Last week, I wrote about how antivaxxers were falsely claiming that there is now an epidemic of “sudden adult death syndrome,” or SADS (which is really a misnomer for sudden arrhythmic death syndrome,” or, also SADS)—particularly in young adults who die suddenly, unexpectedly, and without an obvious anatomic or chemical cause of death—because of COVID-19 vaccines. Two important points to emphasize are that (1) SADS is an old diagnosis, known since at least the 1970s and dating back long before that under different names and (2) SADS incidence has not been increasing since 2021, the latter of which would rather be a necessary prerequisite even to consider COVID-19 vaccines as a cause given that they didn’t start rolling out to the general population until December 2020. Of course, in antivax land, everything old is new again, and blaming SADS on vaccine followed a playbook antivaxxers have long used to try to blame sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) on vaccines, such as when right wing blogger Vox Day used hilariously bad arguments to try to make that link it a decade ago or when antivax “citizen scientists” Gary S. Goldman and Neil Z. Miller tag-teamed a dumpster dive into the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) database to try to links SIDS to vaccines.
I supposed that I shouldn’t have been surprised to see Tweets like this popping up the other day:
First of all, I was easily able to find a reference to SIDS in PubMed dating back to 1950, although it was in French. In fairness, the first large study of SIDS that I could find was indeed published in 1969. It was a retrospective study of 1,134 sudden, unexpected infant deaths which occurred in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland), Ohio from 1956 through 1965 that laid out some classic findings, such as the vat majority of deaths occurring before six months of age, seasonal fluctuation (more common in winter), and a negative correlation with increasing socioeconomic status. (Clearly the syndrome was known before 1969, even if one cites that paper.) Using Google Scholar, I found other articles in the medical literature using related terms (such as the sudden death syndrome of infancy) dating earlier. However, the specific term SIDS was indeed first formalized in 1969 as “sudden death of an infant or young child, which is unexpected by history, and in which a thorough post mortem examination fails to demonstrate an adequate cause of death,” and it wasn’t until 1971 that SIDS was accepted as a diagnosis on death certificates.
Of course, SIDS is nothing new. As many people pointed out after the brain dead Tweet that I cited above, the unexpected and often unexplained deaths of infants have been described for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, under various names, such as crib death or cot death. Indeed, as this review article notes, arguably SIDS was described in the Bible in the First Book of the Kings (specifically 1 Kings 3:19), where it was written “…and this woman’s child died in the night; because she overlaid it.” This brings up the issue that in the past SIDS was blamed on “overlaying“:
Sudden death in a seemingly healthy infant during sleep is not a phenomenon of modern times, with cases being recorded throughout history for thousands of years. Indeed, one of the first cases is mentioned in the Bible (1 Kings 3:19). However, these deaths have generally been attributed to overlaying, as it was common practice to sleep in the same bed as a child. Indeed, the death of an infant by “overlay” was considered such an issue that by the seventh century the event was a punishable offence (6), with the introduction of a “protective” wooden arcuccio for infants to sleep in during the 18th century in Europe with severe penalties if the infant died in a co-sleeping arrangement and the frame was not used (7). By the 19th century the belief that the death of infants during sleep was due to overlaying was so entrenched that death was still attributed to this despite evidence suggesting otherwise (8), with calls for co-sleeping of parents and children to be illegal, especially if the parents were in an intoxicated state (9). This belief was maintained for the next 100 years (1). While fewer deaths are attributed to overlaying in modern times, it is often impossible to exclude this possibility when death has occurred in a bed-sharing situation, which often leads to a diagnosis of “undetermined”.
However:
As evidence built in the late 19th century that infants deaths were occurring without being associated with bed sharing (and thus overlaying), new theories of the factors mediating infant deaths began to arise. In 1830, Kopp’s “thymic asthma” proposed that enlargement of the thymus in some infants resulted in a build-up of pressure leading to tracheal obstruction (10). Others suggested intrinsic asphyxial mechanisms (8), suffocation catarrh (11), superstition or the actions of witches and gods (12, 13) as the cause of sudden death.
I’ll go into the causes and epidemiology of SIDS more in a moment. First, however, I wondered just where this particular talking point had come from, and I found one potential source, that wretched hive of scum and antivax quackery, Age of Autism, in the form of a post by retired naturopathic quack William Gaunt entitled Many Infant Deaths Classified as SIDS Are Actually Caused by Vaccines. Right from the introduction to the post, you see exactly the same narrative as Five Times August presented:
Crib death. Cot death. SIDS has been a formal cause of death since 1969. It’s hard to imagine a deeper pain. Today, we have SADS – and you can guess what the A stands for – adult. Healthy young people, not infants, dying of “natural” causes. As always, thank you to Dr. Gaunt for speaking out on behalf of pediatric health and wellness.
