I Speak of Dreams

COVID-19 Vaccinations: "Allergic reaction" or A Vagal Response?

Let's talk about a common response to immunization: the vagal response. It's more than just fainting.

Causes

The vagal response involves your central nervous system, peripheral nervous system, and cardiovascular system. When the reflex is triggered it causes an abrupt drop in blood pressure and a sudden reduction in heart rate.

The blood vessels in your legs may widen, causing blood to pool in your legs. This can further drop your blood pressure.

All of these changes can result in less blood flowing to your brain and trigger sensations that make you feel as if you might faint. At its worst, the reflex can result in an actual brief loss of consciousness, a condition known as vasovagal syncope.

It is important to know that experiencing episodes in which you have symptoms caused by a vagal response does not necessarily mean that there is something wrong with you. It is thought that the reflex is universal.

Source: What Triggers the Vagal Response? https://www.verywellhealth.com/vasovagal-reflex-1945072

A note from a pediatrician friend, who was vaccinated a couple of days ago.

I got my first COVID19 vaccine and had a vagal light reaction to it (~10 min after I felt hot, nauseated, dizzy... Lasted 45 min). I'm fine. I wouldn't count it as a reaction.

There are also reports of Globus sensation (the feeling of having a lump in the throat when in fact there is nothing there. The sensation can come and go. It does not interfere with eating and drinking. The exact cause of globus sensation is uncertain. And headaches, racing heart, and similar. These may be anxiety symptoms.

But as I said, the symptoms quickly resolved. Even my arm pain was gone by 48 hours.

My concern is that lay people are going to claim that the vagal response to the COVID19 vaccine is an anaphylactic or allergic response, likewise the anxiety symptoms."

This was originally posted in the Facebook group,  Vaccine Talk: A Forum for Both Pro and Anti Vaxxers, and commenters had some excellent suggestions for managing vagal responses.

Commenter A: [My cardiologist] also taught me a cool trick......when I feel an onset (sounds like I'm underwater, black spots, warmth on back of my neck), cross my legs and squeeze hard for as long as I can. Then release. This restriction/release rushes the blood back up the body.

It works for me.

Commenter B:This is called the applied tension technique. Ever since I started doing this, I haven’t fainted once when doing blood draws! Tighten your leg and abdominal muscles. Prevents the blood from pooling in your legs

Commenter C:I get a vasovagal response when I think about things that make my body respond as if I'm in shock. To fight it, you have to contact your muscles all over your body rapidly like a football player running in place while squeezing your fists, etc.

This is a function called skeletal muscle milking that pumps your interstitial fluid. It has saved me from passing out many times. Also helps on long flights with little room for movement and it prevents your feet from swelling up from being idle.

Commenter D:Totally me when I get injections or when they draw blood. I almost fainted when I got my tattoo. I never thought there were so many people with this issue. We should start a club.

Feel free to share this with friends who are concerned about reports of "adverse reactions" to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines

What's In the US Flu Vaccine for 2020-2021? Hint: It's Not A "Low Strain of Covid"

I want to start off by stating the obvious. There is not yet a single vaccine approved for preventing COVID-19. There may not be any COVID-19 vaccines in commercial production yet, and it takes months to produce even an approved vaccine. 

That's an example of "prebunking": "research that shows it can be more effective to give people information about how to identify conspiracy theories or misinformation before they are exposed to it. This is a fantastic idea, and I love the fact that this is being done in coordination with research to show if it is effective."

In this COVID-19 epidemic, we have learned that people can be infected at second, or third, or fourth hand. The same is true for anti-vaccine myths.Somebody doesn't have to read or here the original wild claim to believe it and repeat it.

This is a story about how a wild, completely unfactual story posted on Facebook started affecting what decisions people are making about getting the flu vaccine for themselves and their children.

Influenza is a virus, but like many infectious viruses, it's not just one strain. It's a particularly protean (or promiscuous) virus, swapping around bits with abandon (this video,Three types of flu, from Khan Academy Medicine is from 2013, but still accurate and very informative. The lecturer is Rishi Desai, MD, MPH.  He also has one on how flu strains are named.)

So who decides which strains are included in each year's annual flu vaccine? Does somebody at CDC just sit down and guess? No. Back in 2018, Serese Marotta, Chief Operating Officer of Families Fighting Flu, wroe a great explainer on the complex, international process for identifying which strains to recommend for alternating "seasons" -- Northern Hemisphere, including the US, and the Southern Hemisphere. Marotta's explainer was posted at Vaccinate Your Family's blog, Shot of Prevention.

The very short version

• Throughout the year, dozens of flu monitoring centers around the world track and analyze virus samples. These are sent to the Collaborating Centers for Reference and Research on Influenza, which are part of the World Health Organization (W.H.O).
• In February of each year, W.H.O. issues recommendations for the strains to be included in Northern Hemisphere vaccines, and in September to recommend flu strains for the Southern Hemisphere.
• With respect to the US, an Food and Drug Administration's  Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC)  (a panel of experts) meets shortly after the W.H.O. recommendations are published, and makes the recommendations for the strains to included in that year's vaccine. This year the meeting was March 4, 2020. 
• Once the selected strains are announced, all the manufacturers start growing them, either in egg or cell cultures. Growing enough virus for the nation takes months.
• The next regulatory step is the approval of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (a volunteer panel of experts). ACIP does most of its work in subcommittees, called Work Groups, that meet virtually as needed. The Influenza Work Group is a permanent Work Group. The final report is typically issued in August.

People sometimes wonder why the annual flu vaccines can be approved so rapidly. Don't they change every year? The best analogy I have is cookies made with candy chips (you know, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, peppermint chips...). You might have your favorite recipe for the dough (one brand of flu vaccine), which is a little different than your neighbor's (another brand), and so on. The dough recipes don't change, but you can slot in whatever kind of chip you want: milk chocolate, dark chocolate, butterscotch.... all that changes, year to year, in flu vaccines (after the initial approval) is three or four strains of flu.

Here are the various strains that Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee recommended in March and the Advisory Committee on Immunization practices approved in August:

Image Source: https://www.fda.gov/vaccines-blood-biologics/lot-release/influenza-vaccine-2020-2021-season. Click to enlarge.

So what's different about this year? Well, since March (or January, if you are interested in epidemiology and emerging pandemic threats) it's been SARS Cov-2 (the virus) and COVID-19 (the disease) all the time. And the deep, deep desire for a vaccine, and and equally deep amount of anxiety about the safety and efficacy of the vaccine

Rumors and disinformation about  COVID-19, and the many vaccines in development,  have been swirling for months. This is not a surprise.  People have lost beloveds to this disease, people have suffered economically, people with school-age children have had their lives upended, the US  Federal government's  response has been catastrophically bad -- in short, people are anxious.  People are being flooded with information (good, bad, ambigous) that they lack the intellectual furniture to evaluate.

Even in a normal year, there's always a lot of flu vaccine hesitancy and refusal (why is a story for another time). This isn't a normal year, so I wasn't surpised to see this from a pediatrician I follow on social media

Image Source: https://twitter.com/greenhousemd/status/1316793539158835202

I got curious about this particular bit of misinformation, so I went looking.  On September 18, 2020, Reuters published Fact-check: The flu vaccine is not an untested COVID-19 vaccine

A post shared over 6,600 times on Facebook claims the children’s influenza vaccine is actually an untested COVID-19 vaccine. This is false.

Oops. Reuters failed Lakoff's "truth sandwich" approach

1. Start with the truth. The first frame gets the advantage.
2. Indicate the lie. Avoid amplifying the specific language if possible.
3. Return to the truth. Always repeat truths more than lies.

Sources: https://twitter.com/georgelakoff/status/1068891959882846208?lang=en and https://soundcloud.com/user-253479697/14-truth-sandwich-time

How Reuters might have more effectively have framed this story:

1. The only antigens present in this year's flu vaccines are influenza antigens for four different named strains of flu. Flu vaccine production starts in the spring. The CDC may encourage flu vaccine uptake, but has no power to compel physicians to administer them.
2. In a dramatic post on Facebook, a woman claimed that there were no flu antigens in this year's vaccine, just a "low strain of COVID", which the CDC is compelling doctors to give.
3. There are no COVID vaccines available outside of clinical trials.

Reuters helpfully linked to the woman's Facebook post, so here is her dramatic (and totally imaginary) recounting of her recent conversation with her child's pediantrician.

Text version

COVID PARENT WARNING ALERT

I had to take my son to the doctor for a ear ache this morning ... when we were done this was my conversation with the Pediatrician, NO JOKE!

Doctor : would you like the kids to get the flu shot

Me: (I was curious) what strain of the flu is it

Doctor: Covid but a very low strain of it

Me: No thanks.

Doctor: they are really pushing us to push parents to get the flu shots for kids.

Me: I’m not a fan of what’s going on in the world and I’m not giving my children a untested Covid flu shot.

Doctor: I am sure if you and I sat and talked we would have similar beliefs on what’s going on.

Me: then why are you pushing a vaccine that’s not tested or Barely tested

Doctor: Because they tell us to.

Me: who tells you?

Doctor: CDC

Wake 👏UP👏and 👏for all the is Holy DO 👏NOT 👏GIVE 👏your 👏children 👏a 👏Covid 👏vaccine!!

Anybody who has been following the antivaccine movement will recognize the overall shape of this urban legend.

• Woke Mom visits the doctor
• Woke Mom discovers a terrible hidden truth about some vaccine
• Woke Mom's doctor confides in Woke Mom that physicians are bribed or forced into concealing THE TRUTH
• Woke Mom tells all her friends
• Woke Mom gets all kinds of accolades and social capital for her discovery, and her "bravery" in spreading the truth

These elements get shuffled and reassorted, but the overall arc is the same

(By the way, there's another anti-vaccine urban myth shape, the "everybody claps")

• Woke mom visits the doctor
• Woke mom spreads "truth bomb"
• doctor "wakes up"
• doctor ceases to vaccinate
• everybody claps

Here are a few examples of the genre

and

It became such a common trope in antivaccine circles there were even playing cards

But, why would somebody tell such a lie? And why did this woman's obviously false story get traction?

It probably has to do with her backstory, and the way that the Qanon narrative has taken hold among young suburban mothers.

Here is her backstory, from her Facebook page

Good morning Facebook! The Smart Sex Podcast I recorded with Leslie Newby Gustafson will be released this Friday! I talk about abuse as a child, how I was lured into being trafficked, and how I was rescued and where I’m at now! I hope you all will tune in. I of course will post on here once it’s released!

Intro to Podcast:

Madyson is a former porn star who's choice led to her freedom being taken away. She was trafficked for almost a decade. Madyson has bravely spoken out about her time in the porn industry and how it altered her life, her choices and how she gained her voice and took her freedom back. Madyson was owned by Derek Hays from LA Direct models but not anymore.

Here's her website

And here's her book, My Father's Daughter. Several reviews suggest that the details recounted are completely fabricated, and that the woman has a history of fabricating wild tales for attention or for money. If true, that would explain why she fabricated the vaccine story as well.

But she seems to have a large and enthusiast following, especially for her stories of being trafficked as a minor. This is part of a "moral panic" that gripped the US in the summer of 2020

In "HOW QANON CONSPIRACY THEORIES SPREAD IN MY COLORADO HOMETOWN, During the pandemic, some of the people I grew up with got sucked into QAnon and the Q-adjacent “Save the Children” movement.

During the pandemic, some of the people I grew up with in Colorado had gotten sucked into QAnon, the sprawling and baseless pro-Trump conspiracy theory that is deemed a domestic terror threat by the FBI. I remembered them as perfectly reasonable people: some liberal, some conservative, but all frozen in my memory as intellectually curious. Now, online and from a distance, I was watching them change. Young, white suburban women, in particular, were falling for a Q-adjacent movement, “Save the Children,” which raises false fears about child sex trafficking through fabricated stories, pastel infographics, and hashtag campaigns.

In How #SaveTheChildren is pulling American moms into QAnon The hashtag, its links to conspiracy theories, and its implications for the election, explained.

Another article, with more details

.....But all share the same message: Child sex trafficking is out of control in the US and around the world, and no one is paying attention. And they end with the hashtag #SaveTheChildren.

The hashtag, which started to gain popularity this summer, seems hard to argue with. Ending human trafficking and protecting children, after all, are uncontroversial goals, barely even political.

But in reality, many say, QAnon adherents are trying, via the hashtag, to use the real issue of trafficking to spread their ideology — which includes the bizarre, untrue claim that liberals like Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Chrissy Teigen are all part of a vast pedophile ring. While such outlandish theories may not be palatable for many, more general fears about child sex trafficking are easier to get behind. And so social media posts about saving the children have, for some, become a way “to launder QAnon into the mainstream,” as Whitney Phillips, a professor of communication and rhetorical studies and co-author of the book You Are Here: A Field Guide for Navigating Polarized Speech, Conspiracy Theories, and Our Polluted Media Landscape, put it to Vox.

So now you know the origin of this completely unplausible story, and how and why it spread.

Vince Iannelli writes Vaxopedia, a huge collection of facts about vaccines, and debunkings of persistent vaccine myths. Here's his article debunking "the flu vaccine is really "Covid but a very low strain of it" myth.

I hope this post gives pediatricians, family medicine physicians, and other flu vaccine providers the ammunition they need to turn flu vaccine refusers into flu vaccine accepters. If any of them reading this wants a handbook, may I suggest Gretchen LaSalle's "Let's Talk Vaccines: A Clinician's Guide to Vaccine Hesitancy and Saving Lives.

Edited to add, October 25, 2020

Here are a few representative samples of Madyson Marquette's tweets

Malicious Misinformation Alert: These Are NOT the CDC Guidelines for Opening Schools

Seen this wandering through your social media channels? Here's what pediatrician Jane Macintyre has to say:

If you see this graphic, there are at least three things you need to know:

1. The CDC usually uses their logo, not clip art.
2. The CDC knows how to spell ‘guidelines’.
The CDC would say “only pre-packed boxes”, NOT “pre-packages boxes”.

Parents and guardians, here’s what you should know: here is the actual link to educate yourself and the rest of humanity: https://bit.ly/2LJFnXh

It clearly states

"Schools can determine, in collaboration with state and local health officials to the extent possible, whether and how to implement the guidelines or not.

I, Liz, think this clearly fake "CDC" infographic is from a certain faction in the "vaccines are dangerous" movement, to cause parents to fear and doubt the CDC. I have seen it spread by members of that faction.

The Special Kids' Advocacy Agency (in New York State) also had some things to say about the accuracy of this infographic

Leah Russin, co-founder of Vaccinate California, had more to say on the Vaccinate California twitter feed, summarized here:

Are you seeing a list of draconian-seeming CDC “guidelines” for opening schools circulating? Are people commenting that CDC is out of touch, that it’s never going to work, that they’d rather homeschool than send their kids to school like that?

Guess what: as far as I can tell, it was generated precisely to undermine confidence in the CDC. It is actually a distortion of the real guidelines, which are a collection of suggestions for ways to mitigate risks of exposure in schools for schools to consider, depending on what the actual risk of exposure is, and how feasible each measure is for individual age groups or communities. The earliest version I’ve seen is even formatted on a blue background very similar to the color CDC does actually use on its website, making it look like an actually CDC summary.

None of this is required nor is it even a complete or contextual representation of the CDC document, which you can read here:

Personally, I’d feel better sending my own child to school if as many exposure risks are mitigated as feasible. Plexiglass dividers at group tables allowing kids to see and talk to each other, but not sneeze on each other? Sounds great! But some parents can’t envision how that would work, and it seems absurd or scary.

An example of how the list mischaracterizes the source document: masks and young kids.

The CDC document says — masks are one thing you can consider to mitigate risk of transmission, and it would be a challenge for young children, and you shouldn’t even consider it for children under two. The version circulation disingenuously reframed that to say masks should be required for all children over two.

Judy Mikovits: Not a Reliable Source of Information on COVID19, Vaccines, Or Anything in Science

On April 14, 2020, Judy Mikovits and her co-author (or ghostwriter) Kent Heckenlively published a little-noticed book,Plague of Corruption: Restoring Faith in the Promise of Science, which was sponsored by the gruesomely named "Children’s Health Defense" -- Robert F. Kennedy jr's organization for attacking public health, specifically vaccines. It was a follow-up to their previous book, published in 2014: Plague: One Scientist's Intrepid Search for the Truth about Human Retroviruses and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), Autism, and Other Diseases.
 

Mikovits sprang into prominence in the fall of 2009, claiming to find an infectious retrovirus, XMRV, in the blood of patients suffering Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. The fame turned to notoriety when the paper was retracted, Mikovits was fired, and then Mikovits was arrested for theft. Respectful Insolence has all the twists and turns in the Mikovits saga in detail

Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19815723?fbclid=IwAR3JgfEIQ7IzpVGjV-16AOZ5uhMgUm-N7tDl_TmAn0XZqjsxrlqcO8yqoxQ

Failure to confirm XMRV/MLVs in the blood of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome: a multi-laboratory study.

Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3299483/

November 19, 2011:

Source: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2011/11/controversial-cfs-researcher-arrested-and-jailed?fbclid=IwAR0g6Pg5i6tWFErgksc1Mx7Z8CA4tz1Yx5kSnH_02OZVOxB89ePPAp4z2dY

Mikovits has been working with a filmmaker, Mikki Willis, whose previous output is about being "socially conscious". On May 4 or 5 (I have seen both dates) Willis released a 26 minute segment on his next film, "Plandemic", featuring an interview with Mikovits. The film was widely shared. The reaction from the science-literate segment of the population was not positive.

New to me as of May 8, 2020 10:30 pm, PDT: A transcript. Caveat: I haven't listened to the film with the transcript in hand. https://medium.com/@good_scribe/readable-transcript-plandemic-part-1-82ffdd72f5ab

Rebuttals to the Plandemic video

Note: I will be silently adding articles as I find them

Undated: Science Feedback: “Plandemic” vignette featuring anti-vaccination activist Judy Mikovits contains numerous false and unsupported claims about COVID-19

This video is the first in a series of vignettes preceding a movie titled “Plandemic”. First published on 5 May 2020, it quickly went viral on Facebook, with more than 2.2 million views on the platform to date. Produced by Mikki Willis, it features an interview with Judy Mikovits, former research director of the Whittemore Peterson Institute (WPI), a medical research institute at the University of Nevada, who was terminated in 2011 over questions about the integrity of her work. In the video, Mikovits makes numerous inaccurate and unsupported claims about the origins of the 2019 novel coronavirus, vaccines, and the treatment and prevention of COVID-19.

Undated: "Anastaisa Beaverhausen": Plandemic Documentary: The Hidden Agenda Behind Covid-19 #DEBUNKED!!

Undated: James F. Chaffee, Jr., an Emergency Management & Homeland Security expert, with Debunking “Plandemic”. It is an exhaustive, detailed, critical breakdown of all the false information contained within the documentary, with sources.

