Posts Tagged ‘ Autism ’

IAS Complaint Part 1: Thimerosal in Your Vaccine? No.


As promised here is the first of the articles that I deal with in the formal complaint I made to the Charities Commission regarding the misinformation spread by the anti-vaccine charity IAS.  So, with out further ado (what is ado anyway?) here is the link to the offending piece and my rebuttal:

Thimerosal in your Vaccine?
Posted September 13, 2010

This post on the IAS website (made up of basically an uninformed question about the harmfulness of ethyl mercury and a video) insinuates that Ethyl Mercury (also known under the trade name Thimerosal)1 is both harmful in the amount contained in vaccines and, by extension, that New Zealand vaccines contain this substance and should therefore be viewed with suspicion.

The first thing to note is that the Thimerosal post is irrelevant to New Zealand populations as Thimerosal is not present in any of the vaccines used in New Zealand2. Bringing up this issue in the context of New Zealand vaccines (implied as this is a New Zealand organisation geared towards New Zealand residents) is at best ignorant and at worse disingenuous scaremongering. Even so it is useful to deconstruct the post anyway as it is indicative of the faulty reasoning and scientifically inaccurate content of the IAS website.

The post includes a link to the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) for Ethyl Mercury as support for this claim3. The relevant part of the MSDS has been reproduced below to give an indication of what the post considers concerning about the use of Thimerosal in vaccines.

Quoting from the MSDS:

“Effects of Overexposure: Topical allergic dermatitis has been reported. Thimerosal contains mercury. Mercury poisoning may occur and topical hypersensitivity reactions may be seen. Early signs of mercury poisoning in adults are nervous system effects, including narrowing of the visual field and numbness in the extremities. Exposure to mercury in utero and in children may cause mild to severe mental retardation and mild to severe motor coordination impairment.”

This is used in conjunction with a video link on the page4 to advance the hypothesis that Thimerosal in vaccines causes  autism, despite the fact that the symptoms listed are explicitly due to overexposure, not the trace exposure that  constitutes the vaccine dose. This type of “any level is harmful” approach to medicine neglects the dose response  relationship of drugs and other chemicals in the body. This hypothesis also ignores scientific research into
mechanisms of autism, the epidemiology of the increase in autism reports and the failure of the hypothesis to account for the continued rise of autism cases after Thimerosal was removed from the majority of vaccines.

The web-based resource Science Based Medicine has a reference page containing summaries of and links to the various studies showing no link between Thimerosal in vaccines and development of autism or autism spectrum disorder (ASD)5. The studies in aggregate looked at the claim of a link between Thimerosal and autism in a number of ways. Several looked at large groups of individuals and attempted to find any sort of correlation between childhood exposure to Thimerosal and development of autism symptoms. All together these studies combed through the data of over 750,000 individuals in several different countries and found no evidence to support a link.

Continuing to disseminate information that implies a link between Thimerosal and autism is to be either wilfully ignorant of the current state of research, in which case claims to educational content are not accurate, or to be dismissive of the current research as being an inaccurate reflection of the facts. This second option depends on there being some sort of conspiracy within the scientific/medical community to hide the truth. No such conspiracy can be substantiated.
As an side, the MMR vaccine has also been linked to development of autism in the minds of anti-vaccine campaigners since Andrew Wakefield’s now discredited and retracted paper in the Lancet6. A Cochrane review of the evidence shows

“No credible evidence of an involvement of MMR with either autism or Crohn’s disease was found.”

and

“Exposure to MMR was unlikely to be associated with Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, autism or aseptic meningitis…”7

—————————————————————————————————–

Footnotes:
1. Thimerosal clarification of chemistry:
The chemical IUPAC name of Thimerosal is actually
Ethyl(2-mercaptobenzoato-(2-)-O,S)mercurate(1-) sodium.
This breaks down to Ethyl Mercury in the body.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiomersal

2. Vaccine ingredients:
a. Childhood vaccine Schedule:
http://www.moh.govt.nz/moh.nsf/indexmh/immunisation-schedule-html
http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcmed.nsf/pages/wycpreve/$File/wycpreve.pdf
http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcmed.nsf/pages/gwcinfih/$File/gwcinfih.pdf
http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcmed.nsf/pages/gwcinfiv/$File/gwcinfiv.pdf
http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcmed.nsf/pages/gwchibrx/File/gwchibrx.pdf
http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcmed.nsf/pages/gwcbostv/$File/gwcbostv.pdf
http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcmed.nsf/pages/cscgarda/$File/cscgarda.pdf

b. Influenza Vaccines:
http://www.moh.govt.nz/moh.nsf/indexmh/influenza-a-h1n1-2010-faqsseasonal#safety
http://www.moh.govt.nz/moh.nsf/Files/swineflu/$file/vaxigrip.pdf
http://www.moh.govt.nz/moh.nsf/Files/swineflu/$file/Fluvax.pdf
http://www.moh.govt.nz/moh.nsf/Files/swineflu/$file/Influvac.pdf

3. MSDS cited on the IAS website:
http://www.vaccine-tlc.org/docs/Thimerosal%20Material%20Safety%20Data%20Sheet.pdf

4. Misleading video posted under the heading “Thimerosal in your Vaccine?”:

5. The Science-Based Medicine resource page on Vaccines and Autism:
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/reference/?p=1

6. Andrew Wakefield:
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2810%2960175-4/fulltext
http://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.c7452.fullhttp://www.nature.com/ajg/journal/v105/n5/full/ajg2010149a.html

7. Cochrane review:
http://www2.cochrane.org/reviews/en/ab004407.html

2011
10/11
CATEGORY
Medicine
Questionable Techniques
Sciblogs
Science
skepticism
3 comments

Anti-Vaccine Charities – Is there any Quality control on Charities?


I haven’t really been writing much lately, for this blog at least. Much that is due to simple procrastination but earlier this year my free time was spent doing something equally stimulating.

Back in July I submitted a complaint to the New Zealand Charities Commission, which they (allegedly) are currently investigating, about the Immunisation Awareness Society (IAS). This is a charitable organisation that disseminates anti-vaccine information, while at the same time denying that they are anti-vaccine.

Grant has recently done an excellent post on some of the nonsense put out by IAS representatives, go have a read if you’ve not seen it yet.

My complaint focuses on the fact that to be a registered charity an organisation must fulfil a charitable purpose (makes sense). The particular legislation outlines these purposes as:

“the relief of poverty, the advancement of education or religion, or any other matter beneficial to the community.”

In my complaint I detail how the advancement of education is not met by the IAS, that they are anti-vaccine and that they therefore do not constitute a benefit to the public. As they do not relieve poverty nor advance religion this effectively should remove them from the arena of “Charity”.

To answer the question posed in the title, theoretically – yes there is quality control over charities. Part of the mandate of the Charities Commission is to:

“promote public trust and confidence in the charitable sector”,

“monitor charitable entities and their activities to ensure that entities that are registered as charitable entities continue to be qualified for registration as charitable entities”

and

“inquire into charitable entities and into persons who have engaged in, or are engaging in, conduct that constitutes, or may constitute, a breach of this Act or serious  wrongdoing in connection with a charitable entity”

In large part my compliant is based on this previous post about the IAS, cleaned of snark and updated with a few references. In addition I dismantle a few of the “Educational” posts on their website to show how the information they promote is factually incorrect and geared towards convincing parents not to vaccinate their children.

In particular I look at This post that attempts to link NZ vaccines with Thimerosal and thereby to Autism even though both links in this chain are fictitious. Next I go over This post which is a copy of a submission to an FDA committee by Roberta Boyce founder of the anti-Gardasil website truthaboutgardasil.org, predicably criticising the Gardasil vaccine for being some sort of secret plot to make people sick and sterile. Okay maybe you couldn’t have predicted that. Finally I take apart yet more claims about the “Toxic” ingredients of vaccines, similar to another of my previous posts. Then I cover potential and actual damage caused by anti-vaccine sentiment (like the Auckland Measles outbreak).

