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- Feed Preview vaccine | Science-Based Medicine
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 ...
“Subscription science”: Physician-influencers, social media, and conflicts of interest
Antivaccine activists and quacks often weaponize legitimate concerns about industry conflicts of interest in medicine into the "shill gambit," in which they accuse critics and defenders of scienc...
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 examin...
Conspiracy theories about monkeypox: Déjà vu all over again or same as it ever was?
Last Thursday, the Biden administration officially declared monkeypox to be a national public health emergency. Unsurprisingly, conspiracy theories abound, many of them recycled from COVID-19 and...
“Coronaphobia”: How antivaxxers and pandemic minimizers pathologize fear of disease
Over the weekend, Dr. Lucy McBride, a concierge medicine doctor who has become famous as a pandemic minimizer and one of the drivers of "Urgency of Normal", Tweeted an article that she had writte...
Nasal Spray Vaccine for SARS-CoV-2
A nasal spray boost may enhance the effectiveness of vaccine defense against COVID. The post Nasal Spray Vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 first appeared on Science-Based Medicine .
A Malaria Vaccine for Children: A Historic Achievement that will Save Countless Lives
WHO has officially recommended the first ever vaccine against a parasite, in this case malaria, and it will save thousands of kids' lives every year. The post A Malaria Vaccine for Children: A Hi...
The CDC Should Do Better
The CDC's failure to report clear and accurate data about how COVID-19 is affecting children has opened the door to those who wish to minimize its impact by spreading fear, uncertainty, and doubt...
Cognitive Illusions and How Not to Write About COVID-19 and Children
Many people minimize the deaths and damage COVID-19 has wrought on children because it is "worse in adults". While it is true that more adults suffer due to the disease, that does not make the ha...
COVID-19 and balancing the risks: The vaccine or the virus
Given recent reports of myocarditis after vaccination with mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines in young people, we think it's a good time to reexamine the risk/benefit ratio of these vaccines in this po...
COVID-19 vaccination and screening mammography
Reports of enlarged lymph nodes under the arm after COVID-19 vaccination have led doctors to tweak mammography guidelines. Antivaxxers, unsurprisingly, have tried to weaponize this observation to...
A “not antivaccine” antivax pediatrician asks how we will know a COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective
Dr. Liz Mumper is associated with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s antivax organization Children's Health Defense. She recently gave a presentation asking: How will we know that a COVID vaccine is safe? ...
Joe Mercola: Falsely demonizing the flu vaccine by claiming it increases your risk of COVID-19
September is the time of the year when the CDC, state public health authorities, and doctors urge everyone to be vaccinated against the flu. In the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, that means antiv...
How can we counter misinformation from “chemo truthers”?
Denial of the benefits of chemotherapy is very prevalent in "natural health" movements. This denial is based on fear mongering, pseudoscience, and conspiracy theories and thus shares many similar...
J.B. Handley versus vaccine science. Again. Not surprisingly, J.B. loses.
Our old friend anti antivaccine activist J. B. Handley invokes the "vaccines didn't save us" gambit. It doesn't go well for him. The post J.B. Handley versus vaccine science. Again. Not surprisin...
The characteristics of antivaccine networks on Facebook
Facebook has become a major hub by which antivaccine messages are propagated. A recent study examines the characteristics of antivaccine groups on Facebook and comes to some not-so-startling conc...
The influenza vaccine and miscarriages: Much ado about nothing
A study published on Wednesday claims to have found a link between influenza vaccination and miscarriage, and antivaxers are gloating. The study itself suffers mightily from post hoc subgroup ana...
In 2017, are antivaxers winning?
The election of Donald Trump as President has emboldened antivaxers, because they quite rightly sense that he is one of them. His inauguration as President, combined with other trends, have led o...
The suffering the search for “natural immunity” inflicts on children
I realize that Scott Gavura has already covered this particular case (and quite well), but it’s so egregious that I couldn’t resist discussing it myself because it is one of the most horrifyi...
The war in California over nonmedical exemptions to school vaccine mandates, part 2
California has passed SB 277 into law. Beginning in the 2016-2017 school year, SB 277 will eliminate personal belief exemptions to school vaccine requirements. This will benefit the health of Cal...
A journey to alternative and integrative medicine apostasy
WIRED posted a story about Jim Laidler recently discussing his movement away from autism biomed and back to science. It's a good story, that deserves sharing, and explores many of the motivations...
How not to report about vaccine safety issues, Toronto Star edition
I remember it well, because several of my readers forwarded it to me not long after it appeared on the website of the Toronto Star: An eye-catching headline proclaiming a “wonder drug’s dark ...
What do we do about politicians and physicians who promote antivaccine misinformation?
There are politicians and physicians out there promoting antivaccine misinformation. None of us expect politicians to be scientists or physicians, but we do expect them to listen to them. Worse a...
No, the CDC did not just “admit” that this year’s flu vaccine doesn’t work
Since the press release was originally issued on Thursday by now surely most of you have seen the news stories that popped up beginning yesterday morning with headlines like “CDC Warning: Flu V...
Fear mongering about vaccines as “racist population control” in Kenya
There are many conspiracy theories about vaccines, and they circulate almost continuously. Some are relatively new, but most are at least a few years old. They all tend to fall into several defin...
Blaming breast cancer on autism
Gayle DeLong has been diagnosed with what she refers to as “autism-induced breast cancer”. She’s even given it an abbreviation, AIBC. Unfortunately, as you might be able to tell by the name...
More Fear-Based Practice Building: Shaken Baby Syndrome and Chiropractic
During my first clinical rotation in medical school, I found myself at the pediatric nurse station one afternoon waiting for a patient to arrive from the emergency department. An adorable older i...
Andrew Wakefield, the MMR, and a “mother warrior’s” fabricated vaccine injury story
As the time came to do my usual weekly post for this blog, I was torn over what to write about. Regular readers might have noticed that a certain dubious cancer doctor about whom I’ve written t...
The “CDC whistleblower saga”: Updates, backlash, and (I hope) a wrap-up
Given that this is a holiday weekend here in the US and that I’m having a bit of a staycation right now, I had thought of simply not posting today or of rerunning a “classic” (if you want t...
Even in 2014, influenza kills
I don’t think it can be repeated too many times during flu season: People can die of the flu. The flu vaccine is one of the two vaccines most easily demonized by the antivaccine movement. The f...