Surgeon/scientist deconstructing quackery and antivax disinformation while promoting science-based medicine. Opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent those of my employers, although they should!
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Published at
2023-06-05T22:27:02+02:00 Event JSON
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Last Notes npub1rdjhkxhxmq2k2yu2r9gm9znacyely40v57fzdklhda3rqhgaqacsyp32mz David Gorski, MD, PhD Donald Trump called Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to try to gain his support. During the call, he repeated antivax tropes that he's been repeating since 2007. A second Trump administration would be a public health disaster. npub1rdjhkxhxmq2k2yu2r9gm9znacyely40v57fzdklhda3rqhgaqacsyp32mz David Gorski, MD, PhD John Ioannis and a band of Great Barrington Declaration advocates attack a 2002 Delphi consensus statement on COVID-19 as "stacked." Besides their dubious arguments, one can't help but note the lack of ideological diversity in their author list. https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/panel-stacking-john-ioannidis-versus-a-delphi-consensus-statement-on-covid-19/ npub1rdjhkxhxmq2k2yu2r9gm9znacyely40v57fzdklhda3rqhgaqacsyp32mz David Gorski, MD, PhD The Washington Post recently published an article asking if COVID-19 infection can cause cancer. Probably not, but cancer caused by a virus is more more plausible than “turbo cancer” caused by the vaccine. npub1rdjhkxhxmq2k2yu2r9gm9znacyely40v57fzdklhda3rqhgaqacsyp32mz David Gorski, MD, PhD Rasmussen Reports is, ostensibly, a polling organization. Why does its most recent poll look like something an antivaxxer like Steve Kirsch dreamed up? Because it's not legit. It's propaganda. npub1rdjhkxhxmq2k2yu2r9gm9znacyely40v57fzdklhda3rqhgaqacsyp32mz David Gorski, MD, PhD Dr. Pierre Kory and the pseudonymous Substacker known as A Midwestern Doctor provide two more examples of how "anti-COVID" antivax has now become just antivax. npub1rdjhkxhxmq2k2yu2r9gm9znacyely40v57fzdklhda3rqhgaqacsyp32mz David Gorski, MD, PhD Earlier this week, the New York Times op-ed page ran an article by Alina Chan, Queen of lab leak conspiracy theories. How is it wrong? Let me count the ways... npub1rdjhkxhxmq2k2yu2r9gm9znacyely40v57fzdklhda3rqhgaqacsyp32mz David Gorski, MD, PhD Antivax Grande Dame Barbara Loe Fisher is lamenting how without warning her old friend, quack tycoon Joe Mercola, cut off his regular financial support of her antivax org. What's going on here? npub1rdjhkxhxmq2k2yu2r9gm9znacyely40v57fzdklhda3rqhgaqacsyp32mz David Gorski, MD, PhD I've long argued that antivax beliefs, indeed all science denial, is conspiracy theory. Leave it to The Brownstone Institute's Jeffery Tucker to make my point better for me than I ever could. Of course, Brownstone was always going to "go there." npub1rdjhkxhxmq2k2yu2r9gm9znacyely40v57fzdklhda3rqhgaqacsyp32mz David Gorski, MD, PhD One quirk of having blogged so long is that sometimes cranks you've blogged about reappear after a long disappearance. So it was when antivax wunderkind Jake Crosby retracted a bogus critique of a study that failed to find a link between MMR and autism. npub1rdjhkxhxmq2k2yu2r9gm9znacyely40v57fzdklhda3rqhgaqacsyp32mz David Gorski, MD, PhD I'm seriously disappointed that my name isn't anywhere on this list of 91. npub1rdjhkxhxmq2k2yu2r9gm9znacyely40v57fzdklhda3rqhgaqacsyp32mz David Gorski, MD, PhD Coming back to work after a three-day holiday weekend is always a good time to bask in the adulation of my adoring fans. npub1rdjhkxhxmq2k2yu2r9gm9znacyely40v57fzdklhda3rqhgaqacsyp32mz David Gorski, MD, PhD Perusing X, I found an alternative cancer cure testimonial, which led me into "functional health" nonsense that I hadn't encountered before. Introducing FitScript™, "functional" cancer quackery. npub1rdjhkxhxmq2k2yu2r9gm9znacyely40v57fzdklhda3rqhgaqacsyp32mz David Gorski, MD, PhD I swear, some quacks manage to go lower and more