Gayle DeLong

Robert F Kennedy Jr pushes misinformation about the HPV vaccine

by Michael Simpson
2022-06-20
Cancer, HPV vaccine, Robert F Kennedy Jr

Robert F Kennedy Jr has made numerous false claims about the HPV vaccine, which is the cancer-preventing human papillomavirus vaccine. Of course, he has recently become a loudmouth anti-vaccine acolyte, who has been chastised by his own family for helping “to spread dangerous misinformation over social media and is complicit in sowing distrust of the science behind vaccines.”

For some reason, Kennedy has decided to target the HPV vaccine, providing the world with “25 reasons to avoid the Gardasil vaccine.” He would rather pass along “dangerous misinformation” about vaccines than focus on the health and lives of children by preventing cancer. I don’t understand his motivation, but it sickens me.

As a result, I must take the time to respond to his 25 false claims about the Gardasil vaccine with science and facts. I doubt Robert F Kennedy Jr will read this, but this is meant for people who might be on the fence about the HPV vaccine.

Gayle DeLong, anti-HPV vaccine and anti-autism, died from breast cancer

Gayle DeLong, who wasn’t a scientist, let alone a vaccine scientist, and who wrote an article that tried to claim that the HPV vaccine causes infertility, recently died of breast cancer. Of course, she blamed her breast cancer on her childs’ autism.

In general, I try to forgive people for their mistakes, especially when they are no longer able to respond to criticism. But, I just can’t. Her unscientific rants against the HPV vaccine probably lead to enough people refusing to get the vaccine, and that will lead to additional deaths from HPV-related cancers. That is unforgivable.

Despite that, I don’t wish she had died, especially of breast cancer. No one deserves that fate.

But I wanted to take one last look at her disinformation campaign about the HPV vaccine and some of the things she said in her life. She shouldn’t be remembered as a hero to the anti-vaccine world, but as someone whose words ostensibly have led to cancer and the deaths of too many people

A list of retracted anti-vaccine papers – bad science and bad research

by Michael Simpson
2021-09-01
Andrew Wakefield, Christopher Shaw, Retraction, Vaccines

Retracted anti-vaccine papers are a staple of my articles published here. Usually, they try to create some fake link between vaccines and autism, but these papers try to say anything that casts vaccines in a bad light.

As we know, real science has established that there is no link between vaccines and autism. Anti-vaccine papers generally try to show this link without epidemiological or clinical studies – they just try to make some specious biologically implausible claims trying to link something about vaccines to autism.

Much of the anti-vaccine research is so bad, so poorly designed, that it’s relegated to low-quality, predatory journals which have laughably poor peer-review systems. Even in those locations, we can find the occasional retracted anti-vaccine papers, because they are often so bad that even these predatory publishers are embarrassed.

So, I present to you, the loyal reader, a list of retracted anti-vaccine papers (and I use that term very carefully). It’s not a comprehensive list, it’s just what I’ve seen over the past few years. If you know of a retracted paper that I missed, leave a citation in the comments.

HPV vaccine does not cause infertility – RETRACTED study from Gayle DeLong

by Michael Simpson
2021-08-31
HPV vaccine, Pregnancy, Retraction, Vaccines

The claim that the HPV vaccine causes infertility comes from an economist, with absolutely no background in science, who wrote a lame and eventually retracted article. The claim is based on faulty logic, methodology, and statistics to the point that it was laughable.

I thought I had read it all, but here comes one out of recesses of the anti-vaccine mind – where logic and science disappear into a black hole. Gayle DeLong’s useless article that the HPV vaccine causes infertility – of course, it’s embraced by the anti-vaccine religion because they’ve got nothing else.

The anti-vaccine religion definitely hates the HPV vaccine more than any other one out there – claiming that it causes infertility is just part of the fear, uncertainty, and doubt campaign. They invent more lies about it while ignoring the overwhelming scientific consensus about the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness. But relying upon facts is generally not something found in the anti-vaccine wheelhouse.

Of course, the false claims about the HPV vaccine often rely upon pseudoscience produced by anti-vaccine shills like the oft-retracted Shaw and Tomljenovic, the infamous Lyons-Weiler, and the preposterous Shoenfeld. Because the anti-vaxxers lack any evidence to support their dislike of the HPV vaccine, they require the appeal to false authority to claim that these discredited pseudoscientists’ work is somehow more important than all of the body evidence, from real, respected scientists, that supports HPV vaccine safety and effectiveness.

So, let’s take a look at this new study from a non-scientist claiming that the HPV vaccine causes infertility. I almost thought about ignoring it, but it’s just too funny.

Retracted anti-vaccine papers – ultimate list of pseudoscience and bias

by Michael Simpson
2020-01-16
Andrew Wakefield, Christopher Shaw, Retraction, Vaccines

Much of the anti-vaccine research is so bad, so poorly designed, that it’s relegated to low quality, predatory journals which have laughably poor peer-review systems. Even then, we can find the occasional retracted anti-vaccine papers, because they are often so bad that even these predatory publishers are embarrassed.

Anti-vaccine Gayle DeLong tries to correct her HPV vaccine article by blogging

A few days ago, I wrote about a terrible, laughable anti-HPV vaccine article by Gayle DeLong, a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Economics and Finance in the Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College/City University of New York. She has zero background, experience, knowledge, education, or credibility in vaccine science.

Her appalling article tried to convince the reader that the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine caused a decrease in their fertility. If this were a real article, I’d be appalled that it got published, but it was clearly a bad article with bad science, bad methodologies, and bad conclusions.

It failed basic scientific statistical analysis like accounting for confounding data. Furthermore, Gayle DeLong provided no convincing biologically plausible mechanism describing how the HPV vaccine could affect pregnancy rates. And her references were ridiculous – she cited Mark and David Geier, who can charitably be called charlatans who attempted to “treat” autistic children with a horrific and unethical procedure. And she actually mentioned Mark Geier in her acknowledgments.

Furthermore, she ignored the vast body of evidence, published by real scientists, not an expert in international finance, in real journals that the HPV vaccine is demonstrably safe. And in those huge studies, some with millions of patients, there was no detectable difference in fertility rates between vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals. This issue only exists in the mind of Gayle DeLong and other anti-vaccine activists.

I’ve read a bunch of anti-vaccine papers in my time, but this one may be one of the worst. All anti-vaccine papers are bad, that’s why they are rarely if ever, published in respected journals.