In antivaxland, everything old is new again—and again and again and again and again. Since I’ve already dealt with the SADS narrative in depth; so I’ll focus primarily on the claim that vaccines cause SIDS. So let’s dig in. I’ll start with a claim that I must admit that even I had never seen before. (I blame the pandemic.) Here’s what I mean:
There are 130 official ways for an infant to die. These are listed in the International Classification of Diseases and are sanctioned by WHO and CDC. Before 1979, one of the possible causes of infant death was vaccines. After 1979, all cause-of-death classifications associated with vaccination were eliminated. (Thanks to Neil Z. Miller for this and other information used in this article. He published “Vaccines and sudden infant death: An analysis of the VAERS database 1990-2019 and review of the medical literature” in PubMed Central Toxicology Reports on June 24th, 2021). Before 1979, a coroner could choose vaccines as the cause of an infant death if the evidence fit that conclusion. After 1979, vaccines were no longer one of the accepted causes of infant death and the coroner would be forced to choose another cause of death. SIDS would be a likely alternative choice. It is not a stretch to assume that the vaccine companies had a hand in eliminating vaccines as one of the accepted possible causes of infant deaths.
Somehow, I had missed this “study” (which, oddly enough, Gaunt doesn’t link to) but look at the name! Miller is truly the Energizer Bunny of bad VAERS studies and dumpster diving for complications. I’m also truly amused at how Not-A-Doctor Gaunt refers to the journal as “PubMed Central Toxicology Reports, because PubMed Central is just a repository for publications made available to it, either because the authors want to or are required to because their study was funded by the federal government.The journal is just Toxicology Reports, an open-access journal that has, unfortunately, become rather well-known for publishing low quality studies supporting the antivaccine viewpoint.
The interesting thing about this claim is that it’s checkable. Since the ICD-9 was released in 1979, clearly he must be referring to diagnoses in ICD-8 (from 1965) and earlier. It’s also true that ICD-8 has two diagnoses (with subdiagnoses for specific vaccines):
- E933: Complications and misadventures in prophylaxis with bacterial vaccines
- E934 Complications and misadventures in prophylaxis with other vaccines
However, if you look at ICD-9, you’ll find the following codes with additional numbers to add for individual vaccines:
- 978: Poisoning by bacterial vaccines
- 979: Poisoning by other vaccines and biological substances
In ICD=10, similar codes still exist, as well as codes for vaccine-associated poliomyelitis and allergies to vaccines. Miller is either mistaken or lying when he claims that after 1979 coroners could not list a vaccine as a cause of death because of changes in the ICD-9. Different versions of the ICD codes do list causes of death by diagnosis, but I note that even ICD-8 does not list vaccines as a cause of infant mortality, even though it does include two different general diagnosis codes complications from vaccines and several codes, each specific to a given vaccine.
Just for yucks, I went back to look at even earlier ICD versions. ICD-6 and -7 have codes for complications of smallpox vaccines and other vaccines, while ICD-5 only has a code for sequelae of smallpox vaccination, which is what earlier versions of ICD also have. The bottom line is that codes for vaccine complications have always been part of the ICD system, and the current system still has them. There is nothing to stop a coroner from using them when determining a cause of death.
Gaunt also cites the Vaccine Court:
In one case, an African American male infant (JB) received seven vaccines at his 4-month well baby visit. He died the next day. The medical examiner stated that the cause of death was SIDS. After hearing the evidence, the vaccine court Special Master stated in his decision: “I have concluded that the petitioners have demonstrated by a preponderance of the evidence that the vaccines can and likely did play a critical role in this child’s death by stimulating the production of inflammatory cytokines that suppressed the respiratory response and caused the vulnerable infant to be unable to respond in the normal way to the accumulation of carbon dioxide in his system.” Most cases of alleged vaccine-caused injury or death get rejected by vaccine court. The evidence must be overwhelming and irrefutable for the petitioner to have any chance of winning the case. This case was originally classified as SIDS, but solid evidence proved that vaccines caused this infant boy’s death.
I wrote about this case and Vaccine Court decision in detail when it was released. The first thing to note is that the Vaccine Court did not conclude that vaccines caused this child’s death from SIDS. As I put it at the time, for this case speculation and cherry picked science beat strong epidemiology showing no link between vaccines and SIDS, which is why I said at the time that the Vaccine Court does sometimes get things wrong. I also noted that this case was an outlier that ignored all the other previous National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, (NVICP) rulings that had rejected the very the hypothesis of “cytokine storm” as a mechanism for vaccines to cause SIDS. More importantly, though, if you’re going to cite this case, you really should mention that the Federal Court of Claims overturned this decision in 2018, a decision affirmed by the Court of Appeals of the Federal Circuit in 2019. The judgment concluded that the original decision was arbitrary and capricious because it ignored previous decisions and applied a too-low standard of proof to the case. I like to view this particular decision as an example of how the Vaccine Court, contrary to how it’s portrayed by antivaxxers, actually bends over backwards to try to compensate complainants.
