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HPV vaccine adverse events – study of 11 years of use in Australia

HPV vaccine adverse events
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The anti-vaccine crowd loves to push claims about awful HPV vaccine adverse events, scientific evidence has never supported it. Fortunately, numerous large studies have shown over and over and over that HPV vaccine adverse events are rare and not serious. 

Now, we have a robust new study from Australia, one of the first countries to provide the vaccine free to its citizens, that has followed HPV vaccine adverse events for over 11 years. And just to cut to the chase, they didn’t find anything serious, but I’ll go into detail below. Continue reading “HPV vaccine adverse events – study of 11 years of use in Australia”


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DNA in vaccines and GMOs – they’re not going to turn you into Sasquatch

DNA in vaccines
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One of the more pernicious tropes in the world of pseudoscience is that DNA in vaccines GMOs are going to magically incorporate into your cells changing you from a human into a sasquatch with ears of corn growing out of your head. Now that would be fun to see, but unless there’s a mad scientist out there trying to grow ears of corn out of a hirsute humane that looks like Sasquatch, it will probably never happen.

And most certainly consuming DNA in vaccines or eating GMOs with a new gene are not going to cause anything at all to any human I know.

But of course, science rarely gets in the way of good pseudoscience for anti-vaxxers and anti-GMO zealots. That’s why this old feathered skeptic in the dinosaur clade is here, to make sure the science is clear and to mock the pseudoscience. Continue reading “DNA in vaccines and GMOs – they’re not going to turn you into Sasquatch”


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Coronavirus vaccine priority list – if I were elected the Emperor of Vaccines

coronavirus vaccine priority list
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Despite the wild claims that a COVID-19 vaccine will be available real soon now, the initial limited supply would require a coronavirus vaccine priority list. Despite what Donald Trump says, and his veracity is limited, the supply of the vaccine will be limited for many months after approval, whether that approval is legitimate or not. 

The supply of a new COVID-19 vaccine is limited by many factors – regulatory review (yes, the FDA and other regulatory agencies must approve the manufacturing facilities for new drugs after the company receives approval to market their drugs), manufacturing bottlenecks, the number of doses required for “immunity,” and distributions problems, especially the need to store these vaccines at extremely low temperatures (no, your home refrigerator won’t get that cold).

In fact, that last point is something that everyone overlooks – your average physician does not have the ultra-low temperature freezers, usually only hospitals and major health departments. And they aren’t cheap. Furthermore, vaccines just don’t show up at a physician’s office or hospital directly from Big Pharma – they are delivered by a massive distributor network that may not have delivery vehicles that can properly store the vaccines as they drive their trucks across the deserts of Arizona in October.

This isn’t just an issue in the USA, it’s across the world. People magically believe that once a vaccine is approved it will suddenly be available to hundreds of millions of people. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Because the Big and Little Pharma companies are being much less transparent than they should, we have really no clue how many doses may be available soon after they get the go-ahead. 

Using the USA as an example, we’ll need around 750 million doses for every individual (assuming that two doses will be necessary and everyone gets the vaccine, which won’t happen). Overlooking the fact that the USA probably has a total vaccine manufacturing capacity of 200 doses at best (most of our current 300 million a year of vaccines are manufactured not only in the USA, but also in Canada, Belgium, Germany, France, and Japan), it’s highly improbable if not impossible to have 750 million doses on day 1. It may take years to manufacture that many.

If there are only 10-20 million doses available on day 1 (I’m highly skeptical of even that), you have to assume that there will be a coronavirus priority list. 

Now, there is a group that will be developing a coronavirus vaccine priority list (they’ll probably give it a better name) – the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Dorit Rubinstein Reiss reported on a recent ACIP meeting which reviewed the ongoing efforts with the COVID-19 vaccine, but they did not make any recommendations on who should get the vaccine.

In light of that,  if I were elected Emperor of Vaccines, then I would have to create an official coronavirus vaccine priority list so that the right people get the vaccination. Spoiler alert – most of us aren’t on that list. Continue reading “Coronavirus vaccine priority list – if I were elected the Emperor of Vaccines”


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Vaccine development process in the world of a coronavirus pandemic

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Back before the world of the COVID-19 pandemic, the vaccine development process took a long time. Despite the nonsensical claims of the anti-vaccine zealots, the vaccine development process was robust and thorough. The safety and effectiveness of all of the pre-pandemic vaccines are settled science (read the article before you jump up and down screaming about “settled science”).  

However, the world of the coronavirus pandemic means that if we can save a few months or even years off the development timeline on a new COVID-19 vaccine, it could save hundreds of thousands of lives. This does not mean those political agendas like we’ve seen Trump do with hydroxychloroquine and other things should take precedence over good science. 

So, this article is going to lay out how, in a world without a pandemic, the coronavirus vaccine development process should proceed while ignoring how the politically-driven FDA may subvert the process. 

