Tag: Steve Kirsch
Revisiting the question of debating science deniers
Wealthy tech bro turned antivax crank Steve Kirsch attacked Paul Offit for refusing to debate antivaxxers, while Dr. Mike was "surrounded" by MAHA stans. These recent events led me to revisit the question: Is it ever a good strategy to publicly debate cranks?
Antivaxxer Steve Kirsch unknowingly identifies the fatal flaw of an antivax “report” from the McCullough Foundation
Hilariously and without realizing it, antivaxxer Steve Kirsch nailed the essence of why a recent antivax "report" by the McCullough Foundation is nonsense. It's basically a very old tactic for misrepresenting science repackaged for "new school" antivaxxers.
Denis Rancourt and “no virus”: COVID-19 symptoms were due psychological stress from the pandemic response!
It's hard to believe that in the 21st century there are still those who deny that viruses exist. However, virus denial and antivax go together and always have. Denis Rancourt, while far from the first or more vociferous virus denier, is an excellent example.
How antivaxxers weaponize vaccine safety studies to falsely portray vaccines as dangerous
Antivaxxers have weaponized a huge multinational vaccine safety study of 99 million patient records that found rare adverse events and concluded that the risks of COVID-19 vaccines outweigh the benefits. How? A combination of the Nirvana fallacy and spin.
Steve Kirsch’s “mother of all revelations” about the “deadliness” of COVID-19 vaccines goes poof
On Thursday, Steve Kirsch gave his long-hyped talk about "record-level data" from New Zealand that supposedly demonstrates that COVID-19 vaccines have killed more than 10 million people worldwide. His "analysis" of illegally obtained data from a "whistleblower" was so ridden with false assumptions and rookie errors that even some antivaxxers couldn't accept it.
Has MSU economics professor Mark Skidmore been “exonerated” over his retracted paper claiming that COVID vaccines killed 278,000?
Tech bro turned antivax influencer Steve Kirsch is claiming that Michigan State University economist Mark Skidmore has been "exonerated" after having had a paper retracted claiming 278K deaths from COVID-19 vaccines in 2021 alone. In reality, Skidmore just republished a revised version of his retracted paper in an antivax journal after the MSU IRB failed miserably in its oversight duties.
Steve Kirsch: How “anti-COVID-19 vaccine” antivax often becomes radicalized and just plain antivaccine
Tech bro turned COVID-19 misinformation superspreader and antivaxxer Steve Kirsch has now fully embraced "old school" vaccine-autism conspiracy theories, demonstrating how anti-COVID-19 vaccine antivaxxers frequently become just antivaxxers.
Retracted papers about COVID-19 are more highly cited than they should be
Earlier this month a study showed that papers about COVID-19 that are retracted tend to be cited far more than average and continue to be heavily cited after retraction. Clearly, scientific publishing and the scientific community need to do better.
Why antivaxxers reject the concept of scientific consensus as a “manufactured construct”
Neil deGrasse Tyson invoked the concept of a scientific consensus while supporting vaccines in his debate with Del Bigtree. Why was his statement about how "individual scientists don't matter" compared to scientific consensus so triggering to antivaxxers? Why do antivaxxers reject the very concept of a scientific consensus and promote a hyper-individualistic view of how science should be conducted?
How antivaxxers laid the groundwork to blame COVID-19 vaccines for Damar Hamlin’s cardiac arrest
Right after Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed from a cardiac arrest after a tackle and was resuscitated on the field, antivaxxers immediately pounced, blaming COVID-19 vaccines even as CPR was still continuing. That's because antivaxxers had "primed the pump" over more than a year with stories of young athletes who had supposedly "died suddenly." (Warning: This one's long, even by Gorski...