Judy Mikovits claims to not be anti-vaccine but she has published several anti-vaccine books (“Plague of Corruption” and “Plague”) and is a celebrity to the anti-vaccine movement. Even her publisher admits that they are an anti-vaccine publishing company. She is commonly featured on conspiracy websites like InfoWars and Natural News as being someone who believes vaccines cause autism. She has also co-authored books with “vaccines cause autism” advocate Kent Heckenlively and the foreward in her book “Plague of Corruption” is written by notorious anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

May 5, 2020: Jennifer L Kasten, MD, MSc, MSc, on her Facebook page. Dr. Kasten addresses each of Mikovits's claims, and shows why they are wrong. For example:

Re: vaccines contaminated with mouse viruses which have been dormant for years and are the real cause of COVID: there is no evidence for any of this whatsoever. For starters, vaccines for viruses are not developed in mice for mass production: some are grown in eggs / chick embryos, and others are grown in the Vero cells mentioned above. If any of Mikovits' claims were true, we might see monkey or chicken viral contaminants- but we don't.

May 6, 2020: Retraction Watch Who Is Judy Mikovits?

A hint of things to come also appeared in 2014, when Mikovits spoke at Autism One, an annual conference that typically features discussions of how vaccines cause autism and that was co-founded by her co-author Kent Heckenlively. Her talk: “Environmental Causes of Autism: Investigate If You Dare,” included a slide titled: “The best scientist in jail story since Galileo.”

She and Heckenlively published “Plague of Corruption: Restoring Faith in the Promise of Science” last month. She has taken to the airwaves to promote the book — and “Plandemic,” a video since removed from YouTube — and air her grievances against Fauci, which appear groundless

May 6, 2020: Orac at Respectful Insolence: Judy Mikovits in Plandemic: An antivax conspiracy theorist becomes a COVID-19 grifter

It is exactly why people are prone to conspiracy theories. A good conspiracy theory turns the believer into a hero, a warrior with secret knowledge that none of the other ignorant “sheeple” know, against powerful forces arrayed against him. A good conspiracy theory almost always has a part at the end in which the “people” (in this case, the people believing the conspiracy theory) “wake up” and see what is being “suppressed” by the powerful forces seeking to keep them ignorant. Conspiracy theories like this both make the believer feel special and brave for having secret knowledge and fighting to make it public, but also provide an explanation for bad things happening in the world. Yes, the conspiracy theory in Plandemic is utterly ridiculous to those of us who know science, medicine, and history, but most people don’t know the relevant science, medicine, and history. To them, it sounds plausible.

May 6, 2020: Derek Beres at Big Think: The anti-vaxx agenda of 'The Plandemic'

Below are seven instances that display how conspiracy theories are baked into "The Plandemic." To borrow from Mike Godwin, perhaps Beres' law is number eight: "As an online discussion about vaccines grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Bill Gates approaches 1." Because obviously, he's in there too.

May 6, 2020 Artin Massihi MD and his boss, Dan Erickson, object to clips from their video being used in Plandemic

May 6, 2020 Jeff Holiday on YouTube: Why The PLANDEMIC is Manufactured NONSENSE Mr. Holiday (see his Vaxxed rebuttals) plays the video, pausing to refute each inaccurate claim

May 6, 2020: Zubin Damania, AKA Zdogg MD, on YouTube: A Doctor Reacts To “Plandemic" and at MedPaage Today.

Really, you guys, like we don't have other things to worry about than a crazy attention-seeking person who is using this crisis to capitalize here? She's been at this for years. Go back. Go back. She's on Natural News and all the anti-vaccine sites. People say, "Oh, I'm just attacking her credibility and using ad hominems." Yeah, you should look at the credibility of the people who are trying to convince you that they're right when they don't have any science to prove it. Then you look at the credibility and you look at the people that they're associating with and they're citing, and you realize they are all non-credible lunatics.

May 6, 2020: Ross Grayson on Facebook

Ok, so the latest dumbass video that is going around that "PROVES EVERYTHING" (no it doesn't...) is "Plandemic". I will NOT link it here, but I will provide all the current information about why it is NOT valid. Starting with the background on the key interviewee, as summarized here:

May 6, 2020: Kat Montgomery, MD on Facebook This is a thorough and point-by-point debunking, including items I haven't seen elsewhere, such as:

She states that Ebola could not infect humans until it was engineered to do so in her laboratory. This is false. (Here is an article describing an outbreak of Ebola in 1976, long before Dr. Mikovits was conducting research: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27357339?fbclid=IwAR0YRnwI0r_qrSMPuCTrm6Ol4lNvzMIx782RhFMJgtfWGH1ubI6x4N-NQrk

May 6, 2020: Chad Finley at his Facebook page. Mr. Findley is a pharmaceutical lawyer, and goes into Mikovits's allegations in detail. This bit was one I hadn't seen explained so clearly before:

She was not under a “gag order.” She was under a temporary restraining order (“TRO”) and Protective Order. These are very common. The TRO was for her to preserve evidence, meaning she couldn’t destroy the lab notebooks or delete anything from her computer. Protective Orders are common in litigation and essentially say that anything produced to the other side in litigation is protected and cannot be publicly shared. In litigation sensitive information has to be shared, including unpublished data, trade secrets, pending business deals, etc. I don’t always agree with Protective Orders and I often wish I could share some of the horrible information we have gleaned from our lawsuits. But the bottom line is she wasn’t under a gag order. She could and did discuss the facts publicly. And for anything “confidential” she could still use them in Court filings.

May 6, 2020: Angela Moller, a microbiologist, at her Facebook page, went through Mikovits's claims and refuted them.

6. There is also no scientific merit to her statement that you can reinfect yourself by wearing a mask if you have COVID-19. You're already infected- it's replicating inside your body. Your immune system is dealing with it. Breathing your own air won't make it worse.

May 7, 2020: Steven Novella MD at Neurologica Skeptical of Plandemic

The video features Dr. Judy Mikovits, and is basically an interview with her. Unfortunately this is a slick piece of utter nonsense and conspiracy mongering. Mikovits has zero credibility in any of her claims, but they are combined with music and clips of videos to create the impression that there is some reality behind her outrageous claims. Let me focus on a few claims to show how low her and the filmmaker’s credibility are.

In her introduction the narrator states that she authors a study in Science that “sent shockwaves through the scientific community” because it showed that fetal and animal tissue in vaccines was causing an epidemic of chronic illness. This is straight up lie, but that is the narrative of this video – that she is a courageous fighter going against the establishment, which is killing people for profit and trying to destroy her for calling them out.

May 7, 2020: Karen Ernst at The Vaccine Blog: Plandemic? Nope.

Dr. Mikovits was never important enough to launch a large-scale conspiracy against. That’s no knock against her; it’s just that she’s not Martin Luther King, Jr. or Galileo. Before her research into Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, she was never the primary researcher on a topic. When her CFS research, claiming that viruses caused the syndrome, was retracted, ten other studies had failed to replicate her findings and scientists came to the conclusion that she only found the viruses present because she (likely unintentionally) contaminated her own samples. Finally, her arrest was not part of the conspiracy against her, but was instead due to her stealing intellectual property from her former employer after she was fired.

Even though these claims cover half the video, they do not touch on public health claims. So let’s answer some of those concerns about COVID19 pandemic vs. PLANdemic.

May 7, 2020: Reddit thread: Where can I find a good rebuttal to "Plandemic"?

May 7, 2020: Brandy Zadrozny and Ben Collins, NBC News: As '#Plandemic' goes viral, those targeted by discredited scientist's crusade warn of 'dangerous' claims. Initially pushed by anti-vaccination disinformation peddlers, the video was then promoted by minor celebrities.

Conspiracies crossing over to the mainstream can come with serious consequences, especially in relation to vaccines, according to David Broniatowski, an associate professor who studies weaponized health communication at George Washington University’s Institute for Data, Democracy and Politics.

He said the video of Mikovits was able to unite various groups that often traffic in health misinformation.

May 7, 2020: Jane Lytvynenko at Buzzfeed: The "Plandemic" Video Has Exploded Online — And It Is Filled With Falsehoods

“Now, as the fate of nations hang in the balance, Dr. Mikovits is naming names of those behind the plague of corruption that places all human life in danger,” says the narrator of the 30-minute video, in which Mikovits falsely claims that masks can make wearers sick, that sand from the beach can build up coronavirus immunity, and that as-yet-uninvented vaccines for the virus that has killed at least 75,000 people in the US are dangerous......Produced by a company called Elevate, "The Plandemic" deftly weaves together several strands of rumors that have circulated since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, doing so with high production values and a sheen of unearned authority.

May 7, 2020: Lisa Keys, PhD on her Facebook page<

Judy Mikovitz briefly worked at UNR as head of the Whittemore Peterson Institute while I was in graduate school there. She was one of my PhD committee members and our lab even worked on a joint project with her briefly. I will not go into all the details since this will already be a small novel, but I worked specifically on that “blockbuster” project. You might notice my name is not on that retracted paper. That is because I made the decision to STOP working on the project and made sure to not have my name associated with any of her work.

My time/experience with Judy involved her project working on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, in which she believed she had identified a novel virus that caused the syndrome. Long story short, this was found to be a contamination in samples. However, she never accepted this and instead made sure the data to fit her hypothesis (and grant funding) and published anyway. The damage was only compounded by her own lack of ethics and soon multiple labs across the country noticed major discrepancies (such as data presented at one meeting showing a “positive result” then being published in a paper as a “negative” result).

May 7, 2020: Annie Reneau at Upworthy: That 'Plandemic' conspiracy video has been thoroughly debunked, people. Stop pushing it on us.

Bottom line: The video is bunk, but conspiracy theorists will keep on insisting that it's not. (Wake up! You're all sheep following the mainstream media! Experts who provide data backed up by multiple peer-reviewed studies can't be trusted! Individual doctors and scientists are more trustworthy than professional associations of thousands of doctors and scientists! Everyone is getting paid off, except these conspiracy theory pushers because I trust them because they say they're being persecuted by the science community for no reason and that sounds totally legit! And maybe the earth really IS flat—scientists have been wrong before!)

May 7, 2020: Allison Ruark at her Facebook page

I feel like all I really need to know about her is that she is a former researcher (yes, I mean former) who knowingly falsified data. In my mind this is a level of malpractice akin to a doctor knowingly performing the wrong surgery on a patient or a hedge fund manager knowingly misleading investors, and disqualifies her from being considered a credible researcher/scientist or speaking as an expert in the current pandemic. Also, for the record, she is NOT a well-known HIV researcher who has "revolutionized" the field, as Plandemic claims. I've been working in HIV/AIDS since the mid 2000s and have attended more HIV conferences than I can remember and have never heard of her. (Any HIV colleagues who want to chime in here, I'd be interested in your take.)

May 7, 2020: Jay Sizemore at Medium Plandemic:Debunked.Stop Sharing Propaganda and Misinformation

The person who made this movie is not exactly credible either. Mikki Willis has made quite a few questionable “documentaries.” In one of them, he concludes that a filmmaker named Daniel Northcott contracted leukemia and died due to finding a cursed Mayan bone…

Luckily for you, I’ve watched this 30 minute video so you don’t have to. Allow me to walk you through the claims it makes, and why they are blatantly incorrect and dangerous:

May 7, 2020 Daniel Funke at PolitiFact: Fact-checking ‘Plandemic’: A documentary full of false conspiracy theories about the coronavirus</p>

‘I was held in jail with no charges’

This is inaccurate spin about Mikovits’ past legal problems. She was charged in 2011 with stealing computer data and related property from her former employer.

The Whittemore Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease in Reno, Nevada, fired Mikovits in September 2011 as research director after her study linking a mouse retrovirus to chronic fatigue syndrome was discredited and retracted by Science, a prestigious peer-reviewed journal. In November 2011, the district attorney in Washoe County, Nevada, filed a criminal complaint against Mikovits for allegedly stealing computer data, notebooks and other property from the institute.

May 7, 2020: Yashika Sharma writing at Republic World: Fact Check: Is The 'Plandemic' Documentary True? Claims From The Video Debunked

Dr Judy Mikovits' 'anti-vaccination' agenda as per news sources

Judy claims that she is not an 'anti-vaxxer' i.e., a person who is against vaccination, when she was asked about it by Mikki Wilkis. While she claims that she is not such, many of her works are either co-authored by or also related to well-known anti-vaxxers. As per an article on a news site, the book that she has published, Plague of Corruption, is through Skyhorse Publishing, which is known for its anti-vaxxer agenda. The co-author of the book is Kent Heckenlively and the foreword is given by Robert F. Kennedy, who is a leader in the anti-vaxx movement.

May 7, 2020 Taylor Hatmaker at TechCrunch Platforms scramble as ‘Plandemic’ conspiracy video spreads misinformation like wildfire

Mikovits, who in the video states that she’s not opposed to vaccines, later goes on to make the claim that vaccines have killed millions of people. “The game is to prevent the therapies ‘til everyone is infected and push the vaccines, knowing that the flu vaccines increase the odds… of getting COVID-19,” Mikovits says, conspiratorially. At the same time, she suggests that doctors and health facilities are incentivized to overcount COVID-19 cases for the medicare payouts, an assertion that contradicts the expert consensus that coronavirus cases are likely still being meaningfully undercounted.

May 7, 2020 Sascha Primeau at Facebook: A Response to Plandemic: Lies and Deceptions. Ms. Primeau watched the video and debunks claims point by point.

· Now we jump to autism and another supposed blocking of a drug. Not sure how that relates to COVID-19? Also, didn’t know she researched autism. No publications by her about autism https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Mikovits%2C+JA+and+autism or suramin, a drug that she mentions. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=mikovits%2C+JA+and+suramin. She goes on to say that suramin has been taken away by the drug companies and they tried to get it, but they can’t. We don’t know who “they” is, as they never tell us. But, suramin is a treatment for African sleeping sickness and river blindness. So the drug exists. And there is apparently a small, randomized clinical trial ongoing at UC San Diego on suramin and treating the symptoms of autism. https://health.ucsd.edu/news/topics/suramin-autism/pages/default.aspx. But it is not FDA-approved, so people can’t just use it--that doesn’t mean that the drug companies “took it away” or are blocking it from being used. It means that it has to be shown to be safe and effective through clinical trials first, as all drugs must do. Not to mention the ethical issues surrounding the idea that autism is something that needs to be treated.

May 7, 2020. Stefan Richter MD on Facebook

-About MDs being incentivized to report coronavirus cases (from a prior comment of mine): This is a common conspiracy theory. People who claim physicians are over-reporting deaths typically point to the (true) fact that hospitals get paid a bonus for Covid patients, so there's a financial incentive for claiming that a person died from Covid. This has a few major holes in it:

1) Falsifying a medical record is illegal, hospitals get audited by CMS (Medicare) all the time to make sure the charts are accurate, and there are huge fines for lying.

2) Hospitals do get paid extra, but physicians don't, which is something people seem not to understand. This theory assumes that physicians are willing to put themselves at legal risk for the sake of a hospital (we almost always aren't).

3) There's a huge list of conditions that allow hospitals to get paid more for admissions - low sodium, malnutrition, diabetes, etc. We don't lie about these conditions either, because of 1 and 2 above.

4) The extra money for Covid patients is for medical notes, not death certificates. This is a subtle distinction to people outside the medical field, but putting a cause of death on a certificate is a separate process from documenting in a note, and falsifying those is ALSO illegal.

May 7, 2020, updated May 8, 2020 Will Sommer at the Daily Beast Discredited Doctor and Sham ‘Science’ Are the Stars of Viral Coronavirus Documentary ‘Plandemic’

YouTube banned the video on Wednesday, saying in a statement to The Daily Beast that it violated the site’s rules on COVID-19. On Thursday, Facebook followed suit and banned “Plandemic” over Mikovits’s claim that masks somehow spread the virus.

“Suggesting that wearing a mask can make you sick could lead to imminent harm, so we're removing the video,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement.

May 7, 2020 Ruth Reader at Fast Company: The ‘Plandemic’ video is a dangerous mashup of COVID-19 conspiracies

Joe Ondrak, a researcher at U.K.-based fact-checking organization Logically who has been following a variety of conspiracy theories related to COVID-19, says that fringe groups have been pushing Mikovits’s story for several weeks. “The plandemic hashtag has been around since last month,” he says.

May 7, 2020 Alex Kaplan at Media Matters: A coronavirus conspiracy theory film attacking vaccines has racked up million of views and engagements on YouTube and Facebook

A review by Media Matters found dozens of reuploads of the film in addition to Willis’ original upload on May 4 (including one from a major supporter of the QAnon conspiracy theory), resulting in more than 9 million views combined (which includes videos still up and those since taken down). The high view count was achieved despite YouTube continuing to take down reuploads of the video for violating its Community Guidelines. Some of the reuploads have received hundreds of thousands of views on their own.

May 7, 2020, Jennifer Brenton MD at Medium: The Misadventure of Plandemic and Dr. Judy Mikovits

My Verdict:

After extensive research, including pulling up the papers she mentions in the video …

1) I found Dr. Judy Mikovits’s biographical information in the film severely embellished,

2) I found Judy’s best-known research at worst fraudulent — at best incompetent — and

3) I found that evidence-based medicine does not support her warnings and claims about COVID-19.

May 7, 2020 "Sherlock Beaver" on Reddit: Plandemic Documentary debunked (with helpful timestamps).

READ THROUGH THE COMMENTS FIRST so many of your questions have already been addressed and several contemporaries of Dr. Mikovits' at UNR (where WPI is) have contributed their own experience, as have other great investigators who caught even more misinformation in this video than I address here. The comments here are where there is more gold. Thank you.

May 8, 2020 Alex Mahadevan at Poynter: Fact-checking ‘Plandemic,’ a documentary full of false conspiracy theories about the coronavirus

The video is a deep dive into conspiracy theories about COVID-19, public health and the pharmaceutical industry. It discusses Dr. Anthony Fauci’s efforts to combat the AIDS epidemic during the 1980s and Bill Gates’ support of vaccination efforts around the world.

May 7, 2020 Jessie Hawkins, PhD and Christy Hires, MPH at Franklin School of Integrative Health Sciences. This is a detailed, 3-part, point-by-point rebuttal of the claims made in the film. Fact-Checking "Plandemic" [Part 1]

Finally, keep in mind that the film bounces around on a timeline, often convoluting different phases of her career. It begins by discussing her work pre-PhD in the 80s, then leaps to her work in the 2000s. If we take this and put it back into a timeline perspective, we see that she worked as a lab tech in the 80s, achieved a PhD in the early 90s, her career ended in 2001, and she moved to California. She was working as a bartender in 2006 when she was recruited for the work related to her arrest. We don't typically find someone working in a completely unrelated career if they were thriving as one of the most accomplished individuals in their first career.

May 7, 2020 Jessie Hawkins, PhD and Christy Hires, MPH at Franklin School of Integrative Health Sciences: Fact-Checking "Plandemic" [Part 2]

[Judy Mikovits claims] 23. “There is no vaccine currently on the schedule for any RNA virus that works”

Oh. This is awkward. I’d like to introduce you to the flu, measles, polio, and Hep A, all of which are RNA viruses with vaccines.

May 7, 2020 Jessie Hawkins, PhD and Christy Hires, MPH at Franklin School of Integrative Health Sciences: Fact-Checking "Plandemic" [Part 3]

50a. “...so if you’ve ever had a flu vaccine, you were injected with coronaviruses”

Aside from this being immediately deemed false because its premise is false (see above), the implication is that the flu vaccine injects humans with all viruses contained in dogs. This is an outlandish distortion of the role of animal cells in vaccine production.

