Debunking Denialism

Defending science against the forces of irrationality.

Category Archives: Anti-vaccination

Swedish Anti-Vaccine Infection Parties for Measles and Rubella

Leave a Comment Posted by on May 10, 2013

infection party

Near the Swedish capital Stockholm lies a small city called Järna. It is the main center for the anthroposophy movement in the country. The city has several Waldorf schools and even a medical clinic called Vidarkliniken. The clinic was awarded with “Misleader of the Year” by the Swedish Skeptic Association in 2008 for their pseudoscientific treatments, which include homeopathy. Despite this, the clinic continues to receive some political support and financial support from the regional municipality. Vidarkliniken has also been in the news recently when they gave mustard leaves to a patient with a cerebral hemorrhage. In 2012, the largest outbreak of Rubella since 1989 occurred in Järna and all fifty cases (compared with a couple of cases per year) could be connected to the region. The proximate origin of the outbreak is thought to be from India where a group of people traveled to and so non-vaccinated individuals got infected and brought it back, making rubella explode in the community.

The Swedish anti-vaccine movement is particularly strong in Järna and parents prefer to take their children to infection parties instead of vaccinating them. The basic idea behind an infection party is that you bring a bunch of susceptible children to spend time with a child that is currently infected with e.g. measles, rubella or chicken pox and hope that the non-infected children become infected. According to anti-vaccine cranks, this hardens the immune system of the child and they see it as a rite of passage. In addition, anthroposophist believe that it is good for the child’s spirit.

For proponents of science-based medicine, this is dangerous for children because the diseases can cause harmful complications and safe vaccines are available against those diseases. Read more of this post

Anti-vaccination , , ,

Cold Facts about Gardasil? More like Intellectual Rigor Mortis

1 Comment Posted by on April 23, 2013

Kalla Fakta - Vaccination Choice

Kalla Fakta (roughly translates to “Cold Facts”) is an investigative program on Swedish television that has been on air since 1991. Among its many crowning achievements we can count exposing how the Swedish government let a CIA-led operation on Swedish soil deport two suspected terrorists and subject them to torture in an Egyptian prison (one of them was released and each got financial compensation equivalent to almost half a million USD) as well as shining a light on the Nazi connections of Walther Sommerlath (father of the Queen of Sweden) that was previously denied. Together with Uppdrag Granskning (roughly translates to “Mission: Scrutiny”), it is one of those investigative shows that typically sends chills down the spine of people anytime you get a phone call or visit from them; you instantly know you are in deep trouble.

However, even good investigative programs sometimes fall pray to pseudoscience. On April 21st, Kalla Fakta aired an episode called “The Vaccination Choice”, which was supposedly investigating the information teenage girls get about the HPV vaccine Gardasil. In reality, it was a compilation of classic anti-vaccine tropes and, astonishingly, one of their tactics was reminiscent of the HIV/AIDS denialists pseudodocumentary House of Numbers.

Let us investigate the investigators. Read more of this post

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New Swedish Site Takes on Anti-Vaccine Crankery

2 Comments Posted by on February 20, 2012

Today, a new Swedish website called Vaccininfo (Vaccine info) has been launched. What is special about this project is that yours truly is one of the writers! We have decided to bring the debunking of Swedish anti-vaccine crank into the online world to counter the increasing vaccine rejectionism presence in the mainstream media and in social medias like Facebook and Twitter.

Here is a description of the website that I wrote (my translation).

Vaccines is one of the greatest inventions of modern medicine. Today, children do not die in vaccine-preventable diseases to the same extend that they did before. During the 20th and 21th centuries, humanity has defeated many infectious diseases by extermination (e. g. smallpox and rinderpest) or radically reduced their incidence (polio, measles, whooping cough).

Despite this enormous success, there are dark forces in society attempting to undermine the public confidence in vaccines by spreading myths, conspiratorial thinking, scientific inaccuracies and fear propaganda.

With the emergence of internet, anyone can publish anything they want without it needing to be accurate. This has lead some to believe more in what they have seen on Youtube than read on the website of various infectious disease control authorities around the world.

Vaccininfo takes on these vaccine rejectionists and counter them on all fronts.

This does not mean the end of Debunking Denialism of course, but my time will have to be shared between these two projects.

Announcements, Anti-vaccination, Skepticism

Swedish Anti-Vaccine Cranks Start Encroachment on Africa

Leave a Comment Posted by on February 6, 2012

Your worst nightmare just came true.

As you know, I have been keeping an eye on Swedish anti-vaccine cranks during the last few months, detailing their spread and debunking their claims in detail. They basically repeat the same old canards as their British and American counterparts, often not even bothering to translate it to Swedish, but just copy/paste intellectual defecation from places like Natural News. I generally considered them to have low potential impact on society at large. Their editor Linda Karlström had only given a few talks under the umbrella of marginalized conspiracy organizations and had not gotten any particular coverage in the news.