For a relatively brief article, Not-A-Doctor Gaunt does manage to do quite the Gish gallop. For instance, he claims:
The CDC vaccine schedule calls for the hepatitis B vaccine to be given on the day of birth. At 2 months, it calls for 8 vaccines (diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (DTaP), polio, hepatitis B, pneumococcal, haemophilus B, and rotovirus.) At 4 months, it calls for 7 vaccines (DTaP, polio, pneumoccal, haemophilus B, and rotovirus.) Then at 6 months there are 9 more vaccines on the schedule (DTaP, polio, hepatitis B, pneumococcal, haemophilus B, flu, and rotovirus). No worries that 7 to 9 vaccines given to an infant at one time might kill some infants. The authorities routinely exonerate the vaccines and encourage the selection of SIDS as the appropriate cause of these deaths. VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System) data shows that more than 78% of reported infant deaths occurred within the first 7 days post-vaccination. This does not prove that vaccines killed these infants, but it is highly suspicious.
Again, VAERS is a passive reporting system, and babies do get several vaccines at 2, 4, and 6 months. Given that the peak incidence of SIDS occurs between 2-4 months of age and SIDS is uncommon after six months of age, one would expect a number of cases to occur within a week or two of vaccination by random chance alone, just as we expect a number of cases in which the first symptoms of autism are reported within a month or less of vaccination. You know what’s interesting here, though? Notice the vaccination schedule cited by Not-A-Doctor Gaunt. Notice which vaccine is not on it. That’s right, children under 6 months of age do not routinely receive the MMR vaccine. Look at the CDC vaccine schedule for children; the first dose of MMR isn’t recommended until 12 months of age, long past the age when SIDS occurs. Gaunt started his whole narrative by claiming that SIDS was a term coined in the late 1960s, conveniently not long after the rollout of the measles vaccine, and yet SIDS occurs primarily in an age range much younger than when the first dose of MMR is administered. This observation alone shows that MMR could not possibly be a cause of SIDS. That’s quite the bait-and-switch that Gaunt and antivaxxers pulled with this narrative!
And don’t even get me started on Gaunt’s citation of another Goldman and Miller dumpster dive claiming to relate increased risk of hospitalization to vaccination or his parroting the vilest antivax lie of all, that shaken baby syndrome is a “misdiagnosis for vaccine injury.” It’s a lie that’s been used to try to free child abusers from prison after they killed children. Gaunt also cites an apocryphal story from Archie Kalokerinos about aboriginal children in Australia supposedly dying in large numbers from vaccines; that is, until Kalokerinos discovered that they were malnourished and that vitamin C would save them. In brief, Kalokerinos was an antivaxxer affiliated with the antivax group the Australian Vaccination Network who routinely spread lots of conspiracy theories about vaccines, including that vaccines were used to spread HIV/AIDS in Nigeria as part of a deliberate genocide perpetrated by the World Health Organization and the Save The Children Fund, that they were used by the Australian government to kill a large number of Aboriginal Australians, and that the United States planned to exterminate criminals by encouraging them to get vaccinated.
Gaunt also Gish gallops with some other observations. He cites an awful “analysis” by Amy Becker and Mark Blaxill that tried to relate a decline in SIDS to COVID-19 lockdowns that resulted in delays in childhood vaccination, falsely concluding that this shows that vaccines cause SIDS. I discussed the flaws in their “analysis” in detail when they published their nonsense. He cites Japanese authorities raising the age for first vaccination from 3 months to 2 years in the 1970s as a result of the DTP scare in the 1990s, claiming that after “this change, the sudden infant death rate following vaccination improved by 90%.” Well, yes. Looking at a population of 2 year olds and older would just by random chance alone result in a much lower death rate, given that the peak SIDS incidence is before age 6 months. Babies who make it to 2 years old are, of course, far less likely to die of SIDS. Also, Gaunt cites a paper that shows that the incidence of adverse events after acellular pertussis vaccination was similar to that of whole cell pertussis vaccination among two year olds and forgets to mention the resurgence of whooping cough that resulted from Japan’s policy change, with 49 deaths in 1979, far more than the number of deaths associated with DPT. One notes that Japan made a similar mistake with the MMR vaccine nearly 20 years later, with the result being a resurgence in Rubella.
I’ll conclude by mentioning that we’ve met Not-A-Doctor Gaunt before, in the context of his having authored another post on AoA, this one entitled The Elephant in the Living Room. The post is built around a metaphor involving a two-year-old child found in the living room with his head crushed. In the room there is also an elephant whose “hooves” are dripping with blood. This happens as the police are examining the crime scene:
The younger detective says, “What about the elephant? It seems clear that…” His older partner interrupts him and takes him aside. He says, “If you want to keep your job, you will disregard the elephant as a suspect. It is an absolute career killer to accuse an elephant of anything bad. The CDC has funded several scientific studies which show that elephants are safe and effective and above reproach. Take it from me, you don’t want to go there. We can come up with any cockamamie story we want but it is totally politically incorrect to even mention the possibility that the elephant had any role in this child’s death.” The younger detective said, “Sorry. I didn’t know.”