I have no doubt that the IAS will rail against this complaint claiming that I’m trying to suppress free speech (nothing of the kind, they can continue their activities without being a charity) or that I’m attempting to smear them (no need, their output speaks for itself) or that I’m a henchman for the Immunisation Advisory Centre (no affiliation, but if they want to throw some money my way…;-)).

I’m hopeful that this complaint will at least get the Charities Commission to pay attention to the IAS and it’s output. Like I said I’m not interested in shutting them down, upholding free speech means defending those you don’t agree with (or something, I’m hazy on the details. People tell me it’s good). The issue I have is that these guys are essentially receiving a government subsidy (in the form of tax exemptions) for spouting inaccuracies.

Finally I have to give enormous thanks to Simon Clendon who kicked me into action after my post on the IAS philosophies and took on the task of editing the brain dump that resulted. He also made a bridge to the nice people at the IMAC who provided some extra info (still no affiliation just a few emails).

For those who want more on how I deal with the IAS misinformation I will repackage the various sections of the complaint as follow-up posts (tagged “IAS complaint”). Plus, I went to all that work, might as well eh?

If you want to read the full complaint in all it’s damning detail and mind numbing depth you can find it in PDF form Here, I’ve also got a snappy snip url: http://snipurl.com/iascomplaint. Go on, you know you want to. Tell your friends.

There are also a few supporting documents at that address as well, just to make finding them easier. If this inspires you to make your own complaints then go for it, the more the merrier, probably. I’m sure you needn’t go to as much trouble as I did (though if you want to, it’s fun. Plus by now the IAS has continued to march ahead with new misinformation).

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2011
10/11
CATEGORY
Medicine
Psychological
Questionable Techniques
Sciblogs
Science
skepticism
7 comments

Vaccines and Autism – Media Report Card


Just got sent this link by the irrepressible Aimee, a “Not great” article about the Vaccines vs Autism “Debate”.

Here’s my Media Score Card for this article:

Much rubbish, a few good points. I give her a C-.

‘vaccinate at any cost’ = Strawman
Court decisions =/= Science
Incomplete knowledge = No knowledge = Fail
Anecdote =/= Good Evidence
“acceptable risk” argument simplifies risk/benefit assessment = Fail
“Teh Toxins” = Fail
Injection = Unnatural = Fail
“canaries in the coalmine” = Fail.   Can someone say “Mommy instinct”?

Respectful discussion = Win
Pro-information = Win
Complex topic = Win.

All-in-all a reasonable person sucked into the Vaccine -> Autism perspective.

Pity.

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2011
09/15
CATEGORY
Medicine
Sciblogs
Science
skepticism
1 comment

Science Coverage in the Media – A Report on the BBC


I just read this story about an independent review of science reporting from the BBC (via RD.net). It covers the release of a report on the coverage of science by the BBC, while the report is mostly favourable there are a few things that could be addressed and done better.

The obvious one is the general media habit of false balance. This is the practice of inserting contrary views for the sake of it and in doing so providing a false sense of the actual sate of affairs. Examples given in the report are AGW, the MMR vaccine/Autism brouhaha and GM crops. For other markets I’d throw in the creationism/evolution “debate”, clashes between so-called Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM, or now “Intergrative Medicine”) and other issues where the science strongly favours one view point.

This is a significant problem in the media where the pressure must be great to both appear “impartial” and to take advantage of “manufactroversies” to drive consumers up-take of content. Care must be taken when presenting stories to give due weight to each view point in order to convey the correct interpretation to the target audience if stories are to be presented correctly. Too often fringe views are given disproportionate air time in order to the provide “balance”, but this has the effect of giving these views more credence in the public consciousness than they deserve.