bonkers than even I would've predicted. npub1rdjhkxhxmq2k2yu2r9gm9znacyely40v57fzdklhda3rqhgaqacsyp32mz David Gorski, MD, PhD A couple of weeks ago, the New York Times' botched "vaccine injury." Unfortunately, The Washington Post botched discussing "IV drips" even worse. npub1rdjhkxhxmq2k2yu2r9gm9znacyely40v57fzdklhda3rqhgaqacsyp32mz David Gorski, MD, PhD A poorly framed article on people who believe they suffered vaccine injury is being trumpeted by antivaxxers. The New York Times definitely flubbed it this time. npub1rdjhkxhxmq2k2yu2r9gm9znacyely40v57fzdklhda3rqhgaqacsyp32mz David Gorski, MD, PhD A @nytimes article reports that in his divorce proceedings a decade ago, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. argued that his earning potential had decreased because he had had a brainworm. This explains an awful lot. npub1rdjhkxhxmq2k2yu2r9gm9znacyely40v57fzdklhda3rqhgaqacsyp32mz David Gorski, MD, PhD Orac has long argued that chelation therapy for heart disease is quackery. An abstract presented last month finally confirmed that. Why did it take so long? npub1rdjhkxhxmq2k2yu2r9gm9znacyely40v57fzdklhda3rqhgaqacsyp32mz David Gorski, MD, PhD Dr. Vinay Prasad recently attacked an epidemiological study published in JAMA Open Network reporting that people in red states are more likely to report vaccine injuries, claiming that it "would not be difficult" to do a much more rigorous study. npub1rdjhkxhxmq2k2yu2r9gm9znacyely40v57fzdklhda3rqhgaqacsyp32mz David Gorski, MD, PhD After being forced through legal threats to "apologize" by a bunch of quacks and attacked by a hack journalist, Dr. Allison Neitzel tells her side of the story with respect to the hack. npub1rdjhkxhxmq2k2yu2r9gm9znacyely40v57fzdklhda3rqhgaqacsyp32mz David Gorski, MD, PhD As the HBO documentary The Truth vs. Alex Jones shows, Alex Jones made big bucks selling supplements, and spreading conspiracy theories that Sandy Hook was a hoax was a big part of that. Did the DSHEA make Alex Jones? npub1rdjhkxhxmq2k2yu2r9gm9znacyely40v57fzdklhda3rqhgaqacsyp32mz David Gorski, MD, PhD I normally don't publish email exchanges, but when someone like Paul Thacker misleadingly characterizes an email exchange with me, let's just say that I will make an exception in his case. npub1rdjhkxhxmq2k2yu2r9gm9znacyely40v57fzdklhda3rqhgaqacsyp32mz David Gorski, MD, PhD HPV lies: Another example of how everything old antivax has been reborn as “new” again npub1rdjhkxhxmq2k2yu2r9gm9znacyely40v57fzdklhda3rqhgaqacsyp32mz David Gorski, MD, PhD Quacks are crowing that the FDA has "lost its war" on ivermectin. Ivermectin still doesn't work against COVID-19. but by settling a lawsuit the way it did, the FDA did unfortunately hand quacks and antivaxxers a massive propaganda victory. npub1rdjhkxhxmq2k2yu2r9gm9znacyely40v57fzdklhda3rqhgaqacsyp32mz David Gorski, MD, PhD It's hard to believe that in the 21st century there are still those who are "not convinced that viruses exist." Virus denial and antivax go together and always have. Denis Rancourt, while far from the first or more vociferous virus denier, is an excellent npub1rdjhkxhxmq2k2yu2r9gm9znacyely40v57fzdklhda3rqhgaqacsyp32mz David Gorski, MD, PhD Kate Middleton announces that she is being treated for cancer. Guess what happened next? npub1rdjhkxhxmq2k2yu2r9gm9znacyely40v57fzdklhda3rqhgaqacsyp32mz David Gorski, MD, PhD The Brownstone Institute long ago went full anti-COVID-19 vaccination. Now it's embracing old antivax tropes about the measles vaccine. This was inevitable. npub1rdjhkxhxmq2k2yu2r9gm9znacyely40v57fzdklhda3rqhgaqacsyp32mz David Gorski, MD, PhD Prions. Why did it have to be prions? (Again.) The antivax trope that vaccines cause prion disease is an old one, and antivaxxers are trying desperately to resurrect it to apply to COVID-19 vaccines. npub1rdjhkxhxmq2k2yu2r9gm9znacyely40v57fzdklhda3rqhgaqacsyp32mz David Gorski, MD, PhD In another example of how, in the age of the COVID-19 pandemic, everything