This was until I noticed a new press release on their website vaccin.me. It just goes on and on, so I only wrote its central message below (my translation).

Vaccin.me want to each out to 115 million french-speaking Africans

Vaccin.me wants to reach out to larger groups that is suspected to lack knowledge about the risks an ineffectiveness of vaccines. Therefore, we want to reach as many as possible within french-speaking Africa to increase knowledge about risks and to stimulate an open debate.

This could, in a worst case scenario, dwarf the deaths of over 330000 people with HIV/AIDS under the regime of AIDS denialist Thabo Mbeki.

Now, the group behind vaccin.me is probably not well-funded or organized. Realistically speaking, their impact will probably be minor. However, they may help to mount an increased resistance against vaccination and contribute to thwarting efforts at eradicating vaccine-preventable diseases such as polio and measles.

If they join forces with other anti-vaccine organizations, we may be looking at major outbreaks that could have been prevented. They will have to spend the rest of their lives trying to wash their hands of the blood of innocent African children that died due to their anti-vaccine actions.

Anti-vaccination , , ,

A Swedish Vaccine Rejectionist Comes Out to Play…

3 Comments Posted by on January 30, 2012

…but gets badly burned by powerful radiance of science-based medicine and reason.

Note: In a response to an earlier article where I debunked a Swedish anti-vaccine crank by the name of Marina Ahlm, she posted a comment so scientifically flawed that I thought I dissect it in detail. However, my comment became so long that it was worth its own blog entry. I have reproduced my reply below. Enjoy!

I see that Marina Ahlm found her way to my refutation of her blog post. She seems very keen on commenting, as she submitted her comment multiple times. It is interesting to see that she have merely senselessly copy/pasted the comment word-for-word from other texts on the internet, often repeating the same flawed claims that she presented in the original entry at your anti-vaccine blog, rather than making arguments in her own words. she also did not respond to any of the points that I made in this blog entry. Did she even read it before commenting? If she read the comment policy of this blog before she posted (she clearly did not), she would have seen that it prohibits copy/pasting long arguments without any original input. However, I will be humble and allow this behavior. For now. Also, unlike what goes on at the anti-vaccine blog at vaccine.me, I do not randomly delete comments or edit them to undermine critics. She and her allies have been exposed.

Anyhow, I will indulge her delusional beliefs and provide a point-by-point refutation (again!). Hopefully she will learn this time around, but I doubt it. When someone is so ideologically committed as she is, it is extremely hard to make them see their error. She more or less repeat the same logical fallacies as before: confirmation bias (she artificially inflates minor setbacks and limitations with vaccines while ignoring the benefits and efficacy), perfect solution fallacy (she reject vaccines because they are not perfect) and she also tend to quote government reports and scientific articles out of context. Probably, she have not read the original documents, but merely copy/paste what other anti-vaccine cranks have written Read more of this post

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The Insanity that is Swedish Anti-Vaccine Crankery

5 Comments Posted by on January 29, 2012

Sweden has largely been spared of the creeping vaccine rejectionist propaganda that has plagued the United States and Great Brittan for decades. However, the anti-vaccine forces are stirring under the surface and have acquired a larger internet presence than ever before, especially after the vaccination program against the pandemic H1N1/09 virus. The growing movement is centered around conspiracy-mongering websites like vaken.se that has bought into almost every conspiracy theory imaginable about 9/11, water fluoridation, vaccines, global warming and genetically modified foods. Another important hub of the Swedish anti-vaccine movement is Annika Dahlqvist, who is a medical doctor promoting diet as protection against infectious diseases. For her pseudoscientific claims, she was awarded denialist of the year (“Årets förvillare”) by a Swedish skeptic society (called “Föreningen för vetenskap och folkbildning”) in 2009. A third central figure is blogger Linda Karlström (an economist), who has recently started a new anti-vaccine group blog under the domain vaccin.me. She has teamed up with others and they spend most of their time shamelessly parroting the anti-vaccine falsehoods put forward people like Mike Adams, Lawrence B. Palevsky and Jackie Swartz, a anthroposophist doctor at a Swedish CAM clinic called Vidarekliniken. Karlström’s group is collecting anecdotal stories from anti-vaccine parents who believe their children have gotten hurt by vaccines. According to their website, they intend to gather 1000 reports before they attempt at class-action lawsuit.

Luckily, they do not have free reign. Responsible science journalists, scientists, public health professionals as well as the skeptic society of Sweden are combating their falsehoods, both online and offline.