To begin, there are different types of flu vaccine; they can’t all be grouped together. Most influenza viruses for vaccines are grown in hen’s eggs. Only a few come from canine cell lines. Furthermore, the use of a cell line is not at all the same as injecting someone with the cell lines. Nobody is being injected with coronaviruses. Finally, coronaviruses are not interchangeable; canine viruses are completely unrelated to COVID-19.

May 7, 2020 Jessica McBride at Heavy: ‘Plandemic’ Movie: Fact-Checking the New COVID-19 Video

Claim: An Activist Named Larry Kramer Harshly Criticized Fauci for His Handling of HIV/AIDS

What the Plandemic video leaves out? The Times says that Kramer and Fauci “developed a grudging friendship, and Dr. Fauci helped get Mr. Kramer into a lifesaving experimental drug trial after Mr. Kramer had a liver transplant.”

Kramer told the Times of Fauci: “We are friends again. I’m feeling sorry for how he’s being treated. I emailed him this, but his one line answer was, ‘Hunker down.’” In addition, the New Yorker notes that Fauci “did not control the drug-approval process” for HIV/AIDS but does note “he was seen as a barrier to opening access to clinical trials.”....

Thus, the Plandemic video highlights the worst information regarding Fauci while omitting mitigating and contextual points.

May 8, 2020: Tara Haelle at Forbes: Why It’s Important To Push Back On ‘Plandemic’—And How To Do It

The video looks, sounds and feels like a documentary even though it isn’t

Plandemic is part of a disturbingly successful trend in which deep-pocketed purveyors of pseudoscience produce slick, professional videos as credible-appearing documentaries. The lighting, narrative structure, the pacing, use of imagery, camera angles, editing techniques—these are all common documentary filmmaking conventions that we’ve come to associate with factual information.

The people producing this video know what they’re doing, and they’re very good at it. On a subconscious level, no matter what words are being said, this video feels factual simply because of how it was produced. It’s intentionally manipulative. It’s a textbook example of effective propaganda. (That’s the line. Next is the sinker.)

May 8, 2020 Beth Skwarecki at Lifehacker: If You Found That ‘Plandemic’ Video Convincing, Read This Too</p>

The biggest truth that I think this video touches on is that we, the public, have heard confusing and conflicting messages about this pandemic. We are living through something truly unprecedented, and a lot of things about it don’t make sense. That’s unavoidable—it’s truly a new thing on this earth. But it also makes us long for certainty, and no one can be blamed for wanting to seek out clear messages.</p

But as we’ve discussed here before, the real experts discuss the uncertainty of the facts about our situation. Nobody alive today can possibly have 100% of the answers, so we should remain skeptical of anybody who says they can explain it all.

May 8, 2020: Martin Enserink and Jon Cohen at Science: Fact-checking Judy Mikovits, the controversial virologist attacking Anthony Fauci in a viral conspiracy video

Mikovits also accuses Anthony Fauci, head of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and a prominent member of the White House’s Coronavirus Task Force, of being responsible for the deaths of millions during the early years of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The video claims Mikovits was part of the team that discovered HIV, revolutionized HIV treatment, and was jailed without charges for her scientific positions.

Science fact-checked the video. None of these claims are true. The video is an excerpt from a forthcoming movie Plandemic, which promises to “expose the scientific and political elite who run the scam that is our global health system.” YouTube, Facebook, and other platforms have taken down the video because of inaccuracies. It keeps resurfacing, including on the Plandemic website, which, in “an effort to bypass the gatekeepers of free speech,” invites people to download the video and repost it.

May 8, 2020 Scott Neuman at NPR: Seen 'Plandemic'? We Take A Close Look At The Viral Conspiracy Video's Claims

In an article originally published in 2018, Snopes reported on a claim by Mikovits that Fauci sent an email that "threatened her with arrest if she visited the National Institutes of Health to participate in a study to validate her chronic fatigue research."

"I have no idea what she is talking about. I can categorically state that I have never sent such an e-mail," Fauci told the fact-checking website. "I would never make such a statement in an e-mail that anyone 'would be immediately arrested' if they stepped foot on NIH property."

May 8, 2020 Angelo Fichera, Saranac Hale Spencer, D'Angelo Gore, Lori Robertson and Eugene Kiely at FactCheck: The Falsehoods of the ‘Plandemic’ Video

In the sections below, we break down eight of the false, misleading and unfounded claims aired in “Plandemic."

Unfounded Attacks on Fauci

Scientists: Novel Coronavirus Not ‘Manipulated’

Misleading Claim on Wuhan Lab Funding

Flu Vaccines Don’t Contain Coronaviruses

No Evidence Flu Shot Increases Risk of COVID-19

Hydroxychloroquine: Unproven COVID-19 Therapy

Wrong Message on Masks

False Suggestion About Ebola

May 8,2020 Anna Merlan at Vice: 'Plandemic' Is Dangerous, Viral Nonsense. A pseudo-documentary full of outrageous, verifiably false claims is still going viral, despite being repeatedly removed from YouTube and Facebook.

The volume of nonsense and revisionist history in the clip is truly, profoundly exhausting—which makes its virality depressing. And while the claims made in the video are incoherent, the underlying point is pretty clear: The fear and panic over COVID-19 are part of a larger plot of oppression and enslavement, with Fauci at its head. It’s classic conspiracy theorizing, wrapped in a slightly contemporary packaging.

May 8, 2020 Ashley Alker MD on Twitter Plandemic Rebuttal

May 8,2020: Greg Fish at Rantt Media: Debunking “Plandemic,” The Coronavirus Conspiracy Video. The viral conspiracy video "Plandemic" spreads anti-vaccine lies, false coronavirus claims, smears Dr. Fauci, and fabricates Dr. Judy Mikovits' record.

One of their latest and most talked about efforts is the very professionally produced conspiracy series Plandemic, which takes all the greatest hits of the anti-vaccine movement and dials them to eleven before ripping the knob off in invoking COVID-19 because that’s the crisis on which all of us are currently focused. Its main allegation? That the pandemic which has us sheltering in place is a bioweapon designed to scare us into getting vaccinated by amoral billionaires using vaccines as a way to keep us sick and dependent on the evils of science-based medicine.

In short, it’s the anti-vaxxer version of screaming fire in a crowded theater, blocking the exits, then saying “now that I’ve got your attention, you have to look at my pamphlet” with references to the coronavirus hastily scribbled in at the margins. The minute you strip away the tie in to the hottest disease of the year, Plandemic’s allegations are just well worn and long-debunked tropes, and its creator, Mikki Willis, is downright beaming with pride that it’s been removed from Facebook and YouTube for spreading dangerous misinformation, claiming that the very sinister elites trying to vaccinate us into sickness are just scared their nefarious plots are being exposed.

p>May 8, 2020 N'dea Yancey-Bragg and Joel Shannon at USA Today: Claim in viral 'Plandemic' video 'could lead to imminent harm,' Facebook says

'Plandemic' is a viral video spreading misinformation</>

USA TODAY has rated the claim that face masks weaken the immune system as false.

Wearing a face mask can lessen the spread of the coronavirus from a sick person to a healthy individual, according the The Mayo Clinic. Masks are also suggested for people caring for someone with COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. Risks associated with wearing face masks only apply to a select few in the general population.

May 8, 2020, Jason Puckett (TEGNA), David Tregde, and Terry Spry Jr. at VERIFY: The 'Plandemic' documentary is full of misinformation Much of the information in the video that spread like wildfire on social media was presented without evidence or was demonstrably false.

After thoroughly digging into the video, the VERIFY team is labeling “Plandemic” as disinformation.

It’s filled with false information presented by sources that aren't credible, and trying to push a narrative.Let’s break it down.

May 8, 2020 Katherine Mac at her Facebook page: a detailed, point-by-point rebuttal.

• They show Nepute again at the end and of course he says "And I’m blown away why there are not more doctors like me talking about this all over the place. "

KM: He literally not a medical doctor. He's a chiropractor trying to sell his woo nutritional pack from his wellness center.

May 9, 2020 Marshall Allen at ProPublica: I’m an Investigative Journalist. These Are the Questions I Asked About the Viral “Plandemic” Video.

Does the Work Claim Some Secret Knowledge?

Plandemic calls itself a documentary that reveals “the hidden agenda behind COVID-19." We are in the midst of a global pandemic where few people in the world can figure out what is happening or the right way to respond, let alone agendas. We have almost every journalist in the country writing about this. And if the truth about a conspiracy is out there, many people have an incentive to share it. But Plandemic would like us to think it's presenting some exclusive bit of secret knowledge that is going to get at the real story. That's not likely.

Plus, to be honest, there were so many conspiratorial details stacked on top of each other in the film I couldn't keep them straight. When I spoke to Willis I told him I was having a hard time understanding his point. Then I took a stab at what I thought was the main thrust of his argument. “Are you saying that powerful people planned the pandemic and made it happen so they could get rich by making everyone get vaccines?" I asked.

It turns out Willis isn't sure either. “We're in the exploratory phase," he told me. “I don't know, to be clear, if it's an intentional or naturally occurring situation. I have no idea."

Then he went on to say that the pandemic is being politicized and used to take away our civil liberties and leverage other political policies. “Certain forces" have latched onto the situation, he said. “It's too fishy."

He had me at, “I have no idea." That sums it up. This is a vast pandemic and massive catastrophe. Our country wasn't prepared for it, and the response by our top leaders has been disjointed. We're restricted to our homes. Many people have lost their jobs and some are afraid or sick or dying. That makes us vulnerable to exploitation by people who will present inaccurate or intellectually dishonest information that promises to tell us the truth.

May 9, 2020 Joe Pinsker at The Atlantic: If Someone Shares the ‘Plandemic’ Video, How Should You Respond? Experts provide scripts to help you push back as effectively as possible.

The experts I reached out to also had plenty of suggestions for what not to do in these situations: Don’t lecture someone, don’t get exasperated, don’t insult them, and don’t try to refute specific falsehoods. “It is likely ineffective to directly argue with someone on the merits of the documentary’s claims,” Piltch-Loeb said.

May 9, 2020 Davey Alba at the New York Times: Virus Conspiracists Elevate a New Champion. A video showcasing baseless arguments by Dr. Judy Mikovits, including attacks on Dr. Anthony Fauci, has been viewed more than eight million times in the past week.

Dr. Peter J. Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, said [Judy Mikovits's] rise illustrated how the anti-vaccination movement had “taken a new ominous twist” with the coronavirus.

“They’ve now aligned themselves with far-right groups,” Dr. Hotez said, “and their weapons of choice are YouTube, Facebook and Amazon.”

May 10, 2020: Mike Varshavski MD on YouTube: Doctor Fact-Checks PLANDEMIC Conspiracy . Dr. Varshavski pays particular attention to Mikovits's AIDS claims, and the Bayh-Dole Act.

May 10, 2020 Mackenzie Zlatos at Front Page Alive: The ten red flags from the viral ‘Plandemic’ interview.

4. Hydroxychloroquine is not a proven cure

Mikovits claimed that the malaria treatment, touted by the Trump campaign as a possible cure for COVID-19, is effective in treating the virus. The one problem with this statement: it’s not.

May 10, 2020 Skeptical Raptor at Skeptical Raptor: Judy Mikovits – another false authority on COVID-19 and vaccines

Judy Mikovits is not an authority on COVID-19

So let’s review.

1. She spent 12 years as a lab tech, losing several jobs along the way.
2. She did get a Ph.D. in which she studied HIV, but apparently she used none of that knowledge in her later years (a typical issue with false authorities). And, as far as I can tell, her Ph.D. work did not lead to a single published paper as first or last author (the only ones that matter)..
3. In fact, up until her retracted work with XMRV and CFS, she published 10 papers, none of which included her as the primary author..
4. She worked as a bartender at a yacht club in Ventura, CA before getting her the position at WPI..
5. She published a much-criticized and eventually retracted paper. .
6. hSe was arrested for stealing from WPI..
7. In other words, she has no experience in vaccine development, no experience in coronaviruses, no experience in epidemiology and public health, and no experience publishing respected primary research. .

May 12,2020: Brooklyn Neustaeter at CVTNews dot ca Truth Tracker: 'Plandemic' video full of false conspiracy theories about COVID-19</p>

MASKS DO NOT 'ACTIVATE' THE VIRUS

In the video, Mikovits alleges that wearing a face mask can "activate" the coronavirus. She says that people who wear masks are becoming sick from their own "reactivated coronavirus expressions." There is no evidence to support this.

According to health professionals, wearing a non-medical face mask may prevent the spread of the coronavirus; it does not make people more susceptible to it. Public health officials have recommended that people wear homemade face masks when they’re out in public, especially when physical distancing may be difficult, such as in grocery stores or on public transit. This is to protect others around the wearer because there is evidence the virus can be spread among asymptomatic individuals, or those who don't have any symptoms of COVID-19.

May 12, 2020 Helen Petousis Harris at Diplomatic Immunity: Plandemic – effective fact-free marketing

The first words uttered in this video can be proven not true.

“Dr Judy Mikovits has been called one of the most accomplished scientists of her generation.”

Judy Mikovits cannot be one of the accomplished scientists of her generation (baby boomers). A quick google scholar search shows she is not an active scientist and has not been practicing for years. Her most notable publication was retracted (these things happen but in this case it got messy, see links below). So here, in the first sentence of the narrative, chimes the first warning bell.

May 12, 2020 Stephan Lewandowsky, John Cook, Ullrich Ecker, and Sander van der Linden at Cranky Uncle: Plandemic and the seven traits of conspiratorial thinking

The video Plandemic is a textbook example of conspiratorial thinking. And so it’s instructive looking at examples from this video.. We put together a video examining the traits of conspiratorial thinking found in Plandemic. The purpose of our video is to help build our resilience so we’re not misled by other conspiracy theories.

Readers may also with to download the short manual, "How to Spot COVID19 Conspiracy Theories

May 16, 2020: Rebecca Corey at Yahoo News: Debunking the coronavirus conspiracies in viral ‘Plandemic’ video. Corey interviews Dara Kass MD and Michael Saag MD

“If we see things that are actually not only going to mislead people, but really harm them, it’s our obligation to speak up and say, ‘That’s not correct,’” Saag tells Yahoo News.

"Plandemic” is just one of many videos spouting baseless claims that we are likely to encounter during the coronavirus pandemic, Saag and Kass say. Kass says their effect is “to distract people from whatever we’re trying to tell them that may be uncomfortable, or difficult, or hard work, or may take longer than they want to hear it.”

May 21, 2020, Benjamin Radford at Center for Inquiry. ‘Plandemic’ Asks Questions—But Won’t Answer Them

The video repeatedly emphasizes the importance of “considering different points of view” and asking questions, yet offers no other points of view that contradict or undermine Mikovits. Plandemic claims the medical community has a set narrative that refuses to answer opposing voices—and instead offers its own set narrative that refuses to answer opposing voices. Plandemic made many claims, most of which have been widely debunked. We have to wonder: Where are their responses? Why are they suddenly so quiet? Why are they afraid to answer questions? What do they have to hide?

How many debunkings as of 6 pm PST (USA) Friday May 8, 2020? 28

How many debunkings as of 11:00 am PST (USA) Saturday May 9, 2020? 39

How many debunkings as of 10:00 pm PST (USA) Saturday May 9, 2020? 45

As I worked on compiling this list, I was thinking again and again of the propaganda technique known as firehosing.

Lucky Tran on fire hosing:

Firehosing relies on pushing out as many lies as possible as frequently as possible. That’s typical for propaganda, but the aspect that makes firehosing a unique strategy is that it doesn’t require the propagandist to make the lies believable. That seems counterintuitive, but as Carlos Maza of Vox explains, firehosing is effective because its goal isn’t to persuade. It’s to rob facts of their power.

Steven Novella MD on firehosing:

But this end of the spectrum also blends into the more sinister end, where firehosing is used as a deliberate propaganda strategy.

At this end the firehoser knows what they are doing. They are not intellectually lazy, they are intellectually dishonest. They know they are spouting falsehoods, or are indifferent to their truth status. The purpose of their communication is not to persuade, but to confuse and befuddle, even to distract. Go ahead, deal with all these lies. I can pile them on endlessly. While you’re busy doing that, I will make my emotional and ideological appeals. I will build a compelling narrative, and you will lose before you even realize you are playing the wrong game.

It’s diabolical, and unfortunately it works. But it’s even worse than that. It works similarly to a virus that takes out the immune system of the host. The Guardian puts it well when they write that of the greater purpose:

It’s to rob facts of their power. Firehosing inundates us with so many wild opinions that it becomes exhausting to continually disprove them. In this scenario, reality is reduced to positioning and who can sell their position best.

We can see this strategy at work. In American politics it seems the overall strategy recently is to just manufacture your alternate reality, the actual facts and logic be damned. Both sides may think they have the real facts, and the other side is hopelessly misinformed. (I always have to point out, I am not suggesting symmetry here, but both sides certainly believe this.) There is no engaging honestly without a common set of shared facts.

About Those Urgent Care Doctors in Bakersfield: They're Wrong. Here's Why.

Important update 90 minutes after this first posted at : a strongly condemning press release from both the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) and the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM). This is a big deal; such professional guilds/bodies don't do this

About those two doctors in Bakersfield, California, Dan Erickson and Artin Massihi. They released a video Wednesday April 22, 2020, claiming that their data from "early testing" showed that it was time to start reopening California, and that "sheltering in place" could weaken the immune system. (I'm not linking to the video; it's easy to find on YouTube.).

The very short critique

1. They are not epidemiolpgists or infectious disease experts. I believe only Massihi is board certified. They lack the specialized training to analyze their test results (see discussion below).
2. They own a chain of urgent care centers (Accelerated Urgent Care) that are reported to be struggling financially because of the shut down.
3. They don't identify which of the current tests they used. Some of the tests are more reliable than others, and all tests have significant error ranges.
4. Erickson and Massihi did not test a random sample of the population, but tested sick people who presented to their clinics. This renders their analysis invalid.
5. The calculations they used were highly inaccurate. "Erickson compared Norway to Sweden and did the math wrong. Norway has 37 deaths per million so far and Sweden has 253 per million so far. Sweden also has the steepest curve and is 7th in the world in deaths per.million of their population and rising the fastest in percentage"
6. There is no evidence "sheltering in place" weakens the immune system.There are hundreds of millions of organisms to challenge the immune system, even in the cleanest house

Local infectious disease expert Navin Amin,critiqued their analysis on April 23.

On April 25,  Jennifer Kasten, MD, a pathologist with degrees in infectious disease epidemiology, mathematical modeling of epidemics, and fieldwork in epidemic control, published an in-depth critique of Drs. Erickson and Massihion on Facebook

If Dr. Kasten's analysis is too long for you to read, here is my summary:

They made two epidemiology/immunology claims:

1. That based on their testing, 6.5% of the entire Central Valley is positive.
2. Prolonged social distancing damages the immune system, and we are all becoming weaker for staying at home.

Both of their claims are false.

Also on April 25, on Twitter Professor of Public Policy and Sociology Richard M. Carpiano remarked

Got #COVID19 findings? Report them as scientists do? Nah! Go for press hype, public view, evid. be damned!

• hold press conference at urgent care clinic you own
• wear scrubs (looks expert-y)
• get news to lead w/your creds bf your epid. 101 weak finding

Feel free to copy and paste the above as needed. Now I'm going to get (as was my wont) a lot more detailed critiques. A record, if you will, of reactions. It's long, and detailed, and may not be of interest to you, but there should be a record.

