Interview - Jonathan Howard on Contrarian Doctors

Chris and Jonathan welcome back Dr. Jonathan Howard to talk about the doctors who repeatedly said the pandemic was ending and who became anti-vaccine in the process. When doctors become brands, narcissism can easily lead them and their fans astray, as these media figures chase an ever elusive limelight. Dr. Howard has been tracking their claims and predictions and brings the receipts.

 

(2:38) Dr. Vinay Prasad, pre-pandemic

(8:41) ZDoggMD, Marty Makary, and Vinay Prasad on vaccine boosters

(12:01) Paediatric COVID vaccines

(15:00) An appeal to civility on the one hand, mockery on the other

(16:56) Dr. John Ioannidis and basic math

(27:22) “You have to accept it”

(32:27) Classic anti-vaccine talking points

(36:10) “Where’s the RCT?”

(39:37) Jonathan Howard’s connection to the anti-vaccine movement

(41:53) Audience capture

(44:49) Charisma and credibility

(49:33) New York City denialism

(51:36) Ron DeSantis’ Vaccine Accountability Roundtable

(55:41) Self-reflection

 

A quick note on sound quality: the clicking sound on Dr. Howard’s end very quickly disappears. The rest of the audio is not up to our usual standards, and for this we apologize. Audio engineering is closer to magic than science, it seems.

 

* Theme music: “Fall of the Ocean Queen“ by Joseph Hackl.

 

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Links:

1) The ZDoggMD Show episode you hear at the beginning: https://youtu.be/cNcVCFLhbAs?t=42

2) Dr. Jonathan Howard’s articles on Science-Based Medicine: https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/author/jonathanhoward/

3) Dr. Jonathan Howard on Twitter: https://twitter.com/19joho