Let us take a detailed look at what passes for evidential arguments at Karlström’s blog. The blog post that I am refuting is written in Swedish, but I will translate the claims being made to the best of my ability. Feel free to use online translation services to check the translation. The user Marina Ahlm (a nurse currently trying to become a “medicinal foot therapist” according to the website bio) posted an entry absurdly entitled Herd immunity cannot be achieved through vaccination: even vaccinated people carry viruses and bacteria that can be found here. As we shall see, it is filled by distortions, scientific falsehoods, half-truths and plain old nonsense.

Measles vaccination has been a scientific success!

—> According to the WHO (2011), the measles mortality has been reduced by as much as 78% between 2000 and 2008 mostly due to the benefits of large-scale immunization program. In the vast majority of regions, this figure is at 90% (between 2000 and 2010).

—> After the introduction of the measles vaccine in 1963, the incidence of measles fell dramatically, from almost 500000 cases per year to almost none in comparison. Even though small and sporadic peaks and valleys due to natural fluctuations, the huge reduction is real (CDC, 2011). To be sure, the fact that B follows A does not mean that A causes B, but when you have a strong correlation plus a mechanism that is supported by many different lines of evidence, the reasonable position is to tentatively accept the efficacy of the measles vaccine.

—> Ahlm makes the flawed argument that since, apparently, it is practically difficult to evaluate the efficacy of a second dose of measles vaccine, this means that the measles vaccine has been a failure and that WHO only offers excuses. However, practical problems evaluating the efficacy of a second dose of measles vaccines compared to getting one cannot undermine the enormous mountain for the efficacy of the measles vaccine. As far as we know, a single dose may potentially offer the bulk of the protection.

—> In fact, the WHO does not offer excuses, but points out the real reasons why we have seen some resurgence of measles in certain areas of the world: vaccine efforts are sometimes not sustained partly because of the actions of vaccine rejectionists (like Ahlm): “However, global immunization experts warn of a resurgence in measles deaths if vaccination efforts are not sustained. Experts fear the combined effect of decreased political and financial commitment could result in an estimated 1.7 million measles-related deaths between 2010-13, with more than half a million deaths in 2013 alone” (WHO, 2011a). Read more of this post

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Anti-Vaccine Propaganda at The Sovereign Independent

6 Comments Posted by on January 9, 2012

Have you ever heard of an online paper called “The Sovereign Independent”? According to their about page, they strive to “provide critical news, information and education which the mainstream media often refuse to print regarding the direction Ireland, the UK and the wider world is heading and the increasing loss of sovereignty and independence spreading across the globe”. Right now, high-pitched sirens and alarms should be going off in your head and your baloney kit should be activated. A cursory sifting of their website shows that they focus mainly on spreading conspiracy theories about the New World Order, which includes falling deep into anti-vaccine advocacy.

A reader sent me a link to an article by S. Edmonson at The Sovereign Independent called ALL the Vaccines Are Contaminated – Every Last One of Them. It is a fairly standard piece, claiming that vaccines cause autism, that the government is using forced vaccinations to sterilize the population and so on, but it has been pasted around the internet a couple of thousands of times, so I decided it merited a detailed debunking. Not because there is any merit to their claims, but because pseudoscience and denialism must be steadfastly resisted. It is too much text for a point-by-point refutation, so I will concentrate on writing short and concise responses to the main points, but retaining a useful reference list.

Vaccines do not cause autism

—> Even if the rates of autism correlated with increase in number of vaccinations, this does not mean that vaccines cause autism as correlation does not imply causation.

—> About a dozen scientific studies show that the vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella does not cause autism (Afzal et. al. 2006; Dales et. al. 2001; Davis et. al. 2001; DeStefano et. al. 2004; DeStefano et. al. 1999; D’Souza et. al. 2006; Farrington et. al. 2001 etc. see reference list for more).

—> About a half a dozen scientific studies show that the preservative thimerosal does not cause autism (Andrews et. al. 2004; Fombonne et. al. 2006; Heron et. al 2004; Hviid et. al. 2003; Madsen et. al. 2003 etc. see reference list for more).

—> Detailed reviews published by Institute of Medicine shows that neither the MMR vaccine nor thimerosal cause autism, that hepatitis B vaccine does not cause myelinating neurological disorders, that vaccines do not cause Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and they conclude that “few health problems are caused by or clearly associated with vaccines” (see reference list for all relevant publications).

Vaccines do not overwhelm the immune system.

—> The immune system of a child does not get overwhelmed by many vaccines. This is because the immunological challenges in all vaccines currently administrated are negligible (about 150) compared with the immunological challenges from a single bacteria (about 2000). A newborn baby is exposed to literally billions of bacteria at the moment of birth (Gerber and Offit, 2009; Offit et. al. 2002; Smith & Woods, 2010). Read more of this post

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Why Are Boys Getting a Vaccine Against Cervical Cancer!?