That’s right. Not-A-Doctor Gaunt actually used a metaphor in which vaccination was likened to an elephant crushing a toddler’s head but not being suspected of the crime because of a religious or ideologic belief that the elephant can’t do anything wrong. This is the sort of man we’re talking about.
The claim that vaccines somehow cause SIDS is an old antivax lie based on the observation that the peak age of SIDS just happens to coincide with an age range in which infants get a number of vaccines (2 months, 4 months, 6 months). It’s a multifactorial condition that has nothing to do with vaccines. Indeed, one strong argument that it does not is simply to cite the incidence of SIDS since the 1990s. Guess what? This decline started falling dramatically in the early 1990s, which is when, as antivaxxers like to point out, the childhood vaccine schedule started to expand to include several more vaccines. This decline also corresponded with the promotion of the Back To Sleep campaign to encourage parents to have their infants sleep on their back, given that stomach sleeping is a known risk factor for SIDS.
Not-A-Doctor Gaunt’s narrative is a familiar one to those of us who’ve been following the antivaccine movement. It confuses correlation with causation and ignores history and evidence. It’s not surprising to me that a new version of this myth in which a similar false claim has arisen about SADS has emerged after the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines. When antivaxxers have only a hammer, everything looks like a nail to them.
77 replies on “SIDS, SADS, death and destruction: Antivaxxers resurrect an old lie to bolster a new lie”
Five Times August is a rapper/ singer? who has performed at Del’s anti-mandate extravaganzas. I’ve heard him. Enough said.
Orac writing about SIDS might summon an activist who has impermeable views on the subject. I don’t know if Orac wants to discuss recent controversy concerning SIDS and particular genetics so I’ll leave it alone for now.
Is the music any good?
@Doritt – SAD Little Man ORAC sitting deep in a lie.
The Sad Little Man sitting deep in a lie who writes blogs could be paying more attention to the evidence of a 25% increase in cardiac events in males and females after injections of the failing product with temporal associations, as published recently in Nature
‘the findings raise concerns regarding vaccine-induced undetected severe cardiovascular side-effects and underscore the already established causal relationship between vaccines and myocarditis, a frequent cause of unexpected cardiac arrest in young individuals.’
‘While vaccine-induced myocarditis was predominantly reported in males14,19 it is interesting to note that the relative increases of CA and ACS events (Table 1) was larger in females. This may suggest the potential underdiagnosis or under-self-reporting of myocarditis in females, or other unique patterns, which is consistent with the ongoing challenge of gender-related differences related to cardiovascular disease diagnosis and care’
‘there is a robust and statistically significant association between the weekly CA and ACS call counts, and the rates of 1st and 2nd vaccine doses administered to this age group.
At the same time there is no observed statistically significant association between COVID-19 infection rates and the CA and ACS call counts.’;
Mrna COVID Vaccines Dramatically Increase Endothelial Inflammatory Markers and ACS Risk as Measured by the PULS Cardiac Test: a Warning
Originally published24 Nov 2021https://doi.org/10.1161/CIR.0000000000001051Circulation. 2021;0:CIR.0000000000001051
As Well as the 22x increase in death rates in athletes since the rollout of the you know what, Actuaries finding 40% higher deaths rates in ages 18-64, since the beginning of 2021, the close to 500 articles in peer-reviewed journals showing the adverse events of these experimental jabs, etc., etc.
ORAC – SAD Little Man
You useless trumpet. You understand how nothing works. You can barely construct a simple sentence, never mind a robust scientific argument. You don’t even possess the competence to recognize your own incompetence. “Cervantes”? ROFL. Your illiterate bowel movement impressed nobody here but you.
Correct URL:
https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIR.0000000000001051
Not Nature. Circulation.
Not Paper. Abstract.
Not Good. Expression of Concern:
Subsequent Correction:
https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIR.0000000000001053
Previous Debunking:
https://www.respectfulinsolence.com/2021/11/24/how-antivaxxers-weaponized-an-abstract-by-a-goop-doctor-against-covid-19-vaccines/
In summary: Go sit on a protein spike and spin, you weirdly fixated little creep.
—
“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.”
Scientific Reports isn’t Nature, Chucklehead.
I see that the abstract has finally received and Expression of Concern. Well played.
You might want to go back yo that DOI and (re)read it. You may be surprised by its current contents. I suggest that you do a Google search for the abstract title (it’s not a full paper), and find the published corrections page and an updated version of the paper.
