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How Anti Vaccinationists Think


I was turned on to a great textbook example of a pseudoscientific true-believer’s blog in “Vaccines Exposed” the blog of a recent Leahey.org commenter. A recent post has drawn my attention, as it presents a few unique opportunities. First, blog readers can follow the path of events as:

The funny thing is that this doctor wanted to start my son immediately on 2 things - milk thistle and DHA. He is already on both! This doctor will also be testing for everything that the pediatric neurologist is not - to include defective mitrochondria. After testing his blood and urine, I will then begin other supplements that were recommended.

Homeopathic and “alternative” health modalities are prescribed by yet another pseudoscientific practitioner. The stage is set perfectly. The diagnosis has been made by a “DAN” doctor. For those of you that don’t know, DAN stands for Defeat Autism Now!, a ridiculously fringe “alternative” and “holistic” autism treatment organization. In other words, its an organization of quacks. 

So lets use good science to form a hypothesis about the path of events that will play out here. We’ll make a prediction, and see if it bears out. Dr. Herbchewer diagnoses autism. Dr. Herbchewer prescribes milk thistle and DHA for the treatment of the autism. Magically, the child is “cured” of all of his autistic symptoms!

A cure! Right? Wrong. Occam’s razor. What is the simplest explanation for a cure being attained by the usage of a totally implausible treatment method? I’ll give you a moment…

… Got it? Thats right, the condition was never present to begin with. SO, if things work out, Dr. Herbchewer gets a nice hefty check, and the parent gets her child back, “cured”. If things go wrong, and the weeds don’t “cure” the autism, well then the vaccines were simply too powerful in their evils! I conclude with:

My son hasn’t had a vaccine in 15 months and he is still slipping backward!

A look inside the mind of a true believer. There is no set of circumstances where they will question their beliefs. If they think A causes B, it doesn’t matter *how long* it takes for the symptoms of B to present themselves, it will not shake them.

Posted 01 December 2008 § Misc ‡ Comments °

‘HIV Cure’, not


Recently a sensationalized story involving a potential “cure” for the HIV virus has been making the rounds in the news. As I’ve usually found with science reporting in the mainstream media, the truth is somewhat less groundbreaking than was reported.

The case cited in the article is that of an American man in Berlin, Germany. He apparently was suffering with the HIV virus, and underwent a bone marrow transplant to attempt to eliminate the virus from his system. The interesting bit is that he received a transplant from someone who was immune to the HIV virus. These types of mutations of the gene that makes the protein that HIV uses to gain entry to one’s system were discovered in the late 1990s. After the treatment, the patient stayed off of retroviral drugs, and has since been HIV-free.

On the surface this seems like a really amazing breakthrough in the research for a cure. However, upon closer inspection, its actually not all that its been cracked up to be. The process by which a patient is prepared to receive a bone marrow transplant involves essentially destroying their immune system with radiation. This is a taxing process for the patient to go through and most HIV patients, already sick with the disease, could probably not undergo such a procedure safely.

Furthermore, finding a bone marrow donor for a patient is difficult enough. This procedure requires you find a donor that not only is a match for the patient, but also inherited (from both parents) the mutation of the gene that grants them immunity to HIV. This would simply not scale well out from one patient to the HIV-positive population as a whole. 

Posted 01 December 2008 § Health § Skepticism ‡ Comments ° Tagged: , ,

Rotavirus Vaccination Success


Another blow against the anti-vaccination crowd. A post on MedPage today, reviewed by Robert Jasmer MD, Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, quotes:

The vaccine has markedly reduced hospital and emergency room visits, medical costs, and the number of cases of disease caused by rotavirus…

…There’s also evidence that the vaccine, approved by the FDA in 2006, is creating a “herd immunity” that’s protecting even some children who haven’t been vaccinated.

However, all these silly results of these silly studies have been nullified by a poignant post by the good people over at AutismMercuryLink.com:

The Rotavirus vaccine, Hib vaccine, HPV vaccine and the various multi virus vaccines being introduced without any kind of testing is only because the vaccine manufacturers and the doctors administering them want to ensure a good income from them.

Interesting. It sure seems like they’re testing the vaccines.

Posted 27 October 2008 § Health § Skepticism ‡ Comments ° Tagged: , ,