Carl T. Bergstrom started a twitter thread the morning of April 26. His twitter bio reads:

Prof. Biol. @UW. Information flow in biology, society, & science. I love crows and ravens. he/him Book *Calling Bullshit* coming Aug 4th.

I am doing this as a text file, rather than something like Thread Reader App, because... well, I lost a lot of valuable content when Storify shuttered. You can read the originals in the Twitter link above.

Dr. Bergstom's Tweet Thread

Unfortunately the misleading claims of those two doctors in Bakersfield keep making the rounds, so I want to very briefly address the problem with what they are saying.

I won't get into their possible motives, past political activity, etc.

What they did was simple: they looked at the fraction of patients who tested positive for #COVID19 at the clinics they own. They found 340 out of 5213 tests were postive, about 6.6%

Then they assume the same fraction of the whole population are infected.

From there, they scale up to the state level and claim 12% incidence statewide. The news story says it is using the same calculation, but it can't be—how did they get from 6.6% to 12%? Perhaps they estimating infected *ever* versus infected *currently*. It's not clear.

Using that 12% infected figure, and a known 1400 deaths in California, they assume 1400 out of 4.7 million have died. That gives them an infection fatality rate of 0.03%. That is, they think that if 10,000 are infected, 3 will die on average. .

The problem with this approach is that during a pandemic, the people who come into an urgent care clinic are not a random sample of the population.

A large fraction of them are coming in precisely because they suspect that they have the disease.

This generates sampling bias.

Estimating that fraction infected from patients at an urgent care facility is a bit like estimating the average height of Americans from the players on an NBA court.

It's not a random sample, and it gives a highly biased estimate.

Moreover the estimate does not pass even a basic plausibility check.

In New York City, 12,067 people are known to have died from the virus, out of a population of 8.4 million.

This is a rate of 0.14% of all people. Not just infected people. All people.

That gives us a lower bound on the death rate in New York. Not an estimate, a lower bound.

The death rate for infected people is obviously higher than 0.14%, because not everyone in New York has been infected.

And yet that 0.14% lower bound is nearly *five times as high* as the 0.03% that the Bakerfield duo are claiming. They've used absurd methodology to arrive at an implausible number.

If the pandemic were not so severely politicized, this would be a non-issue from the start.

. . /fin



 . 


This is a much longer, detailed critique, with timestamps

From a physician, reposted by his friend Michael Falk MD on Monday, April 27

OK, since this video by Drs. Erickson and Massihi has been making the rounds on facebook, I feel like I need to respond. Now first of all, I actually agree with the basic premise that this is not as dangerous as we first thought and we should probably move to open. However they make many false and misleading claims so I feel like I need to respond.

This video is I believe making the rounds because it sounds internally logical and has many facts that are either deliberately or inadvertantly misinterpreted and about 95% of the things they are saying are true and then there's the 5% that's the gotcha.

So let's go through it point by point.

1. at around the 3 minute mark, he says that we should quarantine the people that are sick and not the people that are well. ABSOLUTELY CORRECT. However in order to quarantine the sick and not the well, you need to know who is sick and who is well. That's the problem with Covid-19 is that unlike measles or most other infectious diseases, people can spread the disease when they are asymptomatic so how do you know who needs to be quarantined and who doesn't? Ideally, you do what South Korea did and have lots of testing available and you test everyone and then you trace all their contacts and test them and now you know who has the virus and who doesn't and you quarantine those who have the virus and let the others go about their business. We did not have testing and we still do not have enough testing to test everyone. so what do you do when you don't know who has the virus? yeah, you quarantine everyone.

2. around the 4 minute mark, they say that they had 340 out of 5213 tests positive (6.5%). Then they talk about how 12% of the tests in california were positive and 39% of the tests in new york were positive. Then they say that Ca has 39 million people and 12% of them being positive means 4.5 million people have covid-19. THIS IS THE SINGLE GREATEST PROBLEM WITH THIS VIDEO.

Either they are being purposely misleading or they completely forgot statistics 101. They are confusing testing within a high pretest probability cohort with a random sample of the population that can be extrapolated to the general population. Let me explain. Until now, the way covid testing worked was that there were so few tests that we only tested people that we were pretty sure had the disease. And even if we were pretty sure they had the disease, if they had mild symptoms, we didn't test them. Therefore the tested samples will have a much higher rate of positivity than the general population.

This kind of thought process would be like I run an emergency room and tonight 10% of the people have a stroke. Then I extrapolate that to mean that 10% of the world is having a stroke tonight. That's obviously ludicrous. The sample of people coming to the ER is not representative of the entire population.

There are currently random testing studies being done to look at prevalence in the general population and I've discussed them and they think the prevalence is about 2-3 percent. These are early studies and still should not be used to extrapolate nationwide and have problems dealing with bayesian probability and testing specificity but are FAR FAR better than using testing data in a hospital setting to the population. That's just plain wrong.

He keeps saying he's following the science and using data. The problem is that he doesn't understand data and is misinterpreting it and is NOT following the science.

3. Around 13 minutes, they discuss Norway and Sweden. Sweden has 1,765 deaths. Norway has 182 deaths. He claims this is statistically insignificant. I have no idea what statistical test he used and I'm pretty sure he has no idea either because he didn't do one. The correct test to do would be a chi squared test with Yates correction. That gives a P value of <0.0001. That's about as statistically significant as it gets! In fact, you don't even need to do a statistical test on it. Sweden has 10 times the deaths as Norway. No one looks at a ten fold increase and says "BAH, that's nothing!"

4. Around 16 minutes he talks about the downsides of the shutdown. These are valid points there are DEFINITELY downsides.

5. Around 18 he starts talking about the immune system. He talks about how the immune system needs to be exposed to pathogens to develop. ABSOLUTELY TRUE. But then he takes immunological development in a child to adults in quarantine. NOT TRUE. Unless you live inside a bubble, your home and your yard have TRILLIONS of pathogens. No amount of lysol and handwashing is going to remove pathogens that you breathe in and touch all the time. Your own mouth has billions of microbes. Your skin is teeming with microbes. Fungal spores and viruses in the air. Your immune system will 100% not be weaker by being at home. Your immune system might get weaker if you stay home, don't exercise and eat candy all day but the fact of being home in an of it self will not harm your immune system.

6. Around 26 minutes he says academics and reality are two different things. This appeals to some people but in this case, they need to go back to academics to learn basic statistics.

7. Around 27 minutes he talks about all the fomites you bring from costco to your house and totally contradicts his own point from 18 minutes (#5)

8. Around 28 he talks about the logical inconsistency for being able to go to costco but not to work or church. Because you're going to be interacting with people at either place. YES, ABSOLUTELY TRUE. Ideally, people should go nowhere. But we do need to eat and there's no other mechanism available to get food so they are letting what they consider "essential" continue. Now what's considered essential is up for debate since they've said liquor stores are essential which I personally disagree with but there is a logic in that.

9. Around 30, he claims doctors are being pressured to add covid to the diagnosis. That is definitely not happening at Loma Linda University or any other institution that I've spoken to.

10. Around the same time he talks about how covid doesn't kill people, their preexisting condition kills them. well we know for a fact that young healthy people have died. not often and definitely having poor health before makes you more likely to succumb.

11. Around 33. they said widespread testing is needed to open the economy. YUP. THAT'S WHAT EVERYONE IS SAYING.

12. Around 34, he says that covid and flu kill people. Completely contradicting himself from 3 minutes ago.

13. Around 37 he talks about quarantining the sick. YES, but no one knows who is infected or not right now and THAT is the biggest problem.

14. Around 41 minutes, they said that no one does in house testing. Actually every major hospital does in house testing. Loma Linda, USC, UCLA, Stanford, U of Washington, etc.

15. Around 45 minutes he talks about staying home if you have symptoms. Yes, but maybe he's not aware that people are infectious and shedding virus when they have no symptoms and a significant proportion NEVER get symptoms but are still spreading the virus. That's what makes covid-19 harder to get a handle on. If people didn't shed virus until AFTER they had symptoms it would be very easy. Just tell everyone to stay home once they get symptoms. problem solved. Unfortunately, this one transmits before symptoms are evident.

16. Around 47 they claim the virus will mutate and become less and less virulent. There is absolutely zero basis for that claim. None WHATSOEVER. It's possible that it will mutate and become less virulent but then that virus will be out-competed by the parental strain that is more virulent. It's also possible that it will mutate and become MORE virulent. There is no basis for which to say that a virus will mutate and become less virulent.

17. Around 48 minutes, they make a claim saying that academics haven't seen a patient in 20 years. That's not how academic medicine works. I see patients every day. And I see the patients that are too complex for the doctors in the community to deal with.

18. Around 50 minutes, they claim that wearing masks and gloves reduces your bacterial flora. You get your bacterial flora from the food you eat, the clothes you wear, the air you breathe. Wearing masks and gloves have minimal impact on that especially since most people take those things off once they get home.

They also claim that they spoke to Kern County public health commissioner who agrees with them. That's not true either.

Source: https://www.theblaze.com/news/doctor-dan-erickson-coronavirus-reopen

(Updated April 28, 2020, at 5:21 pm  to add this anonymous account.  I can't reveal specifics, but it is from a medical person in the Central Valley. )

I am publishing this at 6:48 pm, April 27, 2020. I will add content as I find it, and will specifically state when content is added. I may also make sources more visible (making visible the URLs hidden in links). All errors are my own. In the future, updates will be noted at the bottom of the post

Articles and other media critical of Drs. Erickson and Messihi's messages

April 27, 2020: The announcemnt

The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) and the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM) jointly and emphatically condemn the recent opinions released by Dr. Daniel Erickson and Dr. Artin Messihi. These reckless and untested musings do not speak for medical societies and are inconsistent with current science and epidemiology regarding COVID-19. As owners of local urgent care clinics, it appears these two individuals are releasing biased, non-peer reviewed data to advance their personal financial interests without regard for the public’s health.

COVID-19 misinformation is widespread and dangerous. Members of ACEP and AAEM are first-hand witnesses to the human toll that COVID-19 is taking on our communities. ACEP and AAEM strongly advise against using any statements of Drs. Erickson and Messihi as a basis for policy and decision making.

April 26, 2020 I posted a shorter version of this post to my wall on Facebook. It was shared a LOT which was heartening.

April 27, 2020 Barbara Feder Ostrov at Cal Matters: Cue the debunking: Two Bakersfield doctors go viral with dubious COVID test conclusions

But already the Bakersfield doctors — who tout their support of President Donald Trump and refuse to wear masks in public — had become heroes on social platforms and conservative media outlets, with some commenters calling them “brave.” Others who support continuing to shelter-in-place described the doctors as self-promoters whose chain of urgent care centers would benefit from reopening. Non-COVID medical visits have plummeted during the pandemic, endangering the practices of many doctors.

“As struggling business owners, their economic frustration is understandable. But it can’t be mistaken for science. People trust doctors,” Michigan emergency room doctor Rob Davidson wrote on Twitter. “When they tell Fox viewers to ignore recommendations from real experts, many will believe them…The impact of rejecting science-proven recommendations in exchange for these erroneous ideas would overwhelm health systems and cost lives. While re-opening the economy might be good for their Urgent Care Centers (sic), it would kill medical personnel on the actual front lines.”

April 27, 2020 Ari Allyn-Feuer at The Prepared Dr. Erickson’s viral “COVID-19 Briefing” video is dangerously wrong

The video, which is better browsed in transcript form, is a catalog of errors that range from the blatantly wrong to the subtly misleading. But the central and most inexcusable flaw of the entire video is this. Erickson confuses test positivity rates (i.e., the percentage of positive PCR tests among a group of people who were actually able to get tested for COVID-19) with community attack rates  (i.e., the percentage of people in a whole population who have had COVID-19).

April 28, 2020: From David Gorski MD at Respectful Insolence: Dr. Dan Erickson and Artin Massihi: Promoting dangerously bogus pseudo-epidemiology about COVID-19

There’s a pandemic of more than just COVID-19 right now. There’s also a pandemic of pseudoscience, misinformation, disinformation, and just plain bad science. There’s also a pandemic of armchair epidemiologists confidently spouting off about infection rates and case fatality rates, people who self-assuredly say, “I’m not an epidemiologist or infectious disease expert, but…” and then proceed to make opine about the incidence, prevalence, and treatment as though they were experts. 

April 29, 2020 From FallacyMan at Logic of Science blog: Shoddy statistics and false claims: Dr. Erickson dangerously misled the public on coronavirus</p>

Their entire argument rests on the notion that the mortality rate from COVID is actually very low, even less than 0.1% (roughly the typical mortality rate from the flu). Actual studies have found that the mortality rate varies from 3.6% (Baud et al. 2020) to 1.4% (Wu et al. 2020). I have yet to see an estimate based on confirmed cases that was anywhere near the number these emergency doctors came up with (see Note 3). So how did they get such a low number? Easy: they’re bad at statistics.

Articles and other media supporting or amplifying Drs. Erickson and Messihi's messages

April 24, 2020: Brit Hume, a Fox News commentator with 1,190,000 followers, tweeted out a link to the physicians' press conference. Mr. Hume's link was re-tweeted more than a thousand times. 

April 27, 2020: Drs Erickson and Messihi appear on Ingraham Angle

April 27, 2020: Tucker Carlson: New Evidence Means The Coronavirus Far Less Deadly Than We Were Told,, calls Dan Erickson "a researcher"

April 28, 2020: Charles Creitz at FoxNews: "California urgent care doctor questions stay-at-home orders: 'You can get to herd immunity without a vaccine'"

News Coverage

April 29, 2020 Anna-Maja CNN Wire Service, Dubious coronavirus claims by California doctors condemned by health experts
April 29, 2020 Stacey Shepard, Bakersfield dot com,   Local doctors spark widespread debate over virus's death rate, when to reopen

Evee Gayle Clobes: A Tragic Death, Exploited

Update September 24, 2019: NBC reporters Brandy Zadrozny and Aliza Nadi have published an article on Evee Clobes’s death, and Catie Clobes’s changing story, How anti-vaxxers target grieving moms and turn them into crusaders.. The article includes the medical examiner's report and the sheriff's report, both of which confirm that Evee died of positional asphyxia caused by co-sleeping.

Evee Gayle Clobes was 194 days old when she died. I wept several times while reading and listening to her mother’s account of Evee’s life and tragic death. My heart goes out to her mother, Catie, and Evee’s surviving brother and sister.

But the fact remains: Evee died as a result of unsafe sleep practices. There is no sound scientific evidence for the notion that routine pediatric vaccines can adversely affect an infant’s respiration to the extent that the child would cease breathing and die.

The Facts

Catie Clobes has made public a number of still and video images of Evee, including ones taken within 24 hours of her death. Evee was a bright and lively baby, clearly deeply loved by her mother and siblings.

On Wednesday, February 27, Evee was 6 months, 7 days old. Ms. Clobes took Evee for her 6 months’ well-baby checkup. The vaccines recommended for that visit prevent diseases caused by: hepatitis B; diphtheria; tetanus; pertussis; pneumococcal; and poliovirus. Evee was given two vaccines: (1) Pediarix (which has been approved for use in the US since 2002), covering hepatitis B; diphtheria; tetanus;  pertussis; and poliovirus;  and (2) Prevnar 13 (which prevents pneumococcal disease, and has been approved for use in the US since 2010).

On Thursday, February 28,  (according to Ms. Clobes's March 11 interview with Stop Mandatory Vaccination's Melissa Curtin), this is what happened:

Q: Can you describe more in detail about what happened?

Catie: Evee was put to bed at 9 p.m. on 2/28/19. That whole day she was giggling as usual, eating solid foods, nursing just fine, no temperature, no other signs or symptoms that I could remember. Nothing out of the ordinary. She fell asleep in my arms before I laid her down, and when I did lay her down she didn’t wake up which she usually does. Almost every other night I lay down and go to sleep with her, but I stayed up to watch basketball. I went to bed around 11 p.m. and she was still alive, in her deep sleep and breathing. I kissed her and went to sleep. I woke up to go to the bathroom the next morning, 3/1/19, around 7 a.m., and I started singing her name as I came back in. I thought she was still sleeping hard. She was on her back, the same position that I left her in the night before. I picked rolled her face over and saw that she was passed. Ambulance was called and she was pronounced dead at the Buffalo Hospital. Preliminary autopsy has showed nothing, no abnormalities, no visible reason as to why she passed.

In a video interview with Del Bigtree aired September 12, 2019, Ms. Clobes's account morning went like this (timestamps indicate time from the start of the Highwire video)

44:37 CATIE The day I took her in for her 6-months vaccines she was doing this squealing and smiling thing (video image of Evee on her belly, playing with an older person.) She was in such a good mood. I didn’t even think twice about giving her her vaccinations. The nurse came back and administered two shots, one to each thigh. After four hours, her cheeks started getting really red and she was really warm.

I remember messaging my sister “I think Evee’s teething. Later that night she just seemed a little bit “out of it”. The next day, I tried to feed Evee solid foods and she kept shaking her head. (Video of Evee in a chair, smiling and shaking her head "no". ). She was doing that head shaking on and off all day long.

45:19 CATIE It was about 9 pm and she fell into a deep sleep (Still picture of Evee on her side, on a rumpled blanket with a deep texture). The next morning, I was singing, “Evee, let’s wake up, it's time to eat” (reenactment video. An adult figure is standing over an adult bed with pillows present). (switch back to filmed interview with Catie, who is weeping) I kept calling her name, Evee, Evee. I said it with more panic.

45:44 CATIE (weeping and clearly reliving the experience) I looked at her chest and it wasn’t moving. I picked her up, she was pale and a little bit cold. I started screaming, “God don’t do this to me! Bring my baby back! I called 911. (More video reenactment.) We got into the hospital, I saw the shape of a blanket being put around my daughter. The doctor came up to me and said, I’m sorry but she has passed on. (Image switch back to video interview with Catie) I was in such shock pain is indescribable. And it stays with you and it’s with me now.

46:45 (back to reenactment, with voice-over by Ms. Clobes ) The medical examiner sent out their own investigator. (video interview) They asked me to think of anything I could that I did differently, and then I finally (switch to reenactment) said oh she got her vaccinations. and I’ll never forget it she looked up at me kind of rhetorically and said "She did”, like she’d seen this before. (back to picture of Evee looking rosy-cheeked and kind of out of it).

This is odd. In 2014, Minnesota adopted the CDC's Sudden Unexplained Infant Death Reporting Form (SUIDRF), which forms the basis of structured interviews with a baby's caregivers and other. The form explicitly asks about recent vaccinations. And sleep location.

Image Source: https://www.cdc.gov/sids/pdf/suidi-reporting-form-508.pdf

Then, later in the Bigtree interview:

47:12 DEL: (back to live interview setting with Del).Where were your kids when this moment. Are your kids home, they...

CATIE: They were in school.

DEL: So you are all alone. You go in the check on Evee, and that’s when you find her there. Were you aware, was she conscious at all, was she breathing, you know...

CATIE: No. She was gone.

DEL: Did you know that, or did you have a sense of home, you know, not to...

CATIE: I knew she was gone, in the bedroom,...