You did read what was at the DOI, didn’t you?
Here’s the DOI for the abstract teased out from the copypasta in the OP:
https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIR.0000000000001051
Well, it’s slightly better than listening to a jackhammer at a construction site but otherwise , no.
The revisions of the American Heart Association publication have not changed the conclusion.
Increased emergency cardiovascular events among under-40 population in Israel during vaccine rollout and third COVID-19 wave is NOT Published?
Sci. Reports
Published: 28 April 2022
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-10928-z?fbclid=IwAR2lzqlsmAboqAVpPfkIQlopjEHYuth3lAd3gf_Zi2mUH7McWdFFt-hxGXI&fs=e&s=cl#article-info
@Don Quixote’s Ass: “The revisions of the American Heart Association publication have not changed the conclusion.”
This is true. They have, however, clarified the evidence base upon which that conclusion is built.
I guess that if all you care about is the conclusion, something as trivial as and EoC wouldn’t change your mind.
Not only has Orac written about this unpublished abstract (which is not a Nature paper) before: https://www.respectfulinsolence.com/2021/11/24/how-antivaxxers-weaponized-an-abstract-by-a-goop-doctor-against-covid-19-vaccines/
It has been revised in ways that show that, well, it’s not founded. https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIR.0000000000001053
Whoever told you that this was a Nature paper misled you. They also did that if they did not tell you about the many issues with the abstract.
@Doritt
The revisions of the American Heart Association publication have not changed the conclusion.
Increased emergency cardiovascular events among under-40 population in Israel during vaccine rollout and third COVID-19 wave is NOT Published?
Sci. Reports
Published: 28 April 2022
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-10928-z?fbclid=IwAR2lzqlsmAboqAVpPfkIQlopjEHYuth3lAd3gf_Zi2mUH7McWdFFt-hxGXI&fs=e&s=cl#article-info
It just about corrlation of calls and vaccine rolls.
There is one with actual myocarditis diagnosis:
Mevorach D, Anis E, Cedar N, Bromberg M, Haas EJ, Nadir E, Olsha-Castell S, Arad D, Hasin T, Levi N, Asleh R, Amir O, Meir K, Cohen D, Dichtiar R, Novick D, Hershkovitz Y, Dagan R, Leitersdorf I, Ben-Ami R, Miskin I, Saliba W, Muhsen K, Levi Y, Green MS, Keinan-Boker L, Alroy-Preis S. Myocarditis after BNT162b2 mRNA Vaccine against Covid-19 in Israel. N Engl J Med. 2021 Dec 2;385(23):2140-2149. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2109730. Epub 2021 Oct 6. PMID: 34614328; PMCID: PMC8531987.
Btw, do you notice why ebate on vaccines do not work ? One should actually read papers, a thing difficult within a debate.
This seems to be going downhill.
The Circulation poster abstract, is not the Scientific Reports item (which is still not Nature).
@Narad, Reiss, Has
SAD Little Man ORAC debunks an April 28, 2022 publication on November 24, 2021.
Hilarious!
Does Sterno come in flavors now?
@Cervantes:
Also @Cervantes (emphasis mine):
Your inability to read your own inept copy-pasta is not our problem. Kindly go away until you get your lithium dosage corrected.
Rand Paul : ‘Can you tell me if anyone on the vaccine approval committees ever received money from the people who make vaccines?’
Sad Little Man Fauci : ‘People who receive royalties are not required to divulge them.’
5 Times August – Sad Little Man (Song of Trurh) :
https://youtu.be/6plsSlxOstQ
When you’re reduced to citing rand paul on anything you really have no case.
@Idw56old –
I get you; I generally shut out anything coming out of SAD Little Man Fauci’s mouth as well.
@squirrelelite
It looks like you now shut out everything the :
SAD Little Man
Double Vaxxed
Double Boosted
Double Masked
Infected Spreader has to say; just like Idw56old.
I understand.
Actually I respect Dr Fauci although I don’t agree with everything he has said. I also don’t engage in argument from selected quote.
I’ve watched a few videos of Senator Paul’s interactions with him. The Senator gives him an argumentative question, seeking a simple yes/no answer which he can spin as either a confession or denial. When Dr Fauci tries to give a more complex and nuanced explanation of what is really going on, Paul cuts him off and won’t let him continue.
I prefer sources such as this one where he is able to speak at length without those interruptions and is talking to a knowledgeable audience.
Also repeatedly calling someone a “sad little man” suggests you don’t have a more substantive response to make.
https://youtu.be/a_Vy6fgaBPE
The difference is, of course, paul is a congenital liar (and racist: he is truly his father’s son) with no real training in science, but he is adept in sucking in people who themselves are uneducated and gullible — folks like you.
Fauci, on the other hand, does know what he’s talking about, and knows that as data (which you scum ignore with regularity) opinions and advice change.
