Two, two, two crappy zombie studies for the price of one!

[progressoid]

two (now retracted) studies purporting to show that vaccinated children are sicker than unvaccinated children show nothing of the sort

Antivaccine websites have been touting two recently published studies as strong evidence that vaccinated children are less healthy than unvaccinated children. The studies are so flawed that they show nothing of the sort. Even more hilariously, the bottom-feeding predatory open access journal that published them appears to have retracted them.

This time around, it turns out that there aren’t just one, but two zombie studies. In actuality, it’s really just one “study” (and, as you will soon see, the scare quotes are entirely appropriate) divided into what we in the biz like to refer to MPUs, or minimal publishable units. Both “studies” derive from one particular zombie study whose inception was in 2012, when antivaxers began fundraising to pay for it. The principal investigator was Anthony R. Mawson, M.A., DrPH. Indeed, J.B. Handley himself, founder of the antivaccine group now most associated with Jenny McCarthy (Generation Rescue), spearheaded the fundraising effort. It is, unsurprisingly, the Holy Grail of antivaccine studies, the mythical “vaccinated/unvaccinated” study.

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They don’t give up, however. They fall back on comparing health outcomes in children who are vaccinated to those who are unvaccinated (or undervaccinated). They’re pretty much all crap, because those carrying the studies out are biased and/or incompetent. Examples include a telephone survey disguised as a “study” done ten years ago and a survey disguised as a “study” performed by a German homeopath. This study is different in that it isn’t an antivaccine activist parent with no background in science or a homeopath but an actual academic. He is, however, clearly biased towards antivaccine views, as he has defended Andrew Wakefield’s 1998 Lancet case series and is a vocal supporter of his. Oh, let’s just say it bluntly. We’re dealing with a Wakefield fanboi here.

Hilariously, when this study was published in its first form, the full study wasn’t published, only the abstract. Then the abstract was, in essence, retracted. Even more hilarious, it was a Frontiers journal, which is an even bigger dis because Frontiers journals are known for tending to be pay-to-publish predatory open access journals. If a Frontiers journal retracts your paper, it’s plenty bad indeed. It turns out that the manuscript had been reviewed by a chiropractor and a peer reviewer without expertise,

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More (with links and, you know, facts) here: https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/no-two-studies-purporting-to-show-that-vaccinated-children-are-sicker-than-unvaccinated-children-show-nothing-of-the-sort/

[Warpy]

1. What shithead decided to fund these "studies?"

It's been known for years that what's been weakening immune systems in this country has been the overprescription of antibiotics for viral illnesses (which they don't touch), especially in children, and the overuse of germicidal cleaning products, hand and toy sanitizers, and the rest of the stuff for paranoid parents.

Toddlers are supposed to eat dirt, put nasty things off the sidewalk into their mouths, and swap colds with their peers. Vaccination takes care of the stuff that will kill them. The other stuff makes them stronger.