Ms. Clobes's narrative of that tragic day takes me back to my early days as a mother. I remember so clearly hovering over my baby's bassinet, staring at her sleeping form, looking to see her little chest rise and fall. Every time she was asleep...is she really breathing? I don't think I lost that worry until she was more than a year old, and physically could pull herself up.

By the time my daughter was 6 months old, she was out of the bassinet in the parental bedroom, and sleeping in a crib in her own room. She was still exclusively breastfed, and wasn't sleeping through the night reliably. She often woke up around 4 am, and I would walk down the hall to nurse her, then she would go back down to sleep, as would I, after trudging back down the hall. My older stepchildren were 8 and 10 at the time of my daughter's birth, and needed to leave the house, breakfasted and lunch provided, around 7:30. Usually I'd get up around 6:30, make sure the older children were up, make their lunches, and then eat my own breakfast with them, then their father (or another adult in the household) would take them to school. Sometimes my daughter would wake up as her siblings thundered around in the morning, but sometimes she wouldn't.

A couple of things struck me about Ms. Clobes's accounts of the morning of Evee's death. Where were the older children? 7 am is a bit early already be in school, and in any case, who got them ready and out the door? School start time in the Clobes's school district isn't until 8:15.   Sunrise that day was 6:55 am, and it was quite chilly: -8 degrees F (-12.8 C). Of course, the older children could have been staying with their maternal grandparents, or their maternal aunt -- both of them quite close to Ms. Clobes. Ms. Clobes was not living with Evee's father -- indeed, he was not listed on Evee's original death certificate, or the obituary published on her first birthday. 

In any case, Ms. Clobes or another adult summoned an ambulance, and Evee and her mother were transported to Buffalo Hospital (about a 25 minute drive from the town the Clobes family lived in), where Evee was pronounced dead. In her interview with Mr.Bigtree, Ms. Clobes mentions having "a feeling of hope" because she heard the EMTs in the ambulance 

52:39 CATIE: I remember someone saying in the back, SATs are up, and I had worked in a nursing home in the past and I knew that that meant oxygen saturations are up, and I can’t even describe it it was a feeling of hope like it was the definition of hope my, and then I just started praying,

I can imagine Ms. Clobes' feelings at that time -- the hope, and then the dashed hope. She truly loved her daughter deeply. The pain of such a loss is like being submerged in a deep, cold, airless place, with no light, no air, ever to be possible again. In that state of mind, you reach for any hope, any support.

Evidently Ms. Clobes left her apartment immediately and moved in with her parents for several months. In the nights after Evee's death, Ms. Clobes said (in her interview with Mr. Bigtree):

54:28 CATIE: Following Evee’s death I was consumed with what could have happened to her and healthy babies do not just die. It prompted me to make a post on Facebook and I said if anyone has had an experience, or heard of a child or infant who had died, please get a hold of me. Within the first 24 hours we* had received hundreds and hundreds of messages. Mothers telling me their story of how their child died right after vaccinations.

(*aside: the "we" is not specified. Ms. Clobes was not living with Evee's father. She may have been at her parents' home, but who is supporting Ms. Clobes in her catastrophic grief at the time isn't clear.)

...and healthy babies do not just die

This assertion is made repeatedly by Ms. Clobes, and also by Mr. Bigtree in the introduction to the interview segment

42:55 DEL: SIDS, or in their case, Sudden Unexplained Death if the child is over 1 year — and it has an equally ridiculous moniker you know, unexplained death, sudden infant death as though children just spontaneously die.

The tragic and heartbreaking fact is, healthy babies and toddlers DO die. SIDS/SUIDS have been declining since the "safe sleep/back to sleep" campaign,  but  "In the U.S. alone, almost 4,000 babies die suddenly and unexpectedly each year at a rate of 0.93 deaths per 1,000 live births." -- from the American SIDS Institute

(image source: https://safetosleep.nichd.nih.gov/safesleepbasics/SIDS/fastfacts)

Who responded to Ms. Clobes's grieving Facebook post? Among others, the leadership of Health Choice Minnesota, which is a deeply anti-vaccine organization, and Melissa Curtin, a writer for  Stop Mandatory Vaccination, Larry Cook's predatory anti-vaccine organization.

Image Source: https://www.stopmandatoryvaccination.com/parent/vaccine-injury/mom-asks-why-her-6-month-old-infant-died-after-getting-6-vaccines/

It's likely that Ms. Clobes was directed to two "death following vaccination" autopsy protocols, one co-published by VacTruth (an antivaccine organization established by John Jeffery Aufderheide), and S.A.N.E Vax, founded by Norma Erickson.  The second "autopsy protocol" was created by  notorious anti-vaccine physician and discredited witness Toni Bark, and published at the anti-vaccine site Circle of Mamas.

Image Source: https://sanevax.org/sanevax-announces-a-parents-guide-what-to-do-if-your-child-dies-after-vaccination/

Image source: http://circleofmamas.com/health-news/death-after-vaccines-autopsy-protocol/

I have seen among my own circle how desperate bereaved parents can reach for answers, even when the child's cause of death is clear. The arguments for these special autopsy protocols can seem compelling, perhaps especially if the parent knows that the sleep behavior they had indulged in increased the risk of death.

The quote that follows is from Ms. Clobes's interview with Mr. Bigtree, September 14, 2019

1:02:43 DEL: so they are trying to use this as proof that this is really a problem co-sleeping, this is where they always try to go with SIDS.

CATIE: I did safely co-sleep with Evee and I’m not ashamed of it. And there are tons of mothers that do it, and it’s no co-incidence that out of all the days that I co-slept with my daughter, that it just so happens, 36 hours after her vaccines, she passed from “positional asphyxiation" Give me a break!

"Safely co-sleeping" is an oxymoron. "Bed-sharing: Parent(s) and infant sleeping together on any surface (bed, couch, chair)" is inherently risky for the child. The American Academy of Pediatrics has had this position since 1994 (The Safe to Sleep® campaign (formerly known as the Back to Sleep campaign) began in 1994 as a way to bring public attention to SIDS and to educate caregivers on ways to reduce SIDS risk.) Some people allege that SIDs was unknown prior to 1969. Vince Ianelli MD disagrees:

"So just because SIDS finally got a name and an ICD9 code in 1969, that doesn’t mean that is when it first appeared."

The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development is leading the "Safe to Sleep" campaign with a wealth of material, including the infographic below, on Accidental Suffocation and Strangulation in Bed (ASSB).

Image Source: https://safetosleep.nichd.nih.gov/resources/providers/downloadable/ASSB_SafeSleep

Ms. Clobes was not anti-vaccine before Evee's death. She vaccinated Evee according to the recommended schedule, and her older children were up to date for their vaccines. But the anti-vaccine lobby were able to convince Ms. Clobes that vaccines caused Evee's death. At some point, the anti-vaccine groups helped Ms. Clobes start a fundraising campaign for a second, private autopsy, by a neuropathologist who has testified in the vaccine court (unsuccessfully) a billboard based public awareness campaign, "Justice for Evee", with a website, promotional merchandise, and more. Law professor Dorit Rubenstein Reiss has written about Ms. Clobes's anti-vaccine journey at Skeptical Raptor, in Evee Gayle Clobes – another tragedy incorrectly blamed on vaccines. Dr. Ianelli has written about how Larry Cook's group actively stalks recently bereaved parents.

Where else could Ms. Clobes, in her grief and rage, find support? From other parents like her, whose children died in their sleep. I don't know if Ms. Clobes was offered grief support by the Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office, or by Evee's pediatrician. The Children's Grief Connection does good work in Minnesota. The Good Grief Network may have support meetings nearby.  There are also online groups:

Bereavement support for families who have lost a baby is one of the cornerstones of our work at First Candle. Too often we sit with grief-stricken parents who never imagined accidental suffocation could happen to their baby. Every parent and caregiver must know that danger.

First Candle is the national non-profit committed to ending these deaths but also providing bereavement support for anyone who has experienced a loss. Our bereavement counselor and CEO are both SIDS parents and understand all too-well the all-consuming grief.

This is a safe space to discuss your grief openly. Any posts that are critical or negative will be deleted immediately. You may also call our grief line at 1-800-221-7437.

Charlie’s Kids Foundation was established in 2011 after Sam and Maura Hanke lost their first son, Charlie, to SIDS. It was founded with the purpose of increasing safe sleep awareness and education with the ultimate goal of reducing the SIDS mortality rate.

The Compassionate Friends is an international organization with chapters in every state that provides "highly personal comfort, hope, and support to every family experiencing the death of a son or a daughter, a brother or a sister, or a grandchild, and helps others better assist the grieving family."

Other parents who have lost children to disease have started awareness campaigns, such as Light for Riley, For Jude for Everyone, Meningitis Angels, and other similar organizations.

It's well-known that the grief following the death of a child, especially a sudden, unexpected death, is more intense that other forms of grief.  I sincerely hope that Ms. Clobes, her surviving children, and her extended family can get the support they need and deserve. 

Are "16 of 27 Ingredients in Tide Pods Also in Pediatric Vaccines"? You Decide

I recently ran across this claim in a mom's group:

I decided to fact-check this claim. I went to Tide's ingredient page for Tide Pods, and the Vaccine Excipient and Media Summary. Here's the visual summary. 

(click to embiggen).

Here it is in text form, with a bit of additional text.  The little syringe glyph is the original author's way of signifying her claim that the chemical is in vaccines. 

1. water. ( 💉 ) -- in Tide Pods, only in one pediatric vaccine (Rotarix)
2. alcoholethoxy sulfate -- In Tide Pods, NOT in vaccines
3. linear alkylbenzene sulfonate -- In Tide Pods, NOT in vaccines
4. propylene glycol ( 💉 ) -- In Tide Pods, NOT in vaccines
5. citric acid ( 💉) NOT in Tide Pods, NOT in pediatric vaccines.  Citric acid is an ingredient in the BCG vaccine (not routinely given to children in the US) and citric acid monohydrate is in a flu vaccine, Fluad, approved for use in those over 65.
6. sodium hydroxide ( 💉) NOT an ingredient in Tide Pods. IS an ingredient in the rotavirus vaccine RotaTeq, used to balance pH. See   https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/toxic-myths-about-vaccines/
7. borax ( 💉) NOT an ingredient in Tide Pods, and IS NOT an ingredient in vaccines.
8. ethanolamine ( 💉) NOT an ingredient in Tide Pods (monoethanolamine citrate is) NOT an ingredient in vaccines. 
9. ethanol ( 💉) is NOT an ingredient in Tide Pods. It is NOT and ingredient in vaccines. 
10. alcohol sulfate ( 💉) is NOT an ingredient in Tide Pods.  It is NOT an ingredient in any vaccine.
11. polyethyleneimine ethoxylate ( 💉)  in Tide Pods. It is NOT an ingredient in any vaccine.
12. sodium fatty acids ( 💉) are NOT an ingredient in Tide Pods. One or more fatty acid salts are (see list below):. NONE are ingredients in any vaccine.
13. Idiquaternium ethoxysulfate NOT an ingredient in Tide Pods, NOT in vaccines
14. protease ( 💉) In Tide Pods, NOT in vaccines .
15. diethylene glycol; NOT an ingredient in Tide Pods, NOT in vaccines
16. Laureth 9 NOT in Tide Pods. NOT  in vaccines.
17. alkyldimethylamine oxide NOT in Tide Pods.  NOT  in vaccines.
18. fragrance is an ingredient in Tide Pods. It is NOT an ingredient in vaccines.
19. amylase ( 💉) IS  in Tide Pods. It is NOT an ingredient in vaccines.
20. disodium diaminostilbene disulfonate IS  in Tide Pods. It is NOT in vaccines.
21. DTPA ( 💉) NOT in Tide Pods. NOT in vaccines.
22. sodium formate ( 💉) In Tide Pods, NOT in vaccines
23. calcium formate ( 💉) In Tide Pods, NOT in vaccines
24. polyethylene glycol 4000 ( 💉) In Tide Pods, NOT in vaccines
25. mannanse is not an ingredient in Tide Pods. mannanase, an enzyme, is. NOT an ingredient in vaccines
26. liquid blue. ( while not this color. Yellow # 5 and lakedye is in vaccines ) 💉 "Colorant" is listed as a Tide Pod ingredient. No pediatric vaccines contain dyes.  Yellow #5 and lake dye are in the adenovirus vaccine, which is only authorized for at-risk military personnel.
27. dimethicone NOT  in Tide Pods NOT in  vaccines.

--------- List of Fatty acid salts

• NS SOAP Sodium soap of partially hydrogenated tallow fatty acid: Emulsifier for emulsion polymerization of synthetic rubber and resin, wetting agent or defoamer for wettable powder
• SS-40N Sodium soap of stearic acid : Emulsifier for emulsion polymerization of synthetic rubber and resin
• KS SOAP Potassium soap of partially hydrogenated tallow fatty acid: Emulsifier for emulsion polymerization of synthetic rubber and resin.
• OS SOAP Hydrogenated tallow fatty acid: Emulsifier for emulsion polymerization of synthetic rubber and resin
• FR-14 Potassium soap of oleic acid: Foaming agent for foam rubber
• FR-25 Potassium soap of castor oil: Foaming agent for foam rubber
• ICTEOL K-50 Potassium oleate: Laundry detergents as adjuvant to reduce foaming and aid in hardness removal.

Source: https://chemical.kao.com/sg/products/class/c020706.html

The claim arose I believe at the beginning of 2018, but it's been repeated just now in another group:

I decided to look at the claim a different way, by comparing what Tide lists as ingredients to ingredients of vaccines published by the CDC.

Then I went to the Pink Book and found the media and excipient list

Then I compared the two

Tide Pod list of ingredients.There are 26 ingredients. only one (water!) is also in vaccines.

This was easy, if a bit time-consuming to debunk. Overall, I feel sorry for the finger-biting mommy pictured above. She is worrying over nothing.

That list that starts "There is no science that shows vaccines may cause Autism, except in all these government published studies which show vaccines may cause Autism."

You maybe have seen it on Facebook or on neighborhood discussion groups, or similar.  The first part looks like this:

I believe the list was compiled and shared by Marcella Piper-Terry (see footnote for Piper-Terry's claim to anti-vaccine fame) from either her own Facebook page, or the organization she started, but as you can see it pops up a lot. In other words, it's been uncritically shared -- usually with missing links that may have been intact in the original list.  I am not sure if Piper-Terry's list was just the first 24 URLs, or the complete list of 56.




First point: very few if any of these are "government published studies". The URLs do  indeed end in ".gov"  but the studies aren't "published by the US government. PubMed is an index, not a publisher.  Having a paper indexed in PubMed used to be a mark of quality, but that hasn't been true for at least two decades.  So right off the bat, whoever compiled this list is misinformed, or has the intent to mislead the users of this list. 

I decided to number the list (to keep track) and see how many of them were well-known, well-debunked papers.

Link #1 = https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3878266/ This resolves to Geier DA, Hooker BS, Kern JK, King PG, Sykes LK, Geier MR. A two-phase study evaluating the relationship between Thimerosal-containing vaccine administration and the risk for an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis in the United States. Transl Neurodegener. 2013 Dec 19;2(1):25. doi: 10.1186/2047-9158-2-25.

First, about two of the authors,  David Geier MD, Mark Geier (his son) and access to the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD). They had access on to October 9-10 2003 and February 29-30, 2004.The Geiers describe their VSD exploits in this presentation. Their access to the VSD was covered by federal regulations governing human subjects research, because the VSD consists of individual, identifiable patients' medical records.  This is called IRB approval. They had to get IRB approval from each of the health maintenance organizations that had shared information with the VSD.  This is not a trivial matter. To do so, the Geiers submitted their research plans to each of the HMOs.  While they had access to the VSD, the Geiers did not comply with their previously-stated research aims.  

Jeannine Santolini MD, who was at that time the director of the office charged with oversight of human subjects research, summarized the Geiers violation of research ethics as follows, in a February 13, 2004 letter to the IRB directors that approved the Geiers' use of their data in the VSD. (full text: Download Geier IRB letter

In summary, during the first visit the researchers conducted unapproved analyses on the datasets and on the second visit attempted to carry out unapproved analyses but did not complete this attempt. This analysis, had it been completed, could have increased the risk of a confidentiality breach. Before leaving, the researchers renamed files for removal which were not allowed to be removed. Had it gone undetected, this would have constituted a breach of the rules about confidentiality.

In short, the Geiers' conduct when given access to the VSD is an appalling breach of ethics, and taints every paper they publish using VSD data. 

On to the paper: even if we ignore the Geiers' breach of research ethics , it is a garbage dump of a paper. The first phase used the publicly-available dataset, Vaccine Adverse Effects Reporting System (VAERS) to find reports of autism after thimerosal vs. thimerosal-free vaccination with one vaccine (DTaP) in 1998 to 2000. The DTaP vaccine is given to infants starting at 2 months.  The second phase of the paper uses the VSD dataset, for an entirely different vaccine , Hepatitis B, for a different  time frame (1991-1998), again looking for autism  In 1991, the US began recommending universal vaccination against HepB at birth. At that time, multi-dose vials of HepB vaccines contained thimerosal; after 2000, the multi-dose vials protected from contamination by thimerosal were phased out, in favor of single-dose (and more expensive) vials. The vaccines are different, the time frames are different, and there is no connection between subjects in phase one and phase two.  It's meaningless. 

This paper has no clear assessment of risk, or theoretical explanation, of the risk of autism from early infancy/childhood exposure to tiny amounts of ethyl mercury from immunization.  Further, multiple high-powered studies have failed to find an association between early infancy/childhood exposure to tiny amounts of ethyl mercury from immunization and the subsequent diagnosis of autism. 

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 1/56. .

Link #2 =  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21623535 This resolves to Delong G. A positive association found between autism prevalence and childhood vaccination uptake across the U.S. population. J Toxicol Environ Health A. 2011;74(14):903-16. doi: 10.1080/15287394.2011.573736.

Junk “science” thoroughly debunked in 2011. It is a shame that it's still being cited. See a few of the criticisms below:

• http://leftbrainrightbrain.co.uk/2011/07/08/a-positive-association-found-between-autism-prevalence-and-childhood-vaccination-uptake-across-the-u-s-population-2/
• http://leftbrainrightbrain.co.uk/2011/06/11/speech-impairment-and-autism-inseparable/"The "vaccination rate" (they have a very odd definition) goes up dramatically in the first two years of the study. The "autism+SLI rate" does not. If there were a real association between the two, it would be clear in those first columns of data.
• http://leftbrainrightbrain.co.uk/2012/03/07/conflicts-of-interest-in-vaccine-safety-research/
• http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2011/06/08/more-bad-science-in-the-service-of-the-discredited-idea/
• http://neuroskeptic.blogspot.com/2011/05/vaccines-cause-autism-until-you-look-at.html "My conclusion is that this dataset shows no evidence of any association. The author nonetheless found one. How? By doing some statistical wizardry."
• http://biologyfiles.fieldofscience.com/2011/06/gayle-delong-safeminds-board-member-and.html "The acceptance and publication of this paper appear to have been careless to an extreme. I'd like to know who the reviewers were."

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 1/56. .

Link #3 =  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25377033, which resolves to Chhawchharia R, Puliyel JM.Commentary--Controversies surrounding mercury in vaccines: autism denial as impediment to universal immunisation. Indian J Med Ethics. 2014 Oct-Dec;11(4):218-22.

