If they want "both sides" of a debate to have fair representation, then for every second an anti-vax conspiracy theorist gets to speak, actual scientists should have an hour. To represent the actual man-hours each side has put into researching their ideas.

Not a shocker at all. Debates arent really an intellectual exercise, they're more of a PT Barnum off.

It's just like the debate between Bill Nye and Ken Ham. Absolutely worthless as it gives "equal credence" to ridiculous claims.

Why is arguing with fools like playing chess with a pigeon? Because it doesn't matter how masterfully tutored you've been in the theory, how sound your thinking and strategy is, or how good you are at the game in general, the pigeon is always going to knock over the chess pieces, crap on the board and strut around like it won anyway.

Don’t give them a platform or any hint of validity

Science already has an established method for debating and refuting scientific findings/claims. So this idea that we need to make a spectacle out of it is so disingenuous on its face. "oh but if they know what they are talking about it would be easy to defend in a debate", but it goes the other way. Then they keep moving the goal posts on what qualifies as a "real" scientific test, and I just can't have a good faith conversation with these people. I'll correct people in real life, but the internet is a cesspool and I don't have the patience.