Thread by @glenpyle

Tired of fighting the #antivaxxers on Twitter? Need some help in responding to their unsubstantiated claims and nonsense? Feel free to use this thread, or add your own comments. Be warned: it contains some crazy shit. And cursing. #wildride #VaccinesWork

I’ve asked several #antivaxxers for 1 peer-reviewed research study that supports their claim that vaccines cause autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Most never respond but some @ me a list of "studies" they claim make this link. For fun I started to read…
scribd.com/doc/220807175/…

For convenience I have numbered the tweets to correspond to the number listed in the link. Feel free to keep score as we go through these papers!

1. Abstract. Not a full, peer-reviewed study. Maybe I wasn’t clear when I said ‘”peer-reviewed, research studies”. My bad.

2. Study retracted twice (so far). One more and they have a hat trick of failure (or disgrace: you choose)! #fraud #antivaxxers

3. Abstract. Study never published following peer-review. Also, autism group had 33 kids, control group 7,455. Nice balance when the data are presented as percentages. Doesn’t work in reality (where most of us live). (N.B. ‘reality’ claim not applicable to #antivaxxers).

4. This study is about pregnant Korean women & children & how mercury through fish consumption is toxic. If we are going to stretch things this far I’m going to note that I once ate a Filet-O-Fish from McDonald’s & I did not get ASD. That is as equally valid as this study.

5. Meta-analysis, not a study. Looks at association between mercury & ASD. Did they not understand what I was asking for? #confused #antivaxxers

5. “Yoshimasu et al. [67] conducted a meta-analysis to evaluate the association between prenatal or early infancy exposures to mercury and autism. They concluded that exposure to thimerosal vaccines (contained ethyl mercury) did not associate with ASD.”

5. I’m not sure that whoever made this list understood that the objective was to prove an association between ASD & vaccines, because they sure are doing a good job making the argument against this claim. #selfinflicted

6. Again, not a vaccine study nor is it a research paper. This is a review in which other studies are interpreted. Maybe they confused “review” and “research”. #graspingatstraws

6. Claims ethylmercury is highly toxic but fails to point out that the study that claims toxicity exposed cultured cells to 200X peak levels seen in neonates following vaccination, not to mention that the compound was incubated and not circulating.

6. Paper concludes that “one must stress that to date there is no credible evidence that any given vaccination, such as the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, is definitely associated with neuropathology in the overwhelming majority of recipients.”

6. Again, just a comment to whoever made this list: you were supposed to prove an association between ASD & vaccines, not include papers that say there is “no credible evidence”. #backwards #antivaxxers

7. Again, did not study vaccines. No data on vaccines at all. Conclusion was “Whether a causal relationship exists between heavy metals and ASD remains a subject of debate and requires further study.”

7. Did the person who made this list get fired from the #antivaxxer group that paid them? #withcause

8. Cool! An actual research paper! Oh wait…in a single dose they gave rats what a child would see over 6 months, and increased dosing until it was 100X higher.

8. So we can say when rats are injected w/ 100X higher than what a child would see over their first year of life, maybe something might possibly could happen. Maybe. So, this one fails too. #strike8

8. Did anyone explain to Sparky (I’m going to call the author of this list Sparky. I think that is probably his/her name. Don’t ask me why, I just think that) that these papers are supposed to support a link between ASD & vaccines? Maybe they missed that meeting.

9. Okay, this study looks promising. Primary research paper…actual data…wait, what?

9. “When using 38.4-mg/kg thimerosal, however, it was noticed that the thimerosal was not going completely into solution; hence subsequent dosing with thimerosal was in 10% DMSO”. So, the dosing went so high that they dissolved it in a toxic solution (DMSO). Is that a problem?

9. “…the in vivo levels of thimerosal used in our studies are far higher than what would be expected in humans…” Seriously, did anyone read this study before claiming it supported your ridiculous claim? Sparky? #crickets #antivaxxers

10. Okay, I’ll be honest. I didn’t even read this study.

10. Why? Well, when the abstract starts w/ “Mercury (Hg) exposure from dental amalgam fillings and thimerosal in vaccines is not a major health hazard” I’m going to go out on a limb and say this study isn’t going to support the link between ASD & vaccines either.

To plagiarize The Sundays, here is where the story ends. I don’t have time for this nonsense. How is it that #antivaxxers can’t answer a simple, straightforward request, but they can somehow uncover a vast scientific conspiracy?

They can’t. And apparently they either can’t read or choose not to, because 100% of what they claim as supporting evidence either doesn’t support their claims or actually contradicts what they say. #antivaxxers

So, until #antivaxxers can provide peer-reviewed, scientific publications w/ actual data that shows a link between ASD & vaccines, I’m going to take every vaccine so I can live forever & torment these ignorant bastards on #SoMe. With love, @glenpyle.