This is not a research paper. It is a commentary by the authors on another paper which was also not a research paper, but the authors of the second paper's  opinion.

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 1/56. .

Link #4 = https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24995277, which resolves to Hooker B, Kern J, Geier D, Haley B, Sykes L, King P, Geier M. Methodological issues and evidence of malfeasance in research purporting to show thimerosal in vaccines is safe. Biomed Res Int. 2014;2014:247218. doi: 10.1155/2014/247218. Epub 2014 Jun 4.

First, notice the list of authors and compare them to the list of authors of paper #1. We have established that Geier père et fils have shoddy research ethics. How about the first author, Brian Hooker?

Well, here are a few things about Hooker. He has an autistic son, whose behavioral difficulties Hooker exploited in the propaganda film Vaxxed, of which Hooker was a central character. Hooker was a participant in the Omnibus Autism Proceeding (OAP) (part of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program), alleging his son's autism was caused by thimerosal in vaccines and exposure to the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine, but his account of his son's "vaccine injury" has changed over time.. Hooker's OAP claim was denied. In 2014, Hooker published "“Measles-mumps-rubella vaccination timing and autism among young african american boys: a reanalysis of CDC data,”" . An epidemiologist found his paper extremely flawed. The paper was withdrawn and ultimately retracted. He, like his co-authors the Geiers, has shoddy research ethics. 

A critique of the paper from Skeptical Raptor

• It presents no original data that support a hypothesis that vaccines (or thiomersal in vaccines) cause autism.
• They critiqued 6 well-designed, epidemiological studies, Andrews 2003, Hviid 2003, Madsen 2003, Price 2010, Stehr-Green 2003, and Verstraeten 2003. For each paper, the Gaiers and their antivaccine ilk co-authors, try to invent these nonsensical conspiracy theories that somehow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), pharmaceutical companies, or something controlled the outcomes.
• For example, for the Verstraeten study, the Geiers reference an article that is more of a summary, and complain that it shows no data. In fact, the real Verstraeten study, published in Pediatrics, included all of the data. The Geiers absolutely cherry-picked a short summary of the Verstraeten study rather than examining the fully published article. This is laughable, except for those who “believe” in the Geiers’ conclusions, won’t look that deeply.

Skeptical Raptor goes on to reference an article at Forbes,

"Apparently, these authors have been making these outlandish claims about the efforts of the CDC to squash, hide, or destroy data regarding vaccines and autism. This pathetic paper is hardly their first trip to the rodeo (always enjoyed that metaphor). Earlier in 2014, Emily Willingham, Ph.D., a Forbes‘ science writer and expert in autism, deconstructed and dismissed a huge portion of these authors’ previous attempts to slander the good name of the CDC. Apparently, the data in this paper, such as it is, has been an almost 10 year crusade by the authors, especially Brian Hooker, to make their case. Except, they’re using zombie data. They bring it up one year, it gets crushed by the skeptics and scientists, it dies. Then Brian Hooker, using the magic of reanimation, zombifies the data so that it is presented again, as if it was new. It gets crushed again, and then we repeat it.

According to Dr. Willingham, various combinations of the author group for this antivaccination paper brought up the same trope in 1999, 2000, 2004 2005, 2009, and of course this year (and this paper isn’t the first time this year that they have tried to make this nonsense claim about the CDC). Honestly, reading Dr.. Willingham’s article, it’s almost like a comedy, if it weren’t so serious.

Finally, Dr. Willingham really tries to slam the door on this ignorant trope about the CDC hiding data that’s presented by this antivaccination group of authors:"

Doesn’t matter, really. What does matter is that the information it contained is not new in 2014. It wasn’t new even in 2005. What matters is that in 1999, last century, it was preliminary, an opening analysis from a study that continued on through two phases and . What matters is that in the ensuing 15 years after those preliminary data were submitted for a conference presentation, in the second decade of this century, the accumulation of evidence worldwide showing no link has been compelling. Indeed, it is was so substantial by 2002 that the American Academy of Pediatrics retired that year a recommendation that thimerosal be removed from vaccines, a recommendation made in 1999 in spite of no evidence of harm.

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 2/56. .

Link #5 = https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12145534, which resolves to: Singh VK, Lin SX, Newell E, Nelson C. Abnormal measles-mumps-rubella antibodies and CNS autoimmunity in children with autism. J Biomed Sci. 2002 Jul-Aug;9(4):359-64.

Using  blood products  from typically developing children and autistic children, the authors claimed to have found a protein unique to the measles vaccine in more than half of the autistic children. 

This finding has never been replicated. As Paul Offit wrote on page 45 of Autism's False Prophets,

...a closer look at Singh's science revealed two critical flaws: children with autism didn't have nerve damage and, according to measles experts, the test that Singh had used to detect measles antibodies didn't detect them.

Other leading scientists have criticized Singh's research.

Multiple studies in multiple countries with tens of thousands of subjects have repeatedly failed to find an association between measles vaccine and autism.

• http://www.immunizationinfo.org/issues/iom-reports/measles-mumps-rubella-vaccine-and-autism
• http://www.immunizationinfo.org/science/no-evidence-mmr-vaccine-causes-autism

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 2/56. .

Link #6 = https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21058170, which resolves to Gallagher CM, Goodman MS. Hepatitis B vaccination of male neonates and autism diagnosis, NHIS 1997-2002. J Toxicol Environ Health A. 2010;73(24):1665-77. doi: 10.1080/15287394.2010.519317.

Very weak study with numerous flaws.  Debunked at (among others):

• http://leftbrainrightbrain.co.uk/2009/09/17/another-weak-study-proves-vaccines-cause-autism/
• http://leftbrainrightbrain.co.uk/2010/09/16/autism-causation-and-the-hepatitis-b-vaccine-no-link/
• http://www.harpocratesspeaks.com/2013/05/mind-institute-no-difference-in.html
• http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/2012/07/1-hepatitis-b-vaccination-of-male-neonates-and-autism-diagnosis-nhis-1997-2002-2010.html

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 2/56. .

Link #7 = https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22099159, which resolves to Tomljenovic L, Shaw CA. Do aluminum vaccine adjuvants contribute to the rising prevalence of autism? J Inorg Biochem. 2011 Nov;105(11):1489-99. doi: 10.1016/j.jinorgbio.2011.08.008. Epub 2011 Aug 23.

Fatally flawed “study” – junk science.  Debunked at:

• http://leftbrainrightbrain.co.uk/2013/07/10/comment-on-do-aluminum-vaccine-adjuvants-contribute-to-the-rising-prevalence-of-autism/
• http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2011/12/08/and-global-warming-is-caused-by-the-decr/ In particular, note:

the authors are plotting ASD incidence in each year (1991-2008) against total aluminium content for the pediatric schedule *in that year*. Not (as you might expect) the aluminium exposure for the ASD cases themselves, according to the pediatric schedules of 6 to 21 years previously, but no, that same year.

In effect they are looking for a correlation between the number of people who developed ASD decades earlier, and the number of vaccinations given to other children, in the current year. This is an interesting model of causality!

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 2/56 .

Link #8 = https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3364648/, which resolves to: Ewing, GE. What is regressive autism and why does it occur? Is it the consequence of multi-systemic dysfunction affecting the elimination of heavy metals and the ability to regulate neural temperature? N Am J Med Sci. 2009 Jul; 1(2): 28–47. PMCID: PMC3364648 PMID: 22666668

This is not a study or review; it's the author's (a wellness entrepreneur) opinions on the cause of autism, informed by his unscientific beliefs about autism and disease. He offers no evidence for his assertions

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 2/56. .

Link #9 = https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17454560, which resolves to: Geier DA, Geier MR.A case series of children with apparent mercury toxic encephalopathies manifesting with clinical symptoms of regressive autistic disorders. J Toxicol Environ Health A. 2007 May 15;70(10):837-51.

Here is another way the Geiers revealed their unethical behavior: The IRB for this study consisted of both authors; the senior author's wife;' Lisa Sykes, whose son was a patient of the Geiers, and was a co-author with the Geiers' Mark Geier’s business partner; Kelly Kerns, who was a petitioner in the OAP, and and Clifford Shoemaker, who was chair of the patient steering committee in the OAP and a a vaccine injury lawyer. In this paper, the Geiers claim that the sources of mercury in the patients' bodies could come from prenatal exposure (via exposure to anti-D immune globulin, which until 2003 was preserved with thimerosal, and the child's own amalgam fillings (which don't emit measurable mercury, as this study shows). The Geiers used hair analysis and/or a "chelation challenge" to test for the presence of mercury in the body of the 8 patients in this study. With respect to mercury, hair analysis has not been shown to be sound science. "The use of a chelating agent before testing—"provoked testing"—should be considered a scam. Anyone told that a urine-mercury level produced after taking DMPS represents a toxic state is being misled."In short, this is another garbage paper from the Geiers.

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 3/56. .

Link #10 = https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19106436, which resolves to Geier DA, King PG, Sykes LK, Geier MR. A comprehensive review of mercury provoked autism. Indian J Med Res. 2008 Oct;128(4):383-411.

Another Geier production. Let's talk about Paul G. King.  He has a PhD in analytical chemistry, and is now a consultant who "finds and implements cost-effective regulatory-compliant solutions for the pharmaceutical and chemical industries." Up until 2004, all of his publications were technical, relating to his employment. Starting in 2004, he started writing about an "American mystery disease" -- a myriad of disorders that he blamed on thimerosal in vaccines.  I do not know why he became convinced that autism was "mercury toxicity"  He joined the Geier's 501(c)3 "Coalition for Mercury Free Drugs" -- usually referred to as CoMeD-- as an officer in 2007.  (Tax reports for CoMed are analyzed here).  While Dr. King may have had a great deal of expertise in chemistry and manufacturing issues, he has no expertise in autism or in immunology. 

This paper also claimed that exposure to mercury (at levels unspecified) "dysfunctions similar to traits defining/associated with ASDs".  It simply isn't true. 

The image is from a comprehensive review,  Nelson KB, Bauman ML, Thimerosal and Autism? Pediatrics March 2003, VOLUME 111 / ISSUE 3.  

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 4/56. .

Link #11 = https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3774468/, which resolves to: Kern JS, Haley BE, Geier DA, Sykes LS, King PG, Geier MR, Thimerosal Exposure and the Role of Sulfation Chemistry and Thiol Availability in Autism, Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2013 Aug; 10(8): 3771–3800..

First, note the publication date on this paper: 2013. Thimerosal as causal in autism had been investigated and dismissed in many robust studies in many nations before that time:  (Hviid 2003, Institute of Medicine 2004,  Andrews 2004, Frombonne 2006, Thompson 2007,  Schechter 2008, Price 2010)  Why?  Why, if the Geiers and their associates were the scientists they claimed to be, would they not accept that their surmise that thimerosal was causal in autism was incorrect, and move on?  Could it have anything to do with their sources of income? 

Second, let's talk briefly about the lead author, Janet S. Kern [need more]

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 5/56. .

Link #12 = https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3697751/, which resolves to Sharpe MA, Gist TL, Baskin DS. B-Lymphocytes from a Population of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Their Unaffected Siblings Exhibit Hypersensitivity to Thimerosal. J Toxicol. 2013; 2013: 801517.

In vitro study, thimerosal (no longer used in U.S. childhood vaccines except for some influenza vaccines), concentrations higher than formerly found in vaccines. Only 11 families studied.

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 5/56. .

Link # 13 = https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3697751/, which resolves to Ratajczak HV.Theoretical aspects of autism: causes--a review.J Immunotoxicol. 2011 Jan-Mar;8(1):68-79. doi: 10.3109/1547691X.2010.545086.

This is one of the more risible papers in the list.  

From Kev Leitch at LeftBrain/RightBrain

The rest of the paper is a rogues gallery of debunked and fringe science. Helen Ratajczak cites the Geiers numerous times, DeSoto and Hitlan, Nataf and Rossignol to name but a few. This isn’t a paper so much as an advert for the sort of poor science that was examined in the Autism Omnibus proceedings and roundly rejected by the Special Masters. For goodness sake, she even cites David Ayoub of the Black Helicopter infamy.

David Gorski MD addresses Ratajczak's claim that "human tissue" in vaccines can cause genetic mutations leading to autism:

If there were scientific data that convincingly suggested a hypothesis, even one as implausible as the one above, I’d think about it and possibly even conclude that this is an area worthy of investigation. There were no data presented. There weren’t even studies cited that convincingly supported Ratajczak’s assertions.... How on earth did this get through peer review? Obviously, the peer reviewers of Dr. Ratajczak’s article were either completely ignorant of the background science (and therefore unqualified) or asleep at the switch.... The vast majority of what is discussed, however, is pure vaccine pseudoscience.

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 5/56. .

Link # 14 = https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21907498, which resolves to Rose NR, Conjugate vaccines and autism. Med Hypotheses. 2011 Dec;77(6):937-9. doi: 10.1016/j.mehy.2011.08.033. Epub 2011 Sep 9.

This is not a study at all, but the author's opinion on a different speculative article

A word here about the journal, Medical Hypotheses. It started out as a useful idea, a repository for speculative thinking in medicine, but at the latest, 2009 (two years before this article) the journal had degraded into publishing pseudoscience. So any paper published in Medical Hypotheses deserves and extra layer of scrutiny.

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 5/56. .

Link # 15 = https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11339848, which resolves to Bernard S, Enayati A, Redwood L, Roger H, Binstock T.Autism: a novel form of mercury poisoning. Med Hypotheses. 2001 Apr;56(4):462-71.

One of the theories proposed for vaccines causing autism in the Omnibus Autism Proceeding in the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program was that thimerosal in vaccines was causative. A leading world expert in mercury toxicity and in autism, Patricia Rodier, PhD, testified at length on the Bernard et al. papers. Her testimony is summarized here: Rodier on Bernard et al. and environmental causes of autism . In short, Bernard et al. were wrong on the effects of mercury toxicity and wrong on the toxicokinetics of mercury.

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 5/56. .

Link # 16 = https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17674242, which resolves to Geier DA, Geier MR.A prospective study of thimerosal-containing Rho(D)-immune globulin administration as a risk factor for autistic disorders. J Matern Fetal Neonatal Med. 2007 May;20(5):385-90.

A brief introduction to the need for Rho(D)-immune globulin: People may or may not  have  a specific antibody on their red blood cells, the Rhesus antibody. When a person's blood of one type is mixed with the opposite type, illness may occur. This happens in pregnancy when a mother carries a baby of the opposite blood type, requiring a specific medication, Rho(D)-immune globulin. The brand names were RhoGAM, BayRho ,and WinRho. From 1968 until 2001, these products may have had a few millionths of a gram of thimerosal, used as a preservative.  At some point prior to 2000, the idea that exposure to thimerosal could cause autism emerged. One source of thimerosal exposure was for women to receive thimerosal-preserved Rho(D)-immune globulin during and after pregnancy. WinRho never contained thimerosal; BayRho has been thimerosal-free since 1996, and RhoGam became thimerosal-free in 2001. It had a 2-year dating period, so the last possible thimerosal exposure was in 2003.

In 2003, Mark Geier MD was an expert witness in a National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program case, Weiss v. HHS. The Special Master in the case, Laura D. Millman, referred to Geier as "a professional witness in areas for which he has no training, expertise, and experience" and listed nine other cases in which Geier's expert testimony was given "no weight." In 2006, Geier was the only expert witness retained by the plaintiffs to testify as to both general and specific causation. in Doe v. Otho-Clinical Diagnostics, the manufacturer of RhoGam. The claim of harm was that the Doe infant developed autism following thimerosal exposure from the mother's RhoGam shots. Judge James A. Beaty barred Geier's testimony, referring to the previous vaccine court cases and finding:

• When subjected to extensive cross-examination, Geier could not point to a single study that conclusively determined that any amount of mercury could cause the specific neurological disorder of autism.
• Geier's conclusion that the peer-reviewed literature he has relied upon supports his theory that autism can be caused by thimerosal is flatly contradicted by all of the epidemiological studies available at this time.

With that background in place, note that this study was published in 2007. Dr. Geier's former multi-state medical practice was called "Genetic Centers of America". The Geiers also founded a non-profit, the Institute for Chronic Illnesses, which operated as the Institutional Review Board for this and other studies.(See Link #9 for more discussion.) So here, the Geiers approved their own study, on their own patients. The paper makes no internal sense, with the "controls" being a different population than the subjects. Of particular interest relative to the paper's central assertion (that exposure to thimerosal in utero raising the risk of autism) is a later, much more robust study, Miles JH, Takahashi TN. 2007. Lack of association between Rh status, Rh immune globulin in pregnancy and autism, found no evidence for increased risk of autism from prenatal exposure to thimerosal. You can read the paper yourself. Download Miles Takahashi 2007.

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 6/56. .

link # 17 = https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21993250, which resolves to Richmand BJ. Hypothesis: conjugate vaccines may predispose children to autism spectrum disorders. Med Hypotheses. 2011 Dec;77(6):940-7. doi: 10.1016/j.mehy.2011.08.019. Epub 2011 Oct 10.

This is the speculative paper that link # 14 was responding to. The author is contending that conjugate vaccines may somehow unbalance vulnerable recipients' immune systems, and thus cause autism. This is not a study. Autism is not an immune system disorder.

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 6/56. .

Link #18 is https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15780490, which resolves to Geier MR, Geier DA.The potential importance of steroids in the treatment of autistic spectrum disorders and other disorders involving mercury toxicity. Med Hypotheses. 2005;64(5):946-54.

This is the paper that underpinned the Geiers' lucrative scheme to "treat" autistic children with a castration chemical,< which probably began in 2004, based on their patent claim. hat malpractice eventually lead to Mark Geier losing his medical license in all 12 states, David Geier being convicted of practicing medicine without a license, and the Maryland Board of Physicians: Mark Geier "endangers autistic children and exploits their parents". Mark Geier has not been exonerated. It is a disgrace that this paper has not been withdrawn.

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 7/56. .

Link #19 = https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12933322, which resolves to Holmes AS, Blaxill MF, Haley BE. Reduced levels of mercury in first baby haircuts of autistic children. Int J Toxicol. 2003 Jul-Aug;22(4):277-85.

Holmes et al. (2003) is one of the weakest of the weak reeds advanced for the argument "mercury exposure causes autism".

The most complete analysis of the flaws in Holmes et al. (2003) was written in 2005 by Prometheus, an academic biological scientist who blogs pseudonymously at Photon in the Darkness.

• http://photoninthedarkness.com/?p=12
• http://photoninthedarkness.com/?p=16
• http://photoninthedarkness.com/?p=17

The first flaw in the study is the authors' acceptance of the idea of "excretion into the hair".  Mercury is excreted into hair, but in levels that cannot be calibrated to blood levels.  The second flaw is the data collection methods (the hair used in the study ).

The third flaw is that the study found that the autistic children had lower hair mercury levels than the neurotypical controls. Rather than accepting that data, the authors went on to spin "tooth fairy tales" to explain why that might be so (the idea that autistic children had impaired mercury excretion). The fourth flaw in the study involves the hair analyzed: the samples had been in storage under unknown conditions for a median of five and a half years.

 It was, when published, a footling study. The fact that it is still cited demonstrates the citee's devotion to a myth, and lack of scientific integrity.

