Tag: SARS-CoV-2

coronavirus

Antivaxxers launch a preemptive disinformation war against a COVID-19 vaccine that doesn’t yet exist

We don't yet have a vaccine against COVID-19, but that hasn't stopped the antivaccine movement from launching a preemptive disinformation war on social media against it. Unfortunately, as a recent study demonstrates, on Facebook at least, they have been so successful that it is possible that antivaccine messaging will surpass pro-vaccine messaging on FB within a decade.

/ May 25, 2020

NewsGuard identifies social media “super-spreaders” of COVID-19 misinformation

NewsGuard has identified "super-spreaders" of COVID-19 misinformation on Facebook and Twitter, including Dr. Joseph Mercola, the NVIC, Rush Limbaugh, and Ty Bollinger.

/ May 21, 2020

COVID-19 Testing

Currently available tests for COVID-19 are imperfect but useful if used properly, with rapidly evolving research on new tests underway.

/ May 20, 2020
Conspiracy theories

Medical conspiracy theories and COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has spawned almost innumerable conspiracy theories, and conspiracists like the antivaccine movement have joined forces with COVID-19 conspiracy theorists. To combat the proliferation of pseudoscience rooted in conspiracy theories, it is useful to step back and examine the nature of conspiracy theories, including ones that are not medical, even ones like QAnon. Critical thinking is the key to inoculating...

/ May 18, 2020
Plandemic and Judy Mikovits

Plandemic: Judy Mikovits and the mother of all COVID-19 conspiracy theories (some final thoughts)

Last Friday, I deconstructed Plandemic, a misinformation conspiracyfest of a video that went viral last week. It turns out that Judy Mikovits, the disgraced scientist featured in the video has even more conspiracy theories and misinformation up her sleeve.

/ May 11, 2020
Judy Mikovits on Pandemic

Plandemic: Judy Mikovits and the mother of all COVID-19 conspiracy theories

Judy Mikovits is a disgraced scientist who published a paper claiming that a retrovirus called XMRV causes chronic fatigue syndrome, results that other investigators were unable to replicate. Since then, she's been a regular on the antivaccine circuit, but now she's been reborn as a "Fire Fauci" COVID-19 conspiracy theorist. Sadly, it worked. Her book is #1 on Amazon.

/ May 8, 2020
COVID-19

COVID-19: Out-of-control science and bypassing science-based medicine

During the COVID-19 pandemic, there hasn't just been a pandemic of coronavirus-caused disease. There's also a pandemic of misinformation and bad science. It turns out that doctors today are just as prone as doctors 100 years ago during the 1918-19 influenza pandemic to bypass science-based medicine in their desperation to treat patients.

/ May 4, 2020

Hydroxychloroquine, retinal toxicity, and COVID-19

Hydroxychloroquine is being promoted as a treatment or prevention for COVID-19 based on questionable evidence. The long-term impact of hydroxychloroquine on the retina introduces another reason to be cautious about its use outside of clinical trials.

/ May 1, 2020
Hydroxychloroquine

Hydroxychloroquine and the price of abandoning of science- and evidence-based medicine

Based on anecdotal evidence early in the pandemic and then-unreported clinical trials, followed by hype and bad studies by French "brave maverick doctor" Didier Raoult, antimalarial drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine became the de facto standard of care for COVID-19, despite no rigorous evidence that they worked. A steady drip-drip-drip of negative studies has led doctors and health authorities to rethink and backtrack,...

/ April 27, 2020
COVID-19 denial and antivaxxers

COVID-19 pandemic deniers and the antivaccine movement: An unholy alliance

Deniers of the severity of COVID-19 as a disease and pandemic have increasingly teamed up with the antivaccine movement, emulating their rhetoric, conspiracy theories, and tactics. The effect on public health is likely to be disastrous.

/ April 20, 2020