Firehosing: the systemic strategy that anti-vaxxers are using to spread misinformation | Lucky Tran

Anti-vaxxers keep telling the same obvious lies without shame, despite being debunked and factcheckedYet again a popular show is giving an anti-vaxxer a high-profile platform to spread lies and cause harm to an audience of millions. This time it ’s Bill Maherwho last week hosted Jay Gordon, a controversial doctor who peddles misinformation about vaccines and is best known for providing hundreds of personal belief exemptions for families to forgo school vaccine requirements.The 14-minute interview on Real Time with Bill Maher doubled down on all the dangerous views we ’ve heard before: highlighting discredited work on vaccines and autism, disingenuously labelling measles a benign illness, and questioning a vaccine schedule that has been proven safe and effective by decades of research.Continue reading...

Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - November 7, 2019 Category: Science Authors: Lucky Tran Tags: Vaccines and immunisation Health Health policy Science Politics Media Source Type: news