It’s been a while since I’ve written about Paul Thacker, the formerly legitimate investigative journalist who squandered his reputation by going anti-GMO conspiracy theorist and taking to harassing scientists in the name of “transparency.” Basically, Thacker takes what is normally a good thing, skepticism and suspicion of the motives of large corporations, beyond reason to the realm of conspiracy. He then generalized that to big pharma, which led him to vaccines. Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit two and a half years ago, he’s predictably turned to attacking science communicators who promote vaccination as “vaccine cheerleaders.”
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Thacker has decided that it’s ideology and the belief that vaccines are so magic that you can never speak ill of them even in the slightest that is behind the criticism, a charge that he gets to after listing laudatory stories about his BMJ story, including the illustrious website ZeroHedge:
“However, I am not the only person caught up in the Great Vaccine Scare—hysteria about any and all vaccine criticism, which has reached a fever pitch during the pandemic. In the current social and political environment, you can disparage and heap scorn on products that go through the FDA approval process, if they are called pharmaceuticals or devices, but if you dare critique a vaccine you’re done—good night, and good luck.”
