Category Archives: Uncategorized

Joe Rogan and the problem of false balance

This is going to be a relatively short post because I only have one simple point that I want to make. Namely, “balance” does not mean presenting conspiracy theories and nonsense alongside facts as if they are equivalent. This is … Continue reading

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The “99% survive COVID” argument is deceptive and completely misses the point

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the argument that “99% of COVID patients survive” has been repeatedly used as an excuse to oppose public health measures including mask mandates, lockdowns, and, more recently, vaccines. It asserts that because COVID has a ~99% … Continue reading

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The problems with anti-vaccers’ precautionary principle arguments

Invoking the precautionary principle is a favorite tactic of anti-vaccers, anti-GMO activists, and various other groups that are prone to opposing scientific advances, but there are numerous issues with this strategy. The exact definition of the precautionary principle is a … Continue reading

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Facts: Why they matter and how to check them

We seem to be living in the golden age of misinformation, and while cognitive biases and motivated reasoning have always existed, they seem to have reached epidemic levels in recent years, with attacks on the very nature of facts coming … Continue reading

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Case-fatality rates don’t indicate how well a country contained COVID

Recently, I have been frequently seeing the argument that the USA has actually done a very good job at dealing with COVID because it’s case-fatality rate (i.e., the percentage of infected individuals that die from COVID) is lower than many … Continue reading

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