I mean, I'm happy someone like @haiderwarraich for an op-ed about fake medical news, quackery, and antivax published in @nytimes, but the implication that no one in science is trying to combat this misinformation is quite simply not true. 2/
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In fact, there's a robust group of physicians, scientists, and science advocates out there doing what you think should be done. 3/
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The problem is that there are too few of us, and the mainstream media don't pay much attention to us. 4/
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Another problem is that speaking out against quackery and antivax has unpleasant and even potentially dangerous consequences. For instance, many of us have been harassed online and doxxed. 5/
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I personally have had antivaxers try to get me fired from my job and a cancer quack harass my cancer center director and dept. chair to try to get them to pressure me to shut up. Just this fall, an antivaxer threatened to sue me and my university over a blog post. 6/
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Several of my friends have been sued for libel for calling out quackery. I've had numerous legal threats over the years and now one actual lawsuit. 7/
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It's particularly bad for women or PoCs who speak out, because they get misogyny and racism, respectively, in their harassment by quacks. Some of us even get death threats. 8/
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So,
@haiderwarraich, if you want to know why more scientists and doctors don't fight this nonsense, just realize that even science education efforts, when they contradict quacks, are not without risk and possible painful consequences. 9/9Show this thread
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Yes ... and I refer to it often, when the naturopaths in my circle start sending me Mercola crap ... thank-you for making it so easy for me to counter their nonsense.
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I am an admirer and not my first foray either! In fact, one of my best headlines ever came from an article I wrote about
#vaccines for@TheAtlantic back in 2013!https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/07/what-jenny-mccarthy-and-the-taliban-have-in-common/278196/ …Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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