The document discusses the beliefs of anti-vaxxers and attempts to debunk some of their claims. It notes that anti-vaxxers believe vaccines are directly injected into the bloodstream and bypass the immune system, and that they cause all adverse effects listed in inserts. However, the document argues that anti-vaxxers misunderstand basic science and redirect conversations away from evidence. It also examines how vagueness in scientific articles has allowed anti-vaxxers to misinterpret findings to support their views.

1. The pseudoscience of AntiVaxxers
Rod Cook
Biomedicine

6. What do AntiVaxxers believe?
 Vaccines are injected directly into the bloodstream
 By injecting directly into the bloodstream, the vaccine contents bypass the
immune system
 Vaccines cause all of the Adverse Events listed in the vaccine inserts
 Most if not all of the contents of a vaccine are toxic, neurotoxic or poison
 There are more deaths from vaccines than from the diseases they are meant
to prevent
 Their medical choices have been taken away, re: vaccination
 The pediatric schedule diseases are benign
 The government hides or removes data truth to depopulate the Earth
But don’t take my word for it...

28. 2017 deaths by sex and age

29. 1985 deaths by sex and age

30. 1970 deaths by sex and age

31. 1950 deaths by sex and age

32. 1935 deaths by sex and age

33. 1920 deaths by sex and age

34. 1909 deaths by sex and age

35. Infant mortality rates - 1913 to 1918
Infant mortality rates – 1913 - 2018

38. Measles notifications
Wakefield article

42. The issue is not the actual science.

43. Take scurvy for example.
“It took the British merchant navy 264 years to introduce
citrus juice to prevent scurvy among sailors following the
demonstration of its effectiveness in 1601 (Mosteller,
2006, p. 516). This was a simple policy problem. The
problem was well defined—scurvy was the greatest killer
of the navy, worse than all other causes of death together
(ibid.). It was equally easy to establish whether or not the
problem had been solved—those who got the citrus fruit
were cured in a few days. Yet, the scientific evidence was
ignored.”
https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/humaff.2014.24.issue-3/s13374-014-0227-8/s13374-014-0227-8.pdf
DOI: 10.2478/s13374-014-0227-8

44. Science literacy article on AVs
“There is a growing literature on health and digital literacy
which suggests that users’ vulnerability to obtaining non-
reliable information on the Internet is associated with
lower socioeconomic status, lower cognitive ability and
older age, lower literacy and numeracy and less
knowledge about vaccination (see the discussion in
Betsch et al., 2012).”
https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/humaff.2014.24.issue-3/s13374-014-0227-8/s13374-014-0227-8.pdf
DOI: 10.2478/s13374-014-0227-8

45. Information dissemination
“Furthermore, the anti-vaccinationists discursively resist
vaccination through a reframing that constructs risks as
unknown and non-random while at the same time frame
themselves as “free thinkers” (Hobson-West, 2007).”
https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/humaff.2014.24.issue-3/s13374-014-0227-8/s13374-014-0227-8.pdf
DOI: 10.2478/s13374-014-0227-8

46. National Survey
“Nyhan et al. (2014) surveyed a nationally representative
group of parents with children living at home in 2011,
randomly assigning them to one of four interventions:
(1) information from the CDC explaining the lack of
evidence that the MMR vaccine causes autism;
(2) textual information from the Vaccine Information
Statement about the dangers of the diseases
prevented by MMR;
(3) images of children with diseases prevented by the
MMR vaccine;
https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/humaff.2014.24.issue-3/s13374-014-0227-8/s13374-014-0227-8.pdf
DOI: 10.2478/s13374-014-0227-8

47. National Survey
“This design enables us to test whether the parents are
more likely to respond to technical or narrative forms of
communication.
Surprisingly, none of the interventions increased parental
intent to vaccinate a future child.
Although corrective information reduced misperceptions
about the vaccine/autism link, it also decreased intent to
vaccinate among parents with the least favorable attitudes
toward vaccines.
Furthermore, images of sick children and the narrative
about an infant in danger increased beliefs in serious sidehttps://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/humaff.2014.24.issue-3/s13374-014-0227-8/s13374-014-0227-8.pdf
DOI: 10.2478/s13374-014-0227-8

48. Mortality rates

49. Mortality rates

50. Infectious disease mortality rates -
Australia
• For males, the death rate from infectious diseases fell
from 283 deaths per 100,000 population to around 6
between 1907 and 1980, after which it almost doubled
to 11 in 2000.
• Similarly for females, the death rate fell from 230 to 4,
before increasing to 7 in 2000.
https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/e7aaefca-e725-4f2e-81bc-b594853ea4e8/motca.pdf.aspx?inline=true

51. Infectious diseases include conditions such as
tuberculosis, polio, smallpox, hepatitis, and
sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis and
HIV/AIDS.
Not included are influenza and pneumonia
Australia

57. What AntiVaxxers do…
• They read Abstracts (many full articles are paywalled)
• They quote others who misquote articles
• They misunderstand science basics
• They redirect the conversation away from the science
• They use the vagueness in some journal articles

58. Who is Del Bigtree?
- Journalist
- Worked on the TV Show “The Doctors”
as a Producer
- Runs the “Highwire Talk” internet talk
show
- Produced the documentary VAXXED
- Runs ICANdecide.org, which investigates
“drug and vaccine fraud” from an AV
perspective

60. No competing interests?

61. How vagueness in articles helps
AntiVaxxers
• Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at Keel University UK
• Research was part-funded by a grant from the Children’s Medical Safety Research Institute,
a US-based organisation that challenges vaccine safety.
• Tried GoFundMe after the University cut off his funding after non-disclosure of all funding sources

63. •n = 5
•ALL confirmed with ASD
•NO CONTROLS

64. Donor Gender Age
A1 F 44
A2 M 50
A3 M 22
A4 M 15

69. 12/17

75. A look for an AntiVaxxer perspective

77. AntiVax take home message
• Human exposure to Aluminium is implicated in ASD
• Vaccines contain Aluminium
• Aluminium travels via monocytes to the brain via the
lymphatics
• High levels of Aluminium were found in ASD brains
• Therefore, vaccine Aluminium causes ASD.

79. Science take home message:
• Aluminium in vaccines comes in a few compound forms:
Al(OH)3 AlPO4 AlOOH
Al(O)OH
AlHO2
78.004 g/mol 121.9529 g/mol
59.988 g·mol−1
Al3+
26.981538 g/mol

80. Wording science articles, especially Abstracts
• Use correct chemical terminology
• Don’t substitute one chemical symbol for an entire
compound, eg. Al for Al(OH)3
• Thiomersal: C9H9HgNaO2S is not “Mercury”
• Aluminium hydroxide: Al(OH)3 is not “Aluminium”
• Aluminium phosphate: AlPO4 is not “Aluminium”