spun.
The COVID-as-bacterial-pneumonia conspiracy theory rises again
In yet another example of everything hold being new again, antivaxxers have resurrected the claim that deaths due to COVID-19 are actually due to bacterial pneumonia, just as antivaxxers used to say the same thing about influenza deaths. It is, of course, another case of confusing cause and effect in order to obfuscate.