Leave a Comment Posted by on January 7, 2012

“Why are we giving a vaccine against cervical cancer to young boys who don’t even have an uterus?!”

A lot of anti-vaccine activists ask this question, apparently not having done their homework. Then again, denialists have a tendency to not really understand the scientific basis of what they are rejecting, so this level of ignorance is sadly not unusual. Here are the three main reasons why boys are getting vaccinated against HPV.

Reason 1: It protects males from other forms of cancer cause by HPV.

HPV does not only cause cervical cancer, but some strains can cause other forms of cancer, such as neck and head cancer. By vaccinating boys against HPV, they are less likely to get these forms of cancers.

Reason 2: It protects males from getting genital and anal warts.

Some strains of HPV can also cause painful and ugly warts in the genital or anal area. This is not deadly, but costly and has a psychological toll for the patient. Getting vaccinated with an HPV vaccine that contains proteins from the strains that cause these warts, boys will also be protected.

Reason 3: It reduces the spread of HPV to females.

Males can spread HPV to females during intercourse. So if more guys have been vaccinated against HPV, fewer guys will spread HPV to females and fewer females will become infected and risk developing cervical cancer and anal and genital warts.

References and Further Reading

Hall, H. (2011). HPV Vaccine for Boys. Science-Based Medicine. Accessed: 2012-01-04.

Harris, G. (2011). Panel Endorses HPV Vaccine for Boys of 11. The New York Times. Accessed: 2012-01-04.

Offit, P. A. & Moser, C. A., (2011). Vaccines and Your Child: Separating Fact from Fiction. New York. Colombia University Press.

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A Few Anti-Vaccine Archetypes

Leave a Comment Posted by on December 31, 2011

Steven Novella recently published What is an Antivaxer? over at the Science-Based Medicine blog. It is a useful overview of different classic types of anti-vaccine advocates. He admits up front that it is really a continuum, but offers a couple of typical cases.

I will discuss them in turn and add my personal interpretation and evaluate how likely it is to persuade the individuals in these categories that they are mistaken. To emphasize again, these are stereotypical categories and all individuals should be treated as individuals.

1. The Misinformed Parent

This is the person who has heard anecdotes from their friends and started to believe, with no good evidence, in the general harmfulness of vaccines. Novella explains:

The first sub-category is not truly anti-vaccine, but can be made to feel as if they are being lumped in with extremists – and that is well-meaning parents who are simply misinformed or confused.

He goes on to point out that scientific skeptics are not critical of this group, as they are merely the unfortunate victims of anti-vaccine propaganda. Maybe they have heard that vaccines contain mercury, but not gotten the full story:

However, mercury was removed from the routine childhood vaccine schedule in the US by 2002. Tiny doses of mercury (in thimerosal) is still present in some, but not all, flu vaccines. You can get all the vaccines you need without any mercury (except for insignificant trace amounts). I should also mention that the doses of mercury in vaccines prior to 2002 was tiny, that it is in the form of ethylmercury, which is much less toxic than methylmercury (the form that is more likely to be encountered in the environment), and that the evidence does not show any link between mercury in vaccines and any adverse outcome.

I think that these group should be treated with kindness because they may be the easiest archetype to persuade of the effectiveness and safety of vaccines. Not quite an unbiased fence-sitter, but basically as close to one as you get when it comes to anti-vaxers.

2. The Mercury Militant

If one is heavily invested in the idea that mercury that is suppose to be found in vaccines (which really isn’t; see above) is causing pretty much most or all of modern day diseases, one may be placed in the mercury militant archetype. Novella suggests that: Read more of this post

Alternative Medicine, Anti-vaccination , ,

Three Great Ironies of the Anti-Vaccine Movement

Leave a Comment Posted by on November 14, 2011

Let us not forget that the vast majority of the claims put forward by the anti-vaccine movement have gone down in flames, but there are a couple of interesting ironies in the situation that is worth taking a closer look at.

Irony #1: Claiming that MMR vaccine causes autism, when it actually can prevent certain cases of autism

One of the most common claims from the anti-vaccine cranks are that vaccines, often specifically the trivalent vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella, causes autism. This claim has been contradicted by a dozen or so large-scale epidemiological studies and detailed reviews of the literature, but the problem goes even deeper than that. A pregnant female infected with rubella can give birth to a child that has the condition known as congenital rubella syndrome (CRS), with includes deafness, abnormal eyes, congenital heart diseases and, surprisingly, developmental disabilities such as autism spectrum disorder (Offit and Moser, 2011). Getting vaccinated with the MMR vaccine strongly reduces the risk for women who later get pregnant to get infected with rubella and therefore prevents the child from getting the congenital rubella syndrome (which is a risk factor for developing autism spectrum disorder). Read more of this post

Alternative Medicine, Anti-vaccination , , , , , ,

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