But keep on with your blatant lies: it seems you’ve chosen that path over being honest.
@Idw56old
Congenital Liar, Gullible? –
‘Virtually ? % efficacious!’ – Fauci
Maybe your 5th, 6th shot will work?
https://youtu.be/g-66GYpf_4o
@Cervantes Orignally COVI vaccine efficiency was 95% /Nearly 100%).That was before mutations
Actually, Rand IS an EXPERT. If you choose to believe lobbyist puppets over Doctors, then suffer the consequences. Lets hope it starts with the author!
An expert ophthalmologist.
Still, no difference between a domestic electrician and an industrial electronic automation control specialist in Carey’s book eh?
An expert ophthalmologist.
Hmmph, I think that relying on his medical expertise on the immune system and vaccines is a little unwise. Anyway, he’s a politician now. He’s already put his politics above medical fact. Most likely he wasn’t of a scientific bent in the first place, just indoctrinated by his father.
“An expert ophthalmologist.”
Not just that: an expert opthalmologist who created his own board with his wife and FIL on it, just to protest the real board requiring members to recertify every decade. Because, apparently, being expected to prove every so often you’re still competent to practise as a medical doctor is for the little people. What a ridiculous diaper baby shit fit. What an embarrassment to an entire profession.
Honestly, scratch any self-proclaimed “big-L” Libertarian, you will find a screaming narcissist just underneath their paper-thin exterior. So scratch ’em hard.
Perhaps Rand Paul should admonish his wife?
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2021/08/12/rand-pauls-wife-bought-shares-in-covid-treatment-maker-gilead-as-virus-spread.html&ved=2ahUKEwjh_d3d9bT4AhVnD0QIHX8rBb0QFnoECAYQAQ&usg=AOvVaw18sW4fvk9J7IvzIcih8muH
At the very least he could support restrictions on stock trades by Congress people.
rand paul is so far removed from both a spine and integrity that he wouldn’t recognize them if he had a picture of the first and a definition of the second in front of his face.
“Rand Paul : ‘Can you tell me if anyone on the vaccine approval committees ever received money from the people who make vaccines?’”
Coughremdesivircough
Abuse 101: Every accusation is a confession.
Advisory committee members are required to fill a financial disclosure form,like
https://cacmap.fda.gov/media/157516/download
@Aarno
Thank God it is not ? % effective!
‘Clinical and autopsy investigation of two teenage boys who died shortly following administration of the second Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 dose.
The myocardial injury seen in these post-vaccine hearts is different from typical myocarditis and has an appearance most closely resembling a catecholamine-mediated stress (toxic) cardiomyopathy.’
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35157759/
You did comment financial disclosure, I notice.
Nearly 100% (95%) was before mutations. Virus where allowed to spread, and results where predictable.
Please give a proper citation,not a link. Pubmed has Cite button,use it. Pubmed is not always available.
As you have been told multiple times a medical intervention cannot be 100% perfect.This oes not menan that is totally uneffective.
Of course, Fauci has made a financial disclosure:
https://www.marshall.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/Anthony-Fauci-Financial-Disclosures-for-2020-and-2019.pdf
Dig trough it.
@Syvanen
‘Clinical and autopsy investigation of two teenage boys who died shortly following administration of the second Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 dose.
The myocardial injury seen in these post-vaccine hearts is different from typical myocarditis and has an appearance most closely resembling a catecholamine-mediated stress (toxic) cardiomyopathy.’
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35157759/
Thank God it is not ? % effective!
A sample size of two is hardly proof.
You of course did not answer the point, about antivaxxer Nirvana fallacy.
From the paper:
“The microscopic examination revealed features resembling catecholamine-induced injury, not typical myocarditis pathology.”
Where catecolamines came in.
It’s still peculiar to me that the antivax crowd seems so incapable of accepting that other things can go wrong medically. The fixation that “this must be the cause” is impossibly strong; diagnosable even as an obsession. That Del Bigtree could rail on everybody that they’ve made themselves vulnerable to things like covid by lifestyle and yet be willing risk death himself from a completely mundane medical condition just because maybe the treatment will put him in contact with where a vaccine once existed. The only word that makes sense is “insane.” The risk-to-benefit calculation is completely broken.
Hmmmm? Whose payroll are you on?
If you thought his risk management calculation was a good one, I find you out of touch with reality. Sometimes there was no conspiracy, just lots of people making sometimes stupid, sometimes smart and otherwise uncorrelated decisions and someone met in a comment thread of all places is just that. You want to find the source of all evil lurking in your tea leaves, be my guest, just leave me out of it.
If having an opinion is enough to get me on somebody’s payroll, yay! I hope they pay me a lot!
Off Topic:
Orac has written,
“Orac not infrequently receives requests from bloggers who want to publish guest posts on Respectful Insolence. The answer is always: No.
