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Tag: disinformation

This pediatrician has a stark warning about the risks of ‘anti-science’

A pediatrician, author and co-inventor of a low-cost COVID-19 vaccine warns that the anti-vaccine movement has morphed into a political force that threatens the world’s gains against deadly childhood infections like measles.

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N.B. opposition slams changes in COVID‑19 reporting

New Brunswick opposition parties have accused the government of trying to downplay COVID-19 by changing the way it reports on the virus.

On Tuesday the province launched a new Respiratory Watch report, which provides updates on both COVID-19 and influenza. Among the changes is a new definition for COVID deaths that will see only deaths that occur in hospital counted.

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N.B. changes definitions of COVID deaths and hospitalizations, launches Respiratory Watch

New Brunswick has revamped the way it reports on COVID-19 again, including the launch of a new Respiratory Watch report that combines updates on both COVID-19 and influenza, and new definitions of COVID deaths and hospitalizations.

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Where Have All The Masks Gone? And Why Is The CDC Missing In Action?

The Biden administration has made a political choice—not a scientific or public health one—to downgrade the national response to COVID-19. Included in this is the reticence or outright avoidance of mentioning masking even as cases rise in the US. The CDC director, in talking about this late increase in COVID cases, bends over backward to mention hand-washing, but not N95s. Without question, N95s offer individuals protection against infection and leaving out that fact is a disservice and an abdication of duty.

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It’s Time to “Cancel” Covid Minimizing Doctors

“We’ve had enough Covid minimizing. We’re tired of hearing “no cause for alarm” every single time a wave begins. We’ve done this for three years now. Every single time, there was a desperate need to bring back masks and install proper clean air technologies in our public spaces. Every single time, Covid minimizing doctors got in the way and stalled progress. We’ve had enough of the media outlets who continue to platform them.”

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Hospitals are killing patients because they don’t feel like doing infection control

“Disabled, sick, immunocompromised and vulnerable people seeking care at a hospital, have the right not to be exposed to a virus that has killed 1.1 million Americans in 3.5 years. They have the right to seek care without having to fear that their care team will quite literally kill them with a preventable illness. Practitioners, on the other hand, have no right to compare the irritation of having to wear a mask at work with the moral injury of infecting vulnerable people who then go on to die at high rates.”

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Column: RFK Jr. gets around to blaming the Jews

It has been well noted that, whatever their starting points, conspiracy theorists sooner or later get around to blaming the Jews.

During a press dinner in New York last week, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is hoping to convert his portfolio of chuckleheaded conspiracy theories about COVID-19 and all sorts of other things into the semblance of a presidential campaign, went there last week.

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Don’t believe those who claim science proves masks don’t work

Masks have played a key role in keeping us all safe throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. At the start, masks helped flatten the curve to protect our hospital systems, and since, masks have helped make public spaces and essential services more open and accessible to everyone. Many studies show that masks work, and they work best when everyone wears a high-quality one to protect each other. Masks are magnificent.

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Yes, masks reduce the risk of spreading COVID, despite a review saying they don’t

There is strong and consistent evidence for the effectiveness of masks and (even more so) respirators in protecting against respiratory infections. Masks are an important protection against serious infections.

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Viral spread: Peter Hotez on the increase of anti-science aggression on social media

Last November, Twitter announced it will no longer enforce “the COVID-19 misleading information policy.” The platform also allowed previously banned users to rejoin the site. Since then, anti-vaccination messaging has gained renewed energy, distressing scientists and researchers who have been combatting misinformation and disinformation on social media.

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Anti-vaccine activism melded with US antisemitism – study

Because of rising anti-vaccine activism and some key global policy missteps, more than 70 years of global health gains are in danger of being eroded, according to a physician writing in the peer-reviewed Rambam Maimonides Medical Journal published by the Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa.

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Antisemitism surges during pandemic

“International Holocaust Remembrance Day is important to recognize, because it commemorates arguably the worst-case scenario for a liberal democracy,” declared Daniel Panneton, director of allyship and community engagement at the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies.

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Ten COVID Facts Health Officials Dangerously Downplay

Do not listen to powers that be who pretend that getting infected with COVID multiple times is now no big deal. They’re asking you to lower your guard for a nasty virus that can invade the brain, disregulate the immune system and damage the vascular system.

This strategy has led to predictable results — more direct deaths, more excess deaths, more disease and some 1.4 million Canadians reporting some form of long COVID over the last two years.

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How COVID Truthers Breathed New Life Into an Antisemitic Symbol

The widespread appropriation by COVID truthers of the yellow star that the Nazis forced Jews to wear is a sign that public displays of antisemitism have become normalised in modern Germany to an unthinkable degree, experts say.

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Anti-vaccine protest in Canada spurs outrage

In a scene at odds with Canadians’ reputation for niceness and rule-following, thousands of protesters railing against vaccine mandates and other COVID-19 restrictions descended on the capital over the weekend, deliberately blocking traffic around Parliament Hill.

Some urinated and parked on the National War Memorial. One danced on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. A number carried signs and flags with swastikas.

In the aftermath of Canada’s biggest pandemic protest to date, the demonstrators have found little sympathy in a country where more than 80% are vaccinated. Many people were outraged by some of the crude behavior.

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