Although I am very uncomfortable with the coronavirus vaccine development process over the past few months, it looks like, for better or worse, we’ll probably have one or two different vaccines in unknown quantities by early 2021. 

Of course, much of the optimism comes from experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the few rational public health experts who are willing to speak up in Washington DC. Maybe he has seen some secret data only available only to him and Bill Gates that supports this optimism. Maybe he just is trying to be the national cheerleader for healthcare.

I don’t know the real answer, but a lot of vaccine experts who have spent their lifetime studying vaccines, like Dr. Peter Hotez, MD Ph.D., who has expressed dismay at how politics may “trump” good science.

So, this article will try to lay out the development process, along with the independent controls that make sure that all vaccines are safe and effective.
Continue reading “Vaccine development process in the world of a coronavirus pandemic”


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HPV vaccine, autonomic dysfunction – another large study finds no links

HPV vaccine autonomic dysfunction
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A recent large, comprehensive study provides evidence that there are no links between the HPV vaccine and autonomic dysfunction. Researchers keep looking for serious adverse events after individuals receive the HPV vaccine, and they keep finding nothing.

I know that I keep presenting new articles that establish the safety and effectiveness of the HPV vaccines – I bet it seems repetitive. But we need to keep making certain that everyone knows that the HPV vaccine is extremely safe, and it prevents cancer. 

Well, let’s take a quick look at this new study, so we can have it in our figurative back pocket when we here the newest anti-vaccine claim that the HPV vaccine and autonomic dysfunction is linked. It isn’t. Continue reading “HPV vaccine, autonomic dysfunction – another large study finds no links”


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Dorit Rubinstein Reiss – an index of her vaccine articles on this website

Dorit Rubinstein Reiss
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Dorit Rubinstein Reiss – Professor of Law at the University of California Hastings College of the Law (San Francisco, CA) – is a frequent contributor to this and many other blogs, providing in-depth, and intellectually stimulating, articles about vaccines (generally, but sometimes moving to other areas of medicine), social policy and the law. Her articles usually unwind the complexities of legal issues with vaccinations and legal policies, such as mandatory vaccination and exemptions, with facts and citations.

Professor Reiss writes extensively in law journals about the social and legal policies of vaccination–she really is a well-published expert in this area of vaccine policy, and doesn’t stand on the pulpit with a veneer of Argument from Authority, but is actually an authority. Additionally, Reiss is also a member of the Parent Advisory Board of Voices for Vaccines, a parent-led organization that supports and advocates for on-time vaccination and the reduction of vaccine-preventable disease.

She was also one of the many contributors to the book, “Pseudoscience – The Conspiracy Against Science.”

Many bloggers and commenters on vaccine issues will link to one or more of her articles here as a primary source to counter an anti-vaccine claim. The purpose of this post is to give you a quick reference to find the right article to answer a question you might have.

Below is a list of articles that Dorit Rubinstein Reiss has written for this blog, organized into some arbitrary and somewhat broad categories for easy reference. This article will be updated as new articles from Professor Reiss are published here. We also may update and add categories as necessary.

Because she has written over 160 articles for this website, there is a vast amount of information about vaccines and the law, I have created a search engine that allows you to quickly find a specific article written by Professor Reiss on this website by using any keywords that you want. This should help speed up your search for just the right article that she has written.


Continue reading “Dorit Rubinstein Reiss – an index of her vaccine articles on this website”


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Trump coronavirus vaccine – in this one specific case, I’m anti-vax

trump coronavirus vaccine
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As I’ve discussed previously, the FDA may use its Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) powers to push the Trump coronavirus vaccine out on the citizens of the USA before it’s been fully tested. Using Vladimir Putin’s example of pushing out a vaccine before it’s fully tested, Donald Trump keeps insisting that we’ll get a new COVID-19 vaccine soon, well before phase 3 clinical trials are done.

All vaccines currently on the market have been tested thoroughly. And the science that these current vaccines are very safe and very effective is settled. I am thoroughly convinced of the evidence that we have excellent vaccines, so it is clear that I am thoroughly pro-vaccine – I do not have to convince anyone of that.

However, for the Trump coronavirus vaccine, I am anti-vaccine. But it is a very narrow, very unique situation. 

I have been troubled by the speed of the coronavirus vaccine research. I think it can lead to a bad vaccine on the market. Recently, Astra-Zeneca had to put a hold further testing of the so-called University of Oxford vaccine, because of a suspected serious adverse event in one individual. Astra-Zeneca will investigate the adverse event to determine if the vaccine caused it.

This is not uncommon in clinical trials – there is an abundance of caution while investigating new drugs, despite what people believe about how clinical trials are managed. That’s why vaccine research is difficult and not a slam dunk. 