MJD says,
Is a minion of Orac’s considered a simple blogger? MJD is one of Orac’s minions, therefore as part of the family, I kindly request an invitation to write a guest post.
Cancer, autism, vaccines, and epiphany (CAVE): Does CAVE hold the answers we seek?
@ Orac,
Please advise.
If family, then the annoying uncle who keeps coming uninvited at parties where he disturbes everything with farting and making other annoying noises.
Orac’s blog, Orac’s rules and I don’t think anyone is waiting for some guest post by MJD.
Nobody is. Nobody.
How about only allowing guest posts in haiku form?
Maybe schedule it for April 1st.
I’m sure he can find some sham journal that will publish it when his check clears.
As usual, Renate totally gets it!
a few other things…
–MjD should CAVE already and give up.
Michael, you are NOT a minion: although the term is generally a joke– that Orac’s regulars do his bidding without swerving a millimeter from his programming – it means that we follow his lead and LEARN from him. Even people with great knowledge of particular areas he discusses, don’t come here to challenge him on every. frigging. minute. point he makes.
— on SIDS, etc.
I have a feeling that anti-vaxxers like RFK jr / CHD/ Del will make a big deal out of the approval of Covid vaccines for kids under 5 / 6. They have an elaborate video with a song by a Native singer about “keeping your hands off the children” ( I hope that her original intent was not anti-vax because.. Native people!) featuring images of “vaccine injured children” – in wheelchairs with various dx labels. RFK jr’s cohorts like Katie Wright similarly refer to vaccines and PH efforts as ‘harming children”. Is this to get Q members interested? If younger kids get Covid vaccines, we will probably hear lots more about SIDS, SADS and various CV issues. And maybe even ASDs/ LDs. They can hardly wait!
also:
correction to my comment above: there is a possible biomarker for SIDS being CAUTIOUSLY considered . The genetic issue is something else.
If the antivaxers would get it their way, we could make a video with children harmed by vaccine preventable diseases.
RFK jr. already threatened litigation. He has brought other cases against FDA that so far have not been successful, and I doubt they’re worried about this one.
I like how they present “A large number of SIDS deaths in the vaccine-related reporting system are temporally-related to vaccines” as if that tells us anything about SIDS deaths in general. What next? “This database of dog bites tells us few children are bitten by cats”?
This whole thing about SIDS has been rumbling along in the background of the AV cult for decades, at least since the mid to late 90’s when some ‘investigating’ (sic) news show tried to claim HepB vaccines were killing babies.
About the same time there were claims (in the UK at least) that shaken baby syndrome was not child abuse but Vaccine Induced Encephalitis and several cases of SBS deaths tried using this as the defence case, all failed miserably and the abusers were sent down.
I think the whole clown show of MMR/autism/mercury yada yada ya got much more prominence, but like so much of the AV cults dealings, they’ve never let it go despite absolutely no evidence backing them up.
Famously, Alan Yurko in the US used a similar lie and was aided by woo-meisters and lawyers. There’s a recap in the BMJ.
In other news, Simone Gold has been given 60 days in prison for her involvement in the 1/6 insurrection. The judge specifically cited the fact she raised over $400,000 by mid-representing her arrest as a free speech issue in rejecting her motion for probation and sentencing her to serve time behind bars.
This was great news.
It seems that harassing the president of the California Medical Board may not prove to have been the brightest idea.
Of course, she’s fled to a P.O. Box in Florida, where she’ll likely be elevated to the clergy.
The prosecutors’ memo also noted that the Front Line Doctors group is paying her $20,000 a month, which should help in paying her $9,500 fine.
https://www.rawstory.com/capitol-rioter-sentence-2657519994/
What an utter fool.
Here in BC, as well as several other Canadian provinces, the regional health authorities have lifted hospital and ER privileges from physicians who refuse the COVID vaccine. The BC College suspended the licence of our most vocal antivax MD on an interim basis while investigating his actions. That’s a highly unusual step.
Peter McCollough has received notice from his board, ACIM, that he circulated misinformation about Covid vaccines and there will soon be a hearing about disciplinary actions. He appears with Del ( The Highwire, yesterday, 30 minutes in to about 35) and has the support of a US senator ( Johnson) who also appears. They show the letter as well.
Hopefully a grimy federal prison that doesn’t serve organic food. She isn’t a good representative for health care and now not so much a good citizen.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/case-multi-defendant/file/1479691/download
re ” death and destruction”
I had the dubious pleasure of skipping around today’s recorded shows by Null and Adams. As you may know, the Market is responding to a rate hike and commodity prices/ inflation. I imagine that many people are worried about their portfolios, jobs, loans and long term prospects.
So what do these paragons of humane compassion and wisdom, these friends of the common person- talk about?
Well, the death and destruction of everything that people depend upon!