A great parody/analogy used in the report by the reviewer was “mathematician discovers that 2 + 2 = 4; spokesperson for Duodecimal Liberation Front insists that 2 + 2 = 5, presenter sums up that “2 + 2 = something like 4.5 but the debate goes on”.

That’s it in a nutshell.

A great video of comedian Dara O’Briain covers the same point. (I know it’s been posted before but it’s hilarious)

I have not yet had a chance to look at the entire report (it’s over 100 pages) but hopefully I can wade through it at some point ad pull out a few more interesting points.

2011
07/22
CATEGORY
Sciblogs
Science
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Pseudoscience


Science and pseudoscience, what’s the difference? It’s not a trick question, as you approach the cutting edge of science, where the known becomes the unknown and theories become wild and speculative the line between the two can be quite fuzzy. String Theory anyone? But in general the difference lies in that where science starts with facts and observations and arrives at conclusions pseudoscience starts with a conclusion and twists fact and observation to fit. The two most common avenues to pseudoscience appear to me to be: First, when a hypothesis is retained long after dis-confirming evidence should have rendered it obsolete. Adherents of the “Vaccines cause Autism” movement would fall into this category. Second would be those who attempt to prove their own pet ideology by either conducting flawed research or by willfully misinterpreting the work of others. Creationists and Intelligent Design proponents might fall into this category.

Correctly discerning pseudoscience can be difficult, especially if it appeals to our own biases. Some things to consider are: Arguments from authority, real science shouldn’t be decided by a chosen few, rather it is the sum total of a multitude of efforts and advancements are evaluated by the scientific community as a whole and finally a consensus is reached. Insufficiently detailed references to supporting data, it is important to be able to find the primary sources that are being used to support a position so that you can read it yourself and determine if it has been correctly interpreted. Reliance on testimony, look at the quality of the references used, if they come mainly from personal experience they may not be reliable.

Finally, you may want to look at a larger sampling of the scientific community and see what they have to say about the topic or person you are interested in. There are bound to be many sides to the issue but you may pick up on the general flavour of scientific opinion. Good luck and happy investigations.

Resources

2008
06/11
CATEGORY
Psychological
Questionable Techniques
Science
Warped Science
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Vaccines


Parents have a tough job. That’s a fact. However this job is made tougher by two things, 1. Fear for their children’s safety, 2. False information in the media. The first is completely natural and even necessary. The second unfortunately is also natural and is something that arises because of peoples fear.

Part of the reason is that when you are talking about someone’s child then any risk is too much. That is understood and absolutely forgivable, this leads to trouble though when that fear is misinformed and the public does not have the knowledge to decipher the facts for themselves. An inability to rationally weigh the risks also leads to making decisions that can be detrimental to health long term.

The trouble with the current concern over vaccines causing autism is that this is primarily a case of parents being overwhelmed by media coverage that is intended to produce ratings not provide accurate information. It is a recurring theme that the controversial stories are hyped and the factual follow ups are down played or overlooked altogether.

Multiple studies have shown that the putative link between the MMR vaccine and autism does not hold up, some of these are listed below. In addition the rise in autism diagnoses that anti-vaccination groups point to is widely regarded by the scientific community to be an artifact of the inclusion of a wider variety of disorders under the umbrella term of “Autism” in recent decades. Autism is defined by a certain constellation of symptoms being present and their severity. In recent years less severe examples of these symptoms have been added to the diagnosis of the autism spectrum. This allows for a greater number of diagnoses than in the past.

This is a very complex and emotional debate and I have only touched on it briefly here, I recommend reading up on the subject through the resources listed below.

Resources

http://www.cdc.gov/od/science/iso/mmr_autism.htm

http://www.theness.com/articles.asp?id=74

http://www.theness.com/neurologicablog/?p=37http://www.immunize.org/mmrautism/

http://www.immunize.org/catg.d/p2065.htm

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=26561

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/330/7483/112-d

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/324/7334/393

2008
01/07
CATEGORY
Hoaxes
Medicine
Warped Science
4 comments
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