One more thing you should know: Holmes et al. 2003 authors' affiliations are given as Safeminds. Safeminds is an acronym for Sensible Action For Ending Mercury Induced Neurological Disorders. Do you think the authors had an ideological point to make?

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 7/56. .

Link #20 = https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16870260, which resolves to Walker SJ, Segal J, Aschner M. Cultured lymphocytes from autistic children and non-autistic siblings up-regulate heat shock protein RNA in response to thimerosal challenge. Neurotoxicology. 2006 Sep;27(5):685-92. Epub 2006 Jun 16.

In this study, the researchers grew additional white blood cells from samples, then bathed some in ethyl mercury (not thimerosal), some in a zinc solution, and some in growth media, then measured some purified RNA from each of the test conditions. "Although there were no apparent differences between autistic and non-autistic sibling responses in this very small sampling group". This is not a convincing study on which to base the argument that exposure to vaccines may cause autism

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 7/56. .

Link #21 = https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19043938, which resolves to Blaylock RL.A possible central mechanism in autism spectrum disorders, part 1. Altern Ther Health Med. 2008 Nov-Dec;14(6):46-53.

This is a speculative, not scientific, article from Russell Blaylock, a retired neurosurgeon who makes his living selling "supplements", published in an alternative health magazine of "dubious scientific rigor."

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 7/56. .

Link #22 = https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12142947, which resolves to Bernard S, Enayati A, Roger H, Binstock T, Redwood L.The role of mercury in the pathogenesis of autism. Mol Psychiatry. 2002;7 Suppl 2:S42-3.

This is a reworking of the ideas expressed in link #15, which was conclusively debunked in the OAP. Also see Hurley et al., 2010..

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 7/56. .

Link #23 = https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24675092, which resolves to Li X, Qu F, Xie W, Wang F, Liu H, Song S, Chen T, Zhang Y, Zhu S, Wang Y, Guo C, Tang TS.Transcriptomic analyses of neurotoxic effects in mouse brain after intermittent neonatal administration of thimerosal.Toxicol Sci. 2014 Jun;139(2):452-65. doi: 10.1093/toxsci/kfu049. Epub 2014 Mar 27.

In this study, the authors used highly-inbred mice, and "subcutaneously injected with thimerosal-mercury at a dose which is 20× higher than that used for regular Chinese infant immunization during the first 4 months of life." The mice behaviors were then evaluated. Mice are a poor model for autism. This study was a waste of mice.

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 7/56. .

Link #24 = https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25198681, which resolves to Geier DA, Hooker BS, Kern JK, King PG, Sykes LK, Geier MR.A dose-response relationship between organic mercury exposure from thimerosal-containing vaccines and neurodevelopmental disorders. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2014 Sep 5;11(9):9156-70. doi: 10.3390/ijerph110909156.

We've discussed the Geiers, Brian Hooker, Janet Kern, and Paul King. Who is Lisa Sykes? She is closely associated with the Geiers, serving on the board of CoMeD (see these notes on the organization). She has an autistic child, whose autism she blames on the thimerosal-containing RhoGam injections she received while pregnant.She filed suit against the manufacturer, Bayer, but eventually withdrew the suit in 2008. Shortly after the suit was withdrawn, a very well-done study determined that thimerosal exposure in pregnancy (through RhoGam injections) did not raise the risk for autism.

This paper is a production of the Geiers' Coalition for Mercury-Free Drugs (CoMeD). It was also funded in part by the Selz Foundation and the Dwoskin Family Foundation, two anti-vaccine organizations.

The paper's weaknesses were explored in depth by an epidemiologist at More bad epidemiology from Dr. Brian S. Hooker and friends

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 8/56. .

Link #25 is broken, but probably resolves to https://www.scribd.com/doc/220807175/153-Research-Papers-Supporting-the-Vaccine-Autism-Link Taylor, Ginger 153 Research Papers Supporting the Vaccine/Autism Link

Ms. Taylor likes to keep adding papers to this list, totally ignoring any criticism. The "124 papers" indicates that this copypasta list was created in 2016, when the list was at 124 papers. I published a critique at 124 Research Papers Supporting the Vaccine/Autism Link...or Not. No, They Don't. . A trauma surgeon has also criticized the papers on the list at 124 (now 144) papers that DO NOT prove vaccines cause autism I also wrote about Ms. Taylor's collation at Ty Bollinger Steals Ginger Taylor's List, Renumbers It, and Markets It to his Fans

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? It's not a paper, it's a collection of unedited abstracts. No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 7/56. .

Link #26 reads "Vaccines caused autism here in this federal court case http://www.uscfc.uscourts.gov/…/opin…/ABELL.ZELLER073008.pdf". The link is broken. It is likely the creator of his list is referring to Zeller v. HHS, in which Special Master Abell found that the Zeller family is entitled to compensation from the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, for encephalopathy and a seizure disorder exasperbated by receipt of the MMR vaccine. You can read the decision here. The determination does not mention autism. Encephalopathy is not autism.

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? It's not a paper, it's a court decision that doesn't mention autism. No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 7/56. .

Link #27 reads "And here page 2 http://www.uscfc.uscourts.gov/…/CAMPBELL-SMITH.MOJABI-PROFF…" The link is broken. It is likely that it is a reference to Mojabi v. HHS, a case before the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. Steven Novella, a neurologist, discusses the case at MMR and Autism Rises from the Dead. Mojabi was compensated for encephalopathy (a table injury), not autism. The person who created this list is lying about the autism aspect. You can read the decision here.

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? It's not a paper, it's a court decision. No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 7/56. .

Link #28 reads And here - https://ecf.cofc.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc…. The link is broken; I have no idea what the list creator was trying to link to.

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? It's not a paper, it's a court decision. No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 7/56. .

Link #29 reads "Here are 83 cases reviewed by lawyers http://digitalcommons.pace.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi…". The link is broken. It probably refers to Holland M, Conte L, Krakow R aColin L, Unanswered Questions From The Vaccine Injury Compensation Program: A Review of Compensated Cases of Vaccine- Induced Brain Injury 28 Pace Environmental Law Review pages 480-543 2011. The paper was severely criticized when it came out; I summarize the criticisms in Critiques of Holland et al., Unanswered Questions From The Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. It was a fatally flawed paper.

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 7/56. .

Link #30 reads "Oh look here's a dead kid compensated https://ecf.cofc.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc…" The link is broken. It is impossible to tell which case the list creator is referring to.

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? There's no paper there. No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 7/56. .

Link #31 reads "31 If you ever need a lawyer http://www.mctlawyers.com/vaccine-injury/cases/". It's the URL for a firm that practices primarily in the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? There's no paper there. No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 7/56. .

Link #32 reads "Here are 127 separate studies linking vaccines and autism. https://www.scribd.com/…/124-Research-Papers-Supporting-the…". The link is broken; it's citing the same collection of unedited abstracts as discussed in link #25. This is really sloppy compilation.

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? It's not a paper, it's a collection of unedited abstracts. No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 7/56. .

Link #33 reads "Read this about Hannah Brusewitz case and how she was harmed by DTP https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/cert/09-152". The link goes to a page that provides educational background on important legal cases. For a discussion of the legal issues in Bruesewitz v. Wyeth, please read The Supreme Court rules on Bruesewitz v. Wyeth and vaccine injury cases and Vaccine court jury – is there a constitutional right in NVICP cases? The Bruesewitz case had nothing to do with autism.

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? It's not a paper, it's a legal decision that had nothing to do with autism. No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 7/56 .

Link #34 reads "Supreme Court Unavoidably Unsafe http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/10pdf/09-152.pdf". This is a link to the actual Bruesewitz decision. In addition to the legal scholarship linked above, please read Vaccines and "Unavoidably Unsafe" Products and Parents Can Still Sue Vaccine Manufacturers. This ruling has nothing to do with the question of "vaccines may cause autism".

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? It's not a paper, it's a legal decision that had nothing to do with autism. No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 7/56. .

Link #35 reads "A dose-response relationship between organic mercury exposure from thimerosal-containing vaccines and neurodevelopmental disorders. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25198681". It's the same as link #24. It does raise the Geier counter.

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 9/56. .

Link #36 reads "Relative trends in hospitalizations and mortality among infants by the number of vaccine doses and age, based on the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), 1990-2010. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22531966".  This resolves to Goldman GS, Miller NZ. Relative trends in hospitalizations and mortality among infants by the number of vaccine doses and age, based on the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), 1990-2010. Hum Exp Toxicol. 2012 Oct;31(10):1012-21. doi: 10.1177/0960327112440111. Epub 2012 Apr 24. 

This paper is "dumpster diving in VAERS" and has been widely debunked (here and here for starters). It is a meaningless paper overall, and has nothing to do with autism.

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 9/56. 

Link #37 reads "Is infant immunization a risk factor for childhood asthma or allergy http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9345669", which resolves to Kemp T, Pearce N, Fitzharris P, Crane J, Fergusson D, St George I, Wickens K, Beasley R.Is infant immunization a risk factor for childhood asthma or allergy? Epidemiology. 1997 Nov;8(6):678-80.

This paper has nothing to do with autism

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 9/56. .

Link #38 reads "Infant mortality rates regressed against number of vaccine doses routinely given: Is there a biochemical or synergistic toxicity? http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3170075/", which resolves to Miller NZ, Goldman GS. Infant mortality rates regressed against number of vaccine doses routinely given: Is there a biochemical or synergistic toxicity? Hum Exp Toxicol. 2011 Sep; 30(9): 1420–1428.

Another junk science paper from Miller and Goldman. And it has nothing to do with the question, 'may vaccines cause autism"?

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 9/56. .

Link #39 reads "Infection, vaccines and other environmental triggers of autoimmunity. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16126512" which resolves to Molina V, Shoenfeld Y. Infection, vaccines and other environmental triggers of autoimmunity. Autoimmunity. 2005 May;38(3):235-45..  Shoenfeld is a problematic researcher, but that's a matter for another time. 

Nothing to do with autism; also seems to be a discursive paper rather than a “research study”. Does not attempt to explain why autoimmune diseases more common in females, but autism more common in males.

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 9/56. .

Link #40 reads "DTP with or after measles vaccination is associated with increased in-hospital mortality in Guinea-Bissau. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17092614" which resolves to Aaby P, Biai S, Veirum JE, Sodemann M, Lisse I, Garly ML, Ravn H, Benn CS, Rodrigues A. DTP with or after measles vaccination is associated with increased in-hospital mortality in Guinea-Bissau. Vaccine. 2007 Jan 26;25(7):1265-9. Epub 2006 Oct 18.  

This study had nothing to do with autism.

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 9/56. .

Link #41  reads "Measles outbreak in a vaccinated school population: epidemiology, chains of transmission and the role of vaccine failures. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1646939/" which resolves to Nkowane BM, Bart SW, Orenstein WA, Baltier M Measles outbreak in a vaccinated school population: epidemiology, chains of transmission and the role of vaccine failures.Measles outbreak in a vaccinated school population: epidemiology, chains of transmission and the role of vaccine failures. Am J Public Health. 1987 April; 77(4): 434–438..

This is the 1987 study that prompted the second dose of MMR in the US schedule, and is a very sound study. However, it has nothing to do with autism.

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 9/56. .

Link #42 reads "A positive association found between autism prevalence and childhood vaccination uptake across the U.S. population. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21623535". This is the same as link #2 above, and is still junk science. Repeating papers in this fashion is so sloppy.

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 9/56. .

Link #43 reads "Hepatitis B vaccination of male neonates and autism diagnosis, NHIS 1997-2002. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21058170" This is the same as link #6 above, and is still junk science. Repeating papers in this fashion is so sloppy.

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 9/56. .

Link #44 reads "Abnormal measles-mumps-rubella antibodies and CNS autoimmunity in children with autism. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12145534" This is the same as link #5 above, and is still junk science. Repeating papers in this fashion is so sloppy.

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 9/56. .

Link #45 reads "The plausibility of a role for mercury in the etiology of autism: a cellular perspective" http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3173748/ which resolves to Garrecht M, Austin DW The plausibility of a role for mercury in the etiology of autism: a cellular perspective, Toxicol Environ Chem. 2011 May-Jul; 93(5-6): 1251–1273. Take note of the 2011 publication date. This paper cites many of the previously debunked papers, copiously citing among others the Geiers as a rationale to be considering the putative role of mercury exposure via vaccines in autism, but fails to cite Hviid 2003, Institute of Medicine 2004, Taylor 2004, Frombonne 2006, Thompson 2007, Schechter 2008 or Price 2010 is intellectually dishonest. And engaging in tooth-fairy science

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 9/56. .

List #46 reads "Detection of RNA of Mumps Virus during an Outbreak in a Population with a High Level of Measles, Mumps, and Rubella Vaccine Coverage http://jcm.asm.org/content/46/3/1101.long,"which resolves to Bitsko RH, Cortese MM, Dayan GH, Rota PA, Lowe L Iversen SC, Bellini WJ Detection of RNA of Mumps Virus during an Outbreak in a Population with a High Level of Measles, Mumps, and Rubella Vaccine Coverage Journal of Clinical Microbiology Mar 2008, 46 (3) 1101-1103; DOI: 10.1128/JCM.01803-07. This is actually a sound paper on mumps transmission, especially among completely vaccinated individuals, using an outbreak to learn more about how mumps behaves in the body of the infected. However, it has nothing to do with autism.

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 9/56. .

Link #47 reads "A case series of children with apparent mercury toxic encephalopathies manifesting with clinical symptoms of regressive autistic disorders. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17454560." This is the same as Link #9, above. Very sloppy list compilation.

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 10/56. .

List #48 reads "Aluminum in the central nervous system (CNS): toxicity in humans and animals, vaccine adjuvants, and autoimmunity. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23609067."  This resolves to Shaw CA, Tomljenovic L.Aluminum in the central nervous system (CNS): toxicity in humans and animals, vaccine adjuvants, and autoimmunity.Aluminum in the central nervous system (CNS): toxicity in humans and animals, vaccine adjuvants, and autoimmunity. Immunol Res. 2013 Jul;56(2-3):304-16. doi: 10.1007/s12026-013-8403-1. This appears to be a review of themes in their own work. The team of Shaw and Tomljenovic's work has been widely criticized. See for example WHO, paper retractions, qnd a list of critiques. This is an unreliable paper.

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 10/56. .

Link #49 reads "Unvaccinated Children are Healthier" http://www.mednat.org/vaccini/dannivacc_study.pdf. It's a pdf of an opinion article, reporting on a self-survey by anti-vaccinationists in New Zealand. None of the health findings were validated from medical reports. It was and is a silly piece of tosh, and the person who compiled this list should be ashamed of including it.

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it is not a paper. It was more a less a popularity poll. It does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 10/56. .

Link #50 reads "Self-Organized Criticality Theory of Autoimmunity http://www.plosone.org/.../10.1371/journal.pone.0008382". This resolves to Tsumiyama K, Miyazaki Y, Shiozawa S. Self-organized criticality theory of autoimmunity. PLoS One. 2009 Dec 31;4(12):e8382. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0008382."Repeated immunization with antigen causes systemic autoimmunity in mice" . This paper has nothing to do with autism, and may have no sound science.

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 10/56. .

Link #51  reads "Combination MMRV vaccine linked with 2-fold risk of seizures http://www.eurekalert.org/pub.../2010-06/kp-cmv062310.php". This was a press release on a new finding that the MMRV vaccine may increase febrile seizures when used for the first dose at 12-18 months. Febrile seizures are common, almost always self-limiting, and have nothing to do with autism.

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does no. It wasn't a paper, it was a press release, on an issue having nothing to do with autism..
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 10/56. .

Link #52 reads "Impact of environmental factors on the prevalence of autistic disorder after 1979 http://www.ms.academicjournals.org/.../article1409245960" which resolves to Deisher, T. A., Doan, N. V., Omaiye, A., Koyama, K. & Bwabye, S. (2014). Impact of environmental factors on the prevalence of autistic disorder after 1979. Journal of Public Health and Epidemiology, 6(9), 271-286. William M. Briggs, a statistician, reviewed this paper and found it to be severely lacking; the statistics it used are garbage. Mark Chu-Carrol, a mathematician, reviewed the paper and found the analysis to be garbage. This was not surprising, as Deisher's previous work was severely flawed.

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 10/56. .

Link #53 reads "Increased risk of noninfluenza respiratory virus infections associated with receipt of inactivated influenza vaccine. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22423139," which resolves to Cowling BJ, Fang VJ, Nishiura H, Chan KH, Ng S, Ip DK, Chiu SS, Leung GM, Peiris JS.Increased risk of noninfluenza respiratory virus infections associated with receipt of inactivated influenza vaccine.Clin Infect Dis. 2012 Jun;54(12):1778-83. doi: 10.1093/cid/cis307. Epub 2012 Mar 15. It's hard to make a flu vaccine and our understanding of how influenza interacts with other respiratory infections is growing. This has absolutely nothing to do with autism.

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 10/56. .

Link #54 reads "54 Effectiveness of trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine in influenza-related hospitalization in children: a case-control study. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22525386". This resolves to Joshi AY, Iyer VN, Hartz MF, Patel AM, Li JT.Effectiveness of trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine in influenza-related hospitalization in children: a case-control study. Allergy Asthma Proc. 2012 Mar-Apr;33(2):e23-7. doi: 10.2500/aap.2012.33.3513.. Patients at the Mayo Clinic who had asthma and received the flu vaccine were more likely to be hospitalized. This is a puzzling finding that needs more investigation through the Vaccine Safety Datalink (The Mayo Clinic is not a part of the VSD) but has absolutely nothing to do with autism.

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 10/56. .

Link #55 reads "Speciation of methyl- and ethyl-mercury in hair of breastfed infants acutely exposed to thimerosal-containing vaccines. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21575620". This resolves to Dórea JG, Bezerra VL, Fajon V, Horvat M. Speciation of methyl- and ethyl-mercury in hair of breastfed infants acutely exposed to thimerosal-containing vaccines. Clin Chim Acta. 2011 Aug 17;412(17-18):1563-6. doi: 10.1016/j.cca.2011.05.003. Epub 2011 May 7. This study looked at 20 babies who were exclusively breastfed who had received known quantities of thimerosal-containing vaccines (ethyl mercury), and known quantities of other mercury exposure (such as fish in the mothers' diets, methyl mercury), and found that ethyl mercury is expressed fairly accurately in hair. This is useful for further study of infant mercury exposure, but has nothing to do with autism

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 10/56. .

Link #56  reads "Comparison of VAERS fetal-loss reports during three consecutive influenza seasons http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3888271/" which resolves to Goldman GS Comparison of VAERS fetal-loss reports during three consecutive influenza seasons Hum Exp Toxicol. 2013 May; 32(5): 464–475. Another junk Gary Goldman VAERS exploitation paper. David Gorski MD gives this paper a close read and concludes "The bottom line is that Goldman’s “study” is an absolutely atrocious bit of egregious antivaccine nonsense designed to frighten pregnant women into refusing the flu vaccine." This paper has nothing to do with autism.

• Does this paper "show vaccines may cause Autism? No, it does not.
• Evalution: ratio of papers on this list having a Geier as a co-author: 10/56. .

Here are images of the complete list:

Part 1/3 (I had to break them into pieces), taken from a chiropractor's anti-vaccine Facebook Page. . All images enlarge if clicked.