On the other hand, there will be serious consequences to a rushed Trump coronavirus vaccine, because we might not get these safety signals that can appear in large clinical trials. And if we do this wrong by avoiding large phase 3 clinical trials, people who may be on the fence about vaccines become convinced by anti-vaxxers that this awful process was used by all other vaccines. It wasn’t.

Dr. Peter Hotez, MD Ph.D., one of the leading vaccine scientists in the world,  posted a Twitter thread where he discussed his concerns about a potential Trump coronavirus vaccine.

I want to review each of the 12 concerns he posted along with my own opinions on each. Continue reading “Trump coronavirus vaccine – in this one specific case, I’m anti-vax”


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ACIP COVID-19 vaccines meeting – summary of August 2020 discussions

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This article about the August 2020 ACIP COVID-19 vaccines meeting was written by Dorit Rubinstein Reiss, Professor of Law at the University of California Hastings College of the Law (San Francisco, CA), who is a frequent contributor to this and many other blogs, providing in-depth, and intellectually stimulating, articles about vaccines, medical issues, social policy, and the law.

Professor Reiss writes extensively in law journals about the social and legal policies of vaccination. Additionally, Reiss is also a member of the Parent Advisory Board of Voices for Vaccines, a parent-led organization that supports and advocates for on-time vaccination and the reduction of vaccine-preventable disease.

On August 26, 2020, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) held an emergency meeting to discuss COVID-19 vaccines. This was an emergency meeting, as opposed to one of its three annual scheduled meetings, but it was not “emergency” in the sense of being unplanned – it was announced long in advance, and the announcement was repeated during the June and July emergency meetings.

The ACIP COVID-19 vaccines meeting consisted of four to five hours of presentations from the COVID-19 vaccines workgroup, convened in April, and one hour of public comments that included multiple pro-vaccine speakers and four anti-vaccine individuals.

The main takeaway most people would have from the meetings are, I expect, the same as mine – that COVID-19 vaccines safety is taken extremely seriously by the workgroup and the committee, that there is still a lot of uncertainty about which of the vaccine in the pipeline will be effective, and that there are thorny, hard questions in deciding how to allocate the first vaccine doses.

This will be a very short overview of the meeting. The next meeting is on September 22, and I encourage and urge people to listen and learn from it. The presentation slides for the previous meetings can be found here. Continue reading “ACIP COVID-19 vaccines meeting – summary of August 2020 discussions”


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Catie Clobes – legal harassment from an anti-vaccine activist – Take 10

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This article, about anti-vaccine activist Catie Clobes legal actions against Karen Ernst, was written by Dorit Rubinstein Reiss, Professor of Law at the University of California Hastings College of the Law (San Francisco, CA), who is a frequent contributor to this and many other blogs, providing in-depth, and intellectually stimulating, articles about vaccines, medical issues, social policy, and the law.

Professor Reiss writes extensively in law journals about the social and legal policies of vaccination. Additionally, Reiss is also a member of the Parent Advisory Board of Voices for Vaccines, a parent-led organization that supports and advocates for on-time vaccination and the reduction of vaccine-preventable disease

It is not unusual to observe anti-vaccine activist harassment of those who challenge their claims, by threatening legal action.  Most often, the legal threats are baseless but can seem threatening. Because such episodes are not uncommon, I have decided to describe the latest, explain why the threat it made is unfounded, and offer some guidance on what to do if you face such a threat. Continue reading “Catie Clobes – legal harassment from an anti-vaccine activist – Take 10”


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Vaccine adjuvants – another misguided FOIA request from ICAN

vaccine adjuvants
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This article about an FOIA request for information about vaccine adjuvants was written by Dorit Rubinstein Reiss, Professor of Law at the University of California Hastings College of the Law (San Francisco, CA), who is a frequent contributor to this and many other blogs, providing in-depth, and intellectually stimulating, articles about vaccines, medical issues, social policy, and the law.

Professor Reiss writes extensively in law journals about the social and legal policies of vaccination. Additionally, Reiss is also a member of the Parent Advisory Board of Voices for Vaccines, a parent-led organization that supports and advocates for on-time vaccination and the reduction of vaccine-preventable disease.

In August 2020, the anti-vaccine organization, the Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN), posted on their site a letter from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) dated July 19, 2019, under the (misleading) title that “NIH Concedes It Has No Studies Assessing The Safety of Injecting Aluminum Adjuvants.”

As in the past, ICAN’s use of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request result is highly misleading, in at least three ways. First, FOIA is not a mechanism for science query, only a way to get existing administrative records, and this is a misuse of FOIA. Second, there are abundant scientific studies on the safety of aluminum vaccine adjuvants, but this request was not a way to get them. And third, even if there were no studies on the safety of aluminum adjuvants in vaccines, vaccines are tested as a whole, and the safety data on them cover all their ingredients. Continue reading “Vaccine adjuvants – another misguided FOIA request from ICAN”


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