Tag: vaccines
RFK Jr. is now an extinction-level threat to federal public health programs and science-based health policy
A week ago, Donald Trump said that, if elected, he would let Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. "go wild" on healthcare. RFK Jr. has said that he'd immediately remove fluoride from drinking water, while surrogates say he'd work to prove vaccines unsafe. This is why a Trump Presidency could represent an extinction-level event for science-based federal health policy.
RFK Jr. declares MAHA war against the FDA
In a post on X/Twitter, antivaxxer turned Trump supporter Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. declared MAHA war on the FDA, should Trump be elected. What would this actually mean in practice?
“And we’d better not risk another frontal assault. That plasmid’s dynamite.” Antivaxxers vs. plasmid DNA
Ever since recombinant DNA has been used to develop and manufacture vaccines, antivaxxers have portrayed it as evil. This weekend, an antivaxxer decided that fear mongering about SV40 in COVID-19 vaccines wasn't enough. Here we go again...
Antivaxxers easily see through the misdirection of RFK Jr.’s MAHA
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has been antivax for two decades. His fellow travelers are not happy about his leaving out vaccines in his "Make America Healthy Again." To them it's an obvious misdirection, and they are turning on him.
Antivax as ideology: “Limited hangouts” run by “controlled opposition”
Antivax is more ideology and conspiracy than science. The recent accusation that antivax influencers are running "limited hangouts" as part of "controlled opposition helps illustrate this characteristic, in which the insufficiently radical are portrayed as useful idiots for the enemy or even heretics.
RFK Jr.’s MAHA manifesto: How not to “make America healthy again”
Shortly after endorsing Donald Trump for President, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed he and Trump will "make America healthy again." His proposals to do that range from semi-reasonable to outright quackery.
Quoth Myrna Mantaring: “US government data” confirms a “143,233% increase in cancer cases due to COVID vaccination”? I answer with a plea for math-based reality checks.
Myrna Mattaring, a retired scientist who worked in diagnostic labs, claims that COVID-19 vaccines caused a 1432% increase in cancer cases, a clearly impossible claim. Here I make a plea for examining such claims, including a much more famous and accepted one, with basic math.
Stanford University will host a conference on pandemic planning featuring the usual (COVID-19) suspects
This week, Stanford University announced a conference on pandemic policy that features several of the usual suspects who spread misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Truly, Stanford has become the "respectable" academic face of efforts to undermine public health.
Dr. Vinay Prasad Opposed The Pediatric COVID Vaccine Before There Was A Pediatric COVID Vaccine
Dr. Vinay Prasad started treating vaccine side effects as a fate worse than death in January 2021, before there was a COVID vaccine for children.
How conspiracy theories like COVID-19 “lab leak” harm science and public health
Ever since COVID-19 first emerged in 2020, evidence-free claims that it had arisen due to a "lab leak" have proliferated. A recent paper argues that this conspiracy theory has been very harmful to science. I argue that it's more than just lab leak that is harmful.