Part 2/3

Part 3/3

Footnote:

Who is Marcella Piper-Terry? She is most notorious for claiming that "coerced vaccination is medical rape", which David Gorski discusses in depth. Dr. Gorski revisits Piper-Terry's anti-vaccine ideology in 2016.

Ty Bollinger Steals Ginger Taylor's List, Renumbers It, and Markets It to his Fans

Ty Bollinger released an anti-vaccine video series, The Truth About Vaccines, (TTAV) in April of 2017. (Bollinger is best known for patient-killing cancer quackery). As a part of the "educational" outreach, Bollinger released a  renumbered, pirated copy of Ginger Taylor's list, calling it "130 Studies Linking Vaccines to Neurological and Autoimmune Disorders Common to Autism." 

This is the URL I used to access the list:

https://go.thetruthaboutvaccines.com/wp-content/uploads/130-STUDIES-LINKING-VACCINES-TO-NEUROLOGICAL-AND-AUTOIMMUNE-ISSUES-COMMON-TO-AUTISM.pdf

(click on all images to see full-size)

Bollinger is again hawking the video series:

So I went through the TTAV list systematically. Whoever made the list used some sort of numbering application that was inconsistent. Whenever there was a number that did not refer to a specific paper, I entered "missing". There are no missing papers -- they correspond exactly to Taylor's list (with one exception -- Taylor had the retracted Mawson paper as her #2 in 2017. See Chad Hayes MD on the problems with the paper).   There are just numbers with no corresponding papers.

Here's a visual example of the "missing" phenomenon

 

Taylor numbers 1 to 30 are analyzed in order at this link: http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/2017/05/are-there-131-papers-that-support-vaccineautism-causation.html. NONE of the papers establish that vaccines have anything to do with autism, or "neurological and autoimmune disorders common to autism".

See also 124 (now 144) papers that DO NOT prove vaccines cause autism (by a trauma surgeon) and Vaccines and autism: A thorough review of the evidence

The Bollinger list:

• 1. Verstraeten (Taylor #1 of the 131 iteration)
• 2. Gallagher & Goodman (Taylor #3 of the of the 131 iteration)
• 3. Missing
• 4. Missing
• 5. Missing
• 6. Missing
• 7. Missing
• 8. Missing
• 9. Missing
• 10. Missing
• 11. Missing
• 12. Branch DR (Taylor # 4 of the 131 iteration)
• 13. Missing
• 14. Missing
• 15. Ekstrand 2010 (Taylor # 5 of the 131 iteration)
• 16. Missing
• 17. Missing
• 18. Rubenstein 2015 (Taylor # 6 of the 131 iteration)
• 19. Haley 2005 (Taylor # 7 of the 131 iteration)
• 20. Yassa 2014 (Taylor # 8 of the 131 iteration)
• 21. Tomljenovic L, Shaw CA 2011 (Taylor # 9 of the 131 iteration)
• 22. Missing
• 23. Missing
• 24. Shaw CA, Li Y, Tomljenovic L. 2013 (Taylor # 10 of the 131 iteration)
• 25. Missing
• 26. Missing
• 27. Shaw, Seneff et al. 2014 (Taylor # 11 of the 131 iteration)
• 28. Missing
• 29. Missing
• 30. Missing
• 31. Missing
• 32. Nevison, (Taylor # 12 of the 131 iteration)
• 33. Blaurock-Busch, 2012 (Taylor # 13 of the 131 iteration)
• 34. Yasuda 2013 (Taylor # 14 of the 131 iteration)
• 35. Singh 2003 (Taylor # 15 of the 131 iteration)
• 36. Molina 2005 (Taylor # 16 of the 131 iteration)
• 37. Deisher 2014 (Taylor # 17 of the 131 iteration)
• 38. Delong (Taylor # 18 of the 131 iteration) -- this one has the same typo about DeLong's name
• 39. Missing
• 40. Missing
• 41. Olczak 2009 (Taylor # 19 of the 131 iteration)
• 42. Missing
• 43. Missing
• 44. Missing
• 45. Missing
• 46. Chen, 2013 (Taylor # 20 of the 131 iteration)
• 47. Missing
• 48. Missing
• 49. Li, 2014 (Taylor # 21 of the 131 iteration)
• 50. Olczak 2010 (Taylor # 22 of the 131 iteration)
• 51. Olczak 2011 (Taylor # 23 of the 131 iteration)
• 52. Missing
• 53. Missing
• 54. Sharpe 2013 (Taylor # 24 of the 131 iteration)
• 55. Sharpe 2012 (Taylor # 25 of the 131 iteration)
• 56. Missing
• 57. Missing
• 58. Missing
• 59. Zhang 2014 (Taylor # 26 of the 131 iteration)
• 60. Missing
• 61. Missing
• 62. Carvalho 2009 (Taylor # 27 of the 131 iteration)
• 63. Missing
• 64. Missing
• 65. Carvalho 2011 (Taylor # 28 of the 131 iteration)
• 66. Singh 1998 (Taylor # 29 of the 131 iteration)
• 67. James 2004 (Taylor # 30 of the 131 iteration)

Taylor numbers 1 to 30 are analyzed in order at this link: http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/2017/05/are-there-131-papers-that-support-vaccineautism-causation.html

Taylor numbers 31 to 60 are analyzed in order at this link: http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/2017/05/are-there-131-papers-that-support-vaccineautism-causation-papers-31-60.html

• 68. Missing
• 69. Missing
• 70. Khaled 2016 (Taylor # 31 of the 131 iteration)
• 71. Nataf 2006 (Taylor # 32 of the 131 iteration)
• 72. Missing
• 73. Missing
• 74. Austin 2008 (Taylor # 33 of the 131 iteration)
• 75. Youn 2010 (Taylor # 34 of the 131 iteration)
• 76. Goth 2006 (Taylor # 35 of the 131 iteration)
• 77. Breece 2013 (Taylor # 36 of the 131 iteration)
• 78. Burbacher 2005 (Taylor # 37 of the 131 iteration)
• 79. Missing
• 80. Missing
• 81. Missing
• 82. Missing
• 83. Missing
• 84. Missing
• 85. Missing
• 86. Rooney 2014 (Taylor # 38 of the 131 iteration)
• 87. Missing
• 88. Rice 1989 (Taylor # 39 of the 131 iteration)
• 89. Akinrinade 2014 (Taylor # 40 of the 131 iteration)
• 90. Charleston 1994 (Taylor # 41 of the 131 iteration)
• 91. Vargas 2005 (Taylor # 42 of the 131 iteration)
• 92. Missing
• 93. Missing
• 94. Missing
• 95. Missing
• 96. Morgan 2010 (Taylor # 43 of the 131 iteration)
• 97. Missing
• 98. Missing
• 99. Missing
• 100. Gupta 2014 (Taylor # 44 of the 131 iteration)
• 101. Missing
• 102. Missing
• 103. Missing
• 104. Lukiw 2005 (Taylor # 45 of the 131 iteration)
• 105. Missing
• 106. Missing
• 107. Missing
• 108. Missing
• 109. Missing
• 110. Missing
• 111. Young, 2011 (Taylor # 46 of the 131 iteration)
• 112. Missing
• 113. Missing
• 114. Missing
• 115. Naik, 2011 (Taylor # 47 of the 131 iteration)
• 116. Herbert 2005 (Taylor # 48 of the 131 iteration)
• 117. Waly 2004 (Taylor # 49 of the 131 iteration)
• 118. Werner 2005 (Taylor # 50 of the 131 iteration)
• 119. Desoto 2007 (Taylor # 51 of the 131 iteration)
• 120. Seneff 2012 (Taylor # 52 of the 131 iteration)
• 121. Ghanizadeh 2013 (Taylor # 53 of the 131 iteration)
• 122. Poling 2006 (Taylor # 54 of the 131 iteration)
• 123. Sajdel-Sulkowska 2008 (Taylor # 55 of the 131 iteration)
• 124. Missing
• 125. Missing
• 126. Herbert 2005 (Taylor # 56 of the 131 iteration)
• 127. Kern 2006 9Taylor # 57 of the 131 iteration)
• 128. Chauhan 2006 9Taylor # 58 of the 131 iteration)
• 129. James 2005 (Taylor # 59 of the 131 iteration)
• 130. Missing
• 131. Missing
• 132. Ercal 2001 (Taylor # 60 of the 131 iteration)

Taylor numbers 31 to 60 are analyzed in order at this link: http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/2017/05/are-there-131-papers-that-support-vaccineautism-causation-papers-31-60.html

Taylor numbers 61 to 90 are analyzed in order at this link: http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/2017/05/are-there-131-papers-that-support-vaccineautism-causation-papers-61-90.html

• 133. Petrik 2007 (Taylor # 61 of the 131 iteration)
• 134. Missing
• 135. Gorrindo 2013 (Taylor # 62 of the 131 iteration)
• 136. Holmes 2003 (Taylor # 63 of the 131 iteration)
• 137. Geier 2007 (Taylor # 64 of the 131 iteration)
• 138. Blaxill 2003 (Taylor # 65 of the 131 iteration)
• 139. Gargus 2009 (Taylor # 66 of the 131 iteration)
• 140. Anderson 2008 (Taylor # 67 of the 131 iteration)
• 141. Missing
• 142. Neustadt 2007 (Taylor # 68 of the 131 iteration)
• 143. Rossignol 2008 (Taylor # 68 of the 131 iteration)
• 144. Palmer 2008 (Taylor # 70 of the 131 iteration)
• 145. Oliveira 2007 (Taylor # 71 of the 131 iteration)
• 146. Yel 2005 (Taylor # 72 of the 131 iteration)
• 147. Humphrey 2005 (Taylor # 73 of the 131 iteration)
• 148. Kawashti 2006 (Taylor # 74 of the 131 iteration)
• 149. Hewitson 2008 (Taylor # 75 of the 131 iteration)
• 150. Young 2008 (Taylor # 76 of the 131 iteration)
• 151. Schulz 2000 (Taylor # 77 of the 131 iteration)
• 152. Gallagher 2008 (Taylor # 78 of the 131 iteration)
• 153. Minami 2009 (Taylor # 79 of the 131 iteration)
• 154. Kempuraj 2010 (Taylor # 80 of the 131 iteration)
• 155. Missing
• 156. Missing
• 157. Missing
• 158. Fiorentino 2016 (Taylor # 81 of the 131 iteration)
• 159. Hewitson 2010 (Taylor # 82 of the 131 iteration)
• 160. Walker 2006 (Taylor # 83 of the 131 iteration)
• 161. Desoto 2010 (Taylor # 84 of the 131 iteration)
• 162. Woods 2010 (Taylor # 85 of the 131 iteration)
• 163. Rossignol 2011 (Taylor # 86 of the 131 iteration)
• 164. Migdal 2010 (Taylor # 87 of the 131 iteration)
• 165. Blaxill 2004 (Taylor # 88 of the 131 iteration)
• 166. Rimland 2002 (Taylor # 89 of the 131 iteration)
• 167. Ratajczak 2011 (Taylor # 90 of the 131 iteration)

Taylor numbers 61 to 90 are analyzed in order at this link: http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/2017/05/are-there-131-papers-that-support-vaccineautism-causation-papers-61-90.html

Taylor numbers 91 to 131 are analyzed in order at this link: http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/2017/05/are-there-131-papers-that-support-vaccineautism-causation-papers-91-131.html

• 168. Stajich 2000 (Taylor # 91 of the 131 iteration)
• 169. Guy 2015 (Taylor # 92 of the 131 iteration)
• 170. D'Onofrio 2013 (Taylor # 93 of the 131 iteration)
• 171. Shandley 2011 (Taylor # 94 of the 131 iteration)
• 172. Zhang 2012 (Taylor # 95 of the 131 iteration)
• 173. Vestergaard 2004 (Taylor # 96 of the 131 iteration)
• 174. Missing
• 175. Missing
• 176. Feenstra 2014 (Taylor # 97 of the 131 iteration)
• 177. Missing
• 178. Wilson 2011 (Taylor # 98 of the 131 iteration)
• 179. Robertson 2015 (Taylor # 99 of the 131 iteration)
• 180. Duszczyk-Budhathoki 2012 (Taylor # 100 of the 131 iteration)
• 181. Olczak 2010 (Taylor # 101 of the 131 iteration)
• 182. Missing
• 183. Missing
• 184. Holland 2011 (Taylor # 102 of the 131 iteration)
• 185. Dorea 2011 (Taylor # 103 of the 131 iteration)
• 186. Hamza 2012 (Taylor # 104 of the 131 iteration)
• 187. Herdman 2006 (Taylor # 105 of the 131 iteration)
• 188. Sulkowski 2012 (Taylor # 106 of the 131 iteration)
• 189. Hertz-Picciotto 2009 (Taylor # 107 of the 131 iteration)
• 190. Missing
• 191. Missing
• 192. Missing
• 193. Khan 2013 (Taylor # 108 of the 131 iteration)
• 194. Blaxill 2004 (Taylor # 109 of the 131 iteration)
• 195. Windham 2005 (Taylor # 110 of the 131 iteration)
• 196. Palmer 2006 (Taylor # 111 of the 131 iteration)
• 197. Dickerson 2015 (Taylor # 112 of the 131 iteration)
• 190. Christian 2011 (Taylor # 113 of the 131 iteration)
• 199. Brown 2013 (Taylor # 114 of the 131 iteration)
• 200. Ewing (Taylor # 115 of the 131 iteration)
• 201. Sienkiewicz 2012 (Taylor # 116 of the 131 iteration)
• 202. Gesundheit 2013 (Taylor # 117 of the 131 iteration)
• 203. Walker (Taylor # 118 of the 131 iteration)
• 204. Stamova (Taylor # 119 of the 131 iteration)
• 205. Weizman 1982 (Taylor # 120 of the 131 iteration)
• 206. Kawashima 2000 (Taylor # 121 of the 131 iteration)
• 207. Tomljenovic & CA Shaw 2012 (Taylor # 122 of the 131 iteration)
• 208. Shaw 2014 (Taylor # 123 of the 131 iteration)
• 209. Missing
• 210. Missing
• 211. Missing
• 212. Wu 2008 (Taylor # 124 of the 131 iteration)
• 213. King 2013 (Taylor # 125 of the 131 iteration)
• 214. Missing
• 215. Missing
• 216. Missing
• 217. Shaw 2013 (Taylor # 126 of the 131 iteration)
• 218. Li 2014 (Taylor # 127 of the 131 iteration)
• 219. Tsumiyama 2009 (Taylor # 128 of the 131 iteration)
• 220. Missing
• 221. Missing
• 222. Mumper 2013 (Taylor # 129 of the 131 iteration)
• 223. Ewing 2009 ((Taylor # 130 of the 131 iteration, repeat of #115)
• 224. Kanner 1943 ((Taylor # 131 of the 131 iteration)

Taylor numbers 91 to 131 are analyzed in order at this link: http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/2017/05/are-there-131-papers-that-support-vaccineautism-causation-papers-91-131.html

The pirated Taylor list ends at page 146 of the 156 page PDF. Pages 147 to 158 are W a list of "39 Studies linking thimerosal to autism " -- which I will address in a second post.

I have watched all the episodes of The Truth About Vaccines. I was going to write a series of reviews, but happily for me, Immunization Champion Kathy Hennessey did my work for me, at her excellent blog Vaccines Work. Here are her reviews:

• The Truth about vaccines: who are the experts? https://vaccinesworkblog.wordpress.com/2017/04/19/truth-about-vaccines-who-are-the-experts/
• The Truth about Vaccines Episode 1: Top Ten lies debunked https://vaccinesworkblog.wordpress.com/2017/04/16/the-truth-about-vaccines-episode-1-top-ten-lies-debunked/
• The Truth about vaccines 2, more lies https://vaccinesworkblog.wordpress.com/2017/04/18/the-truth-about-vaccines-2-more-lies/
• The Truth about vaccines 3: MMR, DTaP, and the Greater Good https://vaccinesworkblog.wordpress.com/2017/04/20/the-truth-about-vaccines-3-mmr-dtap-and-the-greater-good/
• The Truth about vaccines 4: influenza, HIB, and pneumococcal vaccines and herd immunity https://vaccinesworkblog.wordpress.com/2017/04/29/the-truth-about-vaccines-4-influenza-hib-and-pneumococcal-vaccines-and-herd-immunity/
• The Truth about vaccines episode 5: HPV, Hep B, SIDS, and Shaken Baby Syndrome https://vaccinesworkblog.wordpress.com/2017/05/03/the-truth-about-vaccines-episode-5-hpv-hep-b-sids-and-shaken-baby-syndrome/
• The Truth about vaccines 6: rotavirus https://vaccinesworkblog.wordpress.com/2017/05/16/the-truth-about-vaccines-6-rotavirus/

The Actual Amount of Aluminum in the Neonatal Vitamin K Injection (Protect Your Baby! Get the Shot!)

Have you seen this image going around?  You need to know it is mistaken fearmongering, and the Vitamin K shot protects your baby from catastrophic bleeding.

There is only, at most,

0.05 millionths of a gram of aluminum

in the Vitamin K injections

given to newborns.

Most Americans are not fluent in the metric system, but at least are familiar with the size of a liter, from soft-drink packaging.

The measurement given is "100 mcg per liter". mcg is the abbreviation for microgram, or one millionth of a gram.

One single grain of sugar weighs about 625 mcg, or micrograms.

One liter of the Vitamin K preparation would have the equivalent of 1/6 of a grain of sugar's worth of aluminum.

Each Vitamin K vial is 0.5 milliliters (one thousandths of a liter), so it would take 2,000 vials to even get to 100 micrograms of aluminum.

But why is there even that tiny amount of aluminum in there?  

Pediatrician and science communicator Dr. Vince Iannelli explains, in his excellent Vaxopedia article Does the Vitamin K Shot Contain 100mcg of Aluminum?

"Keep in mind that aluminum isn’t even listed as an ingredient of vitamin K. But according to FDA rules, “Applicants and manufacturers must use validated assay methods to determine the aluminum content in parenteral drug products.” ."

And like many other IV fluids, another ingredient of vitamin K, 5% dextrous hydrous (sugar water), does often contain some aluminum, about 17.3mcg/L. These small amounts of aluminum are present “because practically all materials used to manufacture containers for pharmaceuticals contain Al.” From aluminum oxide in glass components to aluminum used as catalysts to make plastics, it is hard to avoid aluminum. But as we have learned that premature babies could get total parenteral nutrition for prolonged periods of time and be exposed to too much aluminum, the FDA has taken steps to limit this exposure."

The label reads "aluminum".  Is it elemental aluminum or something else?

It's something else.  It's an ionic form (or an aluminum salt), because elemental aluminum isn't soluble. In living organisms, Al is present as its salt Al3+

The main concern is the evaluating amount of aluminum present (as Dr. Iannelli explained above), so that patients are not inadvertently overexposed to aluminum.

The Vitamin K injection protects your baby from potentially catastrophic bleeding in the brain and elsewhere

More resources:

• Why every baby, and your baby needs a Vitamin K injection, from science writer Tara Haelle
• Why every baby needs a Vitamin K injection shortly after birth, from Australia's Mother and Baby Center
• Safety of aluminum in vaccines, from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
• All about aluminum in vaccines, from the Vaccine Knowledge Project at Oxford University