We can expect food and energy shortages, major unemployment, business collapsing, bank runs, massive die-offs due to vaccines, power grid nightmares, destroyed retirement and social assistance programmes, skyrocketing crime and worthless real estate. Nothing for people to depend upon.
I thought that like the anti-vaxxers who dangle vaccine ‘injury and death’ before their followers’ eyes to frighten and control them, these scammers have elevated the game to a whole other level: not only are vaccines deadly BUT everything else is undependable or worthless
EXCEPT for them and their hallowed advice. “Start growing your own food”, ” Sell all of your stocks” “Get out of banks”, ” Get off of the Grid”. “Move away from cities”. “Quit your job”
These are two rich bastards living on estates/ ranches/ farms cosplaying salt-of-the-earth regular guys who just happen to be geniuses and prescient advising average people about medical/ psychological and economic matters!
They both gave similar advice in 2008 and 2020 some of which is still available on their sites.
I wonder do they just enjoy scaring people or do they somehow realise that an economic catastrophe sinks all boats including their own and thus, are lashing out?
At any rate, they capitalise on fear
whether it’s fear of cancer or autism or CVD or poverty. They manipulate customers through fear in hopes of profitting somehow.
“Invest in your health, so you survive”, “Buy gold” , ” Get my new guide to living off the Grid” as they sell supplements, seminars and have precious metals sponsors.
“I wonder do they just enjoy scaring people or do they somehow realise that an economic catastrophe sinks all boats including their own and thus, are lashing out?”
Yelling “catastrophe” can be profitable when you’re set up to sell advice and supplies to the fearful and panicky.
“Australian Vaccination Network”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Vaccination-risks_Network
In December 2012, the New South Wales Office of Fair Trading described the group’s name as being “misleading and a detriment to the community” and issued an order for the group to change its name. In 2014 they changed the name to “Australian Vaccination Skeptics Network”. The group later decided that the word “skeptic” too closely aligned them with Scientific Skepticism organisations such as the Australian Skeptics and they changed their name in 2018 to “Australian Vaccination-risks Network”.
Meryl Dorey is without doubt one of the most odious people I’ve ever encountered, even among the AV cult she stands out.
Our Ratbag friend in the South has long exposed her lies.
BTW, interesting blog, if a bit sad. I supposed being an adult comes with 25 more ways to die and 10 more ways to laugh.
It’s just so sad that vaccines are so overwhelmingly beneficial yet so harmful …
Tell me you’re an antivaxxer without telling me you’re an antivaxxer.
I will not, and you need to eat more fruit.
Now being promoted by antivaxer Wayne Rohde (and retweeted):
“SADS – according to International Olympic Committee data, an avg of 29 athletes under the age of 35 suffer sudden death per year fm 1966-2004. Fm Mar ’21 – Mar’22, 769 athletes have died or suffered cardiac arrest.”
Note the apples to oranges comparison, assuming Rohde is even citing valid stats (when questioned about the source of his info, he only repeats, “International Olympic Committee data”.
Dr Susan Oliver has a good discussion of these claims which she attributes to Pierre Kory.
As you note, it’s an apples and oranges comparison and the larger number includes former athletes, older people, and deaths from a variety of causes including suicide and drug overdose.
And there is no information on the Covid-19 vaccination status of the people allegedly dying as a result of it.
https://youtu.be/IY8BPiyXWVU
[…] vaccines were released, and there’s no evidence linking COVID-19 to SADS other than the fevered imaginations of conspiracy theorists like […]
[…] In fact, just take a look at the last several weeks of his Ask Dr. Drew podcast. For example, in his most recent Ask Dr. Drew, Dr. Drew has Edward Dowd, a “former Wall Street analyst and BlackRock portfolio manager” that Dr. Drew credulously touts as a “numbers guy”—in other words, someone with zero relevant expertise in epidemiology, pharmacovigilance, infectious disease, vaccines, or any other discipline that would allow him to come to any scientifically plausible conclusions based on the datasets he examined but possessed of lots of hubris and Dunning-Kruger—claiming that there has been an epidemic of sudden deaths in 2021 and 2022; i.e., since the COVID-19 vaccines rolled out. Together with Dr. Kelly Victory, he discusses “Sudden Adult Death Syndrome” (SADS). I was way ahead of him on this, having thoroughly discussed why “SADS” is nothing new and vaccines have nothing to do with it. […]
[…] antivaxxers attributed a different name to the acronym SADS, which before the pandemic described a known uncommon syndrome in which cardiac conduction abnormalities led to Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome, a condition […]
[…] antivaxxers attributed a different name to the acronym SADS, which before the pandemic described a known but uncommon syndrome in which cardiac conduction abnormalities lead to Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome, It’s a […]
[…] due to COVID-19 vaccines, along with the misappropriation of non-atherosclerotic “sudden arrythmic death syndrome” (SADS) as “sudden adult death syndrome” also being caused by vaccines. As much […]