This is a very old antivax trope. Antivaxxers have been claiming that vaccines cause infertility for as long as I can remember since I first started paying attention to the antivaccine movement. Unfortunately, this claim resonates. The disinformation works. 1/
It worked in Kenya in 2014, when antivaxxers claimed that the tetanus vaccine caused infertility in young women. 2/ respectfulinsolence.com/2014/11/13/cat…
It worked in Nigeria in 2004, when an antivax crank claimed that the polio vaccine was contaminated with "sterilizing agents."3/
And in Kenya again in 2015... 4/ respectfulinsolence.com/2015/08/12/the…
This particular claim that vaccines sterilize young women has been parroted by those in wealthier countries, like Canada. 5/ respectfulinsolence.com/2015/03/23/no-…
More recently, right at home, antivaxxers have long been trying to claim that HPV vaccines like Gardasil sterilize young women. Usually the claim has been made without evidence that Gardasil causes premature ovarian insufficiency. 6/ sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-claim-that…
So of course antivaxxers resurrected the claim that vaccines sterilize our womenfolk when they're young and before they can do what God intended: Have lots of babies. (Yes, that's sarcasm.) I first wrote about it a year ago. 7/ sciencebasedmedicine.org/it-was-inevita…
Unsurprisingly, the claim that vaccines sterilize our womenfolk has persisted and evolved. 8/ sciencebasedmedicine.org/covid-19-vacci…
The claim that vaccines cause infertility is related to the idea that vaccines somehow permanently "contaminate" our precious bodily fluids, rendering us ill and inferior. 9/ sciencebasedmedicine.org/covid-19-vacci…
This emphasis on "purity" versus "contamination" that somehow renders us less fertile (particularly, but not exclusively, women) sometimes leads to some hilariously ridiculous consequences. 10/
Much less ridiculous are the consequences of the claim that "vaccinated blood" is "contaminated." Some antivaxxers even to refuse to accept transfusions from people who have received #CovidVaccine. This sort of misinformation can lead to death. 11/ respectfulinsolence.com/2021/06/04/big…
If you wonder why I keep repeating my mantras, "In the age of #COVID19, everything antivax that was old is new again" and "There is nothing truly new under the sun in antivax pseudoscience and conspiracy theories." What we're seeing now is just the same ol', same ol' rehashed.12/
You'll also forgive me if, once again, I express frustration at my colleagues for their previous "shruggie" attitudes before the pandemic and their shock at seeing tropes and conspiracy theories that we've been debunking for decades go mainstream. 13/ sciencebasedmedicine.org/a-shruggie-awa…
And don't get me started on the downright hostile attitude some prominent colleagues expressed towards those of us trying to counter health misinformation and antivax pseudoscience before the pandemic. 14/ respectfulinsolence.com/2020/12/11/vin…
As an aside, unsurprisingly, some of these scoffers went on to become #COVID19 contrarians, spreading misinformation of their own during the pandemic. 15/ sciencebasedmedicine.org/road-to-hell/
If you're surprised by any of these conspiracy theories (such as #CovidVaccines sterilizing women), quite simply, you weren't paying attention before. If you had, then maybe we as a profession would have been less unprepared for the current tsunami of antivax disinformation. 16/
Don't get me wrong. I'm glad you're paying attention now. I just hope you'll *continue* to pay attention after #COVID19 finally abates. In fact, I'd ask you to expand your newfound awareness and start paying attention to *other* health misinformation and conspiracy theories. 17/
Health misinformation, be it antivax, cancer quackery, or whatever, can kill, and in the case of a pandemic antivax and anti-public health (e.g., antimask) disinformation can kill hundreds of thousands. 18/18

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with David Gorski, MD, PhD

David Gorski, MD, PhD Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @gorskon

7 Dec
The unvaccinated described as being treated like "second class citizens"? I wonder if @reason knows that that's rhetoric straight from the antivaccine movement dating back as long as I've been paying attention to antivaxxers (nearly two decades). Not a good look.
I suppose that next @reason will be comparing the unvaccinated to the "new civil rights movement."🙄
Hmmm. @reason seven years ago vs Reason now...
Read 4 tweets
7 Dec
Yes. A continuing frustration I’ve had with colleagues whom #COVID19 finally woke up to the danger of the antivax movement is that they frequently mistakenly conflate vaccine hesitancy with antivaccine views. The two are not the same. The strategies for each are very different.
Basically, the hard core antivaxxers who create and disseminate the antivax disinformation to which the vaccine hesitant fall victim are very much like religious or political zealots or fanatics. They are immune to facts and science. 2/
To hard core antivaxxers, antivax ideology is part of their identity, every bit as much as a person’s religion. Except in vanishingly rare cases, facts and science won’t sway them. 3/
Read 4 tweets
25 Nov
Oh, bloody hell @CBSMornings, dowsing? Really? Dowsing. Presented as though there is something to it. “Everything is not about science? Have a little faith.” Ugh.
The story followed the old annoying trope media use to cover pseudoscience. They found a dowser, followed him around, acted as though he was more accurate than chance, and then included the "token skeptic" scientist, which is when they said, "“Everything is not about science."
I mean, I thought this sort of crap had faded, at least from the really big legacy media outlets, like @CBSNews and @CBSMornings. Apparently I was wrong. I guess having the TV on before #MacysParade showed me the error of my assumption.
Read 4 tweets
13 Nov
Surprise, surprise. We've been warning about this for 20 years. Few listened, and many of our fellow physicians were even "shruggies," who dismissed our warnings as trivial and unimportant, right up until right before the pandemic.
Basically, the "wellness industry" has long been antivax. "Wellness" gurus almost always at least lean antivax.
I'll go even farther than that. "Complementary and alternative medicine" (CAM), since rebranded as "integrative medicine," and then rebranded as "integrative health," has contributed to antivax propaganda by peddling the "wellness" narrative.
Read 6 tweets
12 Nov
Sigh. Just when I thought @Twitter was doing a bit better, it goes and amplifies this as “science.” Image
Geez, @Twitter and @TwitterSafety, this is the worst one yet, straight up antivax misinformation tagged as “science.” It’s not even subtle. Image
And I would have no problem with it if if this were to happen.
Read 6 tweets
12 Nov
You know, @bmj_latest, when two of the biggest antivax propaganda sites in the world are loudly touting a badly sourced, conspiracy mongering bit of "investigational journalism" you commissioned from crank @thackerpd, you are doing it wrong and spreading antivax disinformation.
When one of your @bmj_latest editors, Peter Doshi, has been at least antivax-adjacent for years and years and spreading antivax nonsense about #CovidVaccine, you're doing it wrong. respectfulinsolence.com/2021/01/15/why…
When antivaxxer RFK Jr. loves both @thackerpd and Peter Doshi, you're doing it wrong. respectfulinsolence.com/2021/05/21/why…
Read 9 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(