Ben Goldacre

Peter Doshi, anti-vaccine false authority, back again to push fake science

The bloviating Peter Doshi, who loves all things anti-vaccine, filed a lawsuit against Health Canada, essentially, the Ministry of Health for the country and the ministry that regulates medications and vaccines for Canada, to retrieve all of the clinical trial data for HPV vaccines that was used to get approval for the vaccines in the country (see Note 1). He recently won that lawsuit, and, unless Health Canada appeals the ruling, so we can assume he will receive mountains of data to “analyze.”

According to an article in the CBC, the ruling gives Doshi access to clinical trial data submitted to Health Canada by the manufacturers of HPV vaccines, Gardasil, Gardasil9, and Cervarix, and of anti-viral flu medications. Doshi wants to do a “systematic review” of the findings, although I don’t think that’s what a systematic review is, we’ll discuss that below. Health Canada argued that the data was confidential, and they would only hand over the data if he signed a non-disclosure agreement. Doshi refused, and he prevailed in the lawsuit.

You may have read all of this and wondered who is this Peter Doshi and why do I dislike him so. Well, most of you know of Doshi. And then you wonder why I care at all that he gets this data. I actually don’t care, but I should talk about it anyway.

So, let’s talk about the false authority, Peter Doshi, and why it matters or not that he gets this data. Spoiler alert – it doesn’t matter, but we should be prepared.Read More »Peter Doshi, anti-vaccine false authority, back again to push fake science

Statins prevent cardiovascular deaths – a new systematic review

Now for something completely different, let’s not talk about vaccines – we’re going to discuss statins! There have been more and more robust studies that statins prevent cardiovascular events, including death. Nevertheless, statins have been controversial, and are used by the alternative medicine (not medicine) lovers as an example of all kinds of medical malfeasance.

As I’ve mentioned before, I hang out on Quora answering questions about a lot of topics, mostly vaccines and cancer. But I also occasionally answer questions about statins, and I regularly state that statins prevent cardiovascular events. And just as regularly, I’ll get nasty comments (see Note 1) claiming everything from my being a Big Pharma shill to I don’t know anything about anything.

So let’s take a look at this new systematic review, and try to put to rest the nonsensical dismissal of the claim that statins prevent cardiovascular events, including death. Read More »Statins prevent cardiovascular deaths – a new systematic review

Is a Gardasil researcher really against the vaccine?

by Michael Simpson
2020-09-27
6 Comments
Cancer, GSK, HPV vaccine, Merck, Vaccines

This article about Dr. Diane Harper has been recently updated. The comments here are closed, so please comment at the new article.

Because vaccine deniers lack any scientific evidence supporting their unfounded belief system about immunizations, they tend to rely upon unscientific information like anecdotes, logical fallacies, misinterpretation of data, or Italian provincial courts to make their case about the lack of safety of vaccines.

It’s rather easy to debunk these claims, but because of the nature of the internet, old news is recycled as “brand new,” requiring a whole new round of blog posts to discredit the misinformation. It’s impossible to recall one single instance where a vaccine refuser made a statement about vaccines that was not, in fact, rather quickly debunked. Not one.

The pro-children’s health side, those of us who think that vaccines save lives, have been winning the hearts and minds for awhile, given that still around 95% of children in the USA get all of their immunizations prior to entering kindergarten. But that doesn’t stop the refusers from trying, because various zombie anti-vaccination memes keep reappearing, especially since the successful pro-vaccine bill was signed into law in California.

One of the latest ones involves a so-called lead Gardasil researcher, Dr. Diane Harper, a former “consultant” to Merck (and GSK, who manufacturers Cervarix, a bivalent HPV vaccine), who apparently had some research role in the clinical trials of the HPV vaccines. But what are the facts?