Measles is back, and, unfortunately, so are all the old antivax tropes about the disease and the vaccine. Same as it ever was.
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/measles-is-back-and-so-are-all-the-old-antivax-tropes-about-it/
David Gorski, MD, PhD
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!
Del Bigtree and and the MAHA Institute embrace being proudly antivax. I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so.
https://www.respectfulinsolence.com/2025/11/10/maha-its-antivax-mask-has-been-dropped/
As predicted, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has fired all the members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Watch him replace them with antivaxxers. I hope you're up to date on your vaccines.
https://www.respectfulinsolence.com/2025/06/10/rfk-jr-guts-acip-to-pack-it-with-antivaxxers/
Spoiler alert: The study will be positive. It will find an association between vaccines and autism, because that’s what RFK Jr. wants. He will make sure the investigators are chosen to produce this result. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-cdc-plans-study-into-vaccines-autism-sources-say-2025-03-07/
Make measles great again! https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/02/13/robert-kennedy-hhs-secretary-confirmation-vote/
After Donald Trump was elected President and even before RFK Jr. was nominated to be HHS Secretary, I characterized him as an “extinction-level threat” to public health. Here are my predictions for how RFK Jr. will work to make vaccines extinct in the US. https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/how-robert-f-kennedy-jr-will-undermine-and-ultimately-destroy-us-vaccination-programs/
I couldn't help but hear echoes last week of eugenics and social Darwinism in RFK Jr.'s press conference about autism and Dr. Oz's exhortation that it's our "patriotic duty" to take care of our body and stay healthy. https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/maha-and-soft-eugenics-revisited-the-autism-tsunami-dr-oz-and-your-patriotic-duty-to-stay-healthy/
Even as President Donald Trump is inaugurated today and his pick for HHS Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. prepares to face confirmation hearings, there is trouble in “make America healthy” paradise.
I hope you’re up to date on all your vaccines because the CDC schedule is about to start shedding vaccines the way antivaxxers on ACIP think that those vaccinated against COVID-19 shed spike protein. https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/rfk-jr-s-acip-bloodbath-i-hope-youre-all-up-to-date-on-your-vaccines/
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.
The Four Horseman of the Woo-pocalypse join President Trump to spread autism pseudoscience and quackery
On Monday, the Four Horsemen of the Woo-pocalypse joined President Trump to blame autism on acetaminophen use during pregnancy. They couldn’t resist adding antivax misinformation as well.
https://www.respectfulinsolence.com/2025/09/24/trump-rfk-acetaminophen-autism/
Given that Elle Macpherson runs a "wellness" business and several years ago dated Andrew Wakefield for a while, I'm not surprised that she eschewed (most) science-based treatment in favor of quackery to treat her breast cancer. (She did have surgery.) https://www.respectfulinsolence.com/2024/09/04/elle-macpherson-another-example-of-how-antivax-and-quackery-are-inseparable/
Donald Trump has been sworn in, and his new administration has immediately turned its sights on the NIH. The danger to US biomedical research has never been more acute. https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-attack-on-the-nih-has-begun/
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...
https://www.respectfulinsolence.com/2024/06/08/the-new-york-times-goes-all-in-on-lab-leak/
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.
Yesterday, Sen. Ron Johnson held a hearing, "Voices of the Vaccine-injured." As expected, the misinformation and conspiracy theories flowed.
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.
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.
https://www.respectfulinsolence.com/2024/06/10/covid-19-vaccine-skeptics-are-just-antivax-now/
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/
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?