antivax that was old is new again, Steve Kirsch is claiming that vaccine cause something like shaken baby syndrome, an old antivax trope used to exonerate baby killers. npub1rdjhkxhxmq2k2yu2r9gm9znacyely40v57fzdklhda3rqhgaqacsyp32mz David Gorski, MD, PhD NBC News aired a story on whole body MRI scans. Although it did include the usual cautions about false positives and their harms, the caution was undermined by the story's focus a rare case of a woman who had a brain tumor detected. npub1rdjhkxhxmq2k2yu2r9gm9znacyely40v57fzdklhda3rqhgaqacsyp32mz David Gorski, MD, PhD An interview by Jim Breuer with Kevin Hennings, who has stage IV colon cancer, that's gone viral reminds me that alternative cancer cure testimonials never change; only the cures do. Truly, febendazole is the new laetrile. npub1rdjhkxhxmq2k2yu2r9gm9znacyely40v57fzdklhda3rqhgaqacsyp32mz David Gorski, MD, PhD I love it when my university releases this list of words every year. Personally, I already use the word "dollop" fairly regularly, but I need to start calling annoying social media trolls "blatherskites." (Also, I am definitely pawky." 😂 npub1rdjhkxhxmq2k2yu2r9gm9znacyely40v57fzdklhda3rqhgaqacsyp32mz David Gorski, MD, PhD Conspiracy monger Stew Peters and Dr. Lee Merritt claim that all cancer is due to parasites. Everything old is new again, just stupider, and Hulda Clark's cancer quackery has been resurrected, just with a different "parasite." npub1rdjhkxhxmq2k2yu2r9gm9znacyely40v57fzdklhda3rqhgaqacsyp32mz David Gorski, MD, PhD Once again, Orac is depressed to discover that an oncologist and scientist whom he admired 30 years ago is now giving credence to the antivax myth that COVID-19 vaccines are causing an epidemic of "turbo cancer." npub1rdjhkxhxmq2k2yu2r9gm9znacyely40v57fzdklhda3rqhgaqacsyp32mz David Gorski, MD, PhD Quacks have long tried to portray themselves as “innovators” challenging an ossified medical consensus for the good of patients. This tradition continues among COVID-19 quacks, in particular the Frontline COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance and its founders. npub1rdjhkxhxmq2k2yu2r9gm9znacyely40v57fzdklhda3rqhgaqacsyp32mz David Gorski, MD, PhD Conspiracy theorists hate being called conspiracy theorists. After they try to rebrand themselves as "rational theorists," hilarity ensues. https://www.respectfulinsolence.com/2023/08/16/im-a-rational-theorist-not-a-conspiracy-theorist/ npub1rdjhkxhxmq2k2yu2r9gm9znacyely40v57fzdklhda3rqhgaqacsyp32mz David Gorski, MD, PhD Two decades ago, I cut my skeptical teeth countering advertising for whole body scans by companies making extravagant promises for their products. This particular medical fad faded for a while, but now it’s back with a vengeance…with AI! Looking at these products, what I see is basically the quackery that is functional medicine on steroids and powered by AI. https://www.respectfulinsolence.com/2023/07/17/whole-body-scans-back-from-the-grave-and-ready-to-party/ npub1rdjhkxhxmq2k2yu2r9gm9znacyely40v57fzdklhda3rqhgaqacsyp32mz David Gorski, MD, PhD Last week, Stew Peters Tweeted out a link to a study in which a mouse "died suddenly" of "turbo cancer" after being vaccinated with the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. This study is even more ridiculous than the usual "turbo cancer" study. https://www.respectfulinsolence.com/2023/07/12/a-mouse-died-suddenly-of-turbo-cancer-after-covid-19-vaccination/ npub1rdjhkxhxmq2k2yu2r9gm9znacyely40v57fzdklhda3rqhgaqacsyp32mz David Gorski, MD, PhD Once again, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has resurrected the deceptive antivax claim that most childhood #vaccines have never been tested in randomized controlled trials with #saline #placebo control to portray vaccines as unsafe (or at least as inadequately tested). https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/rfk-jr-resurrects-an-old-antivax-half-truth-about-saline-placebos-in-randomized-controlled-trials-of-vaccines
