Re: New report confirms absence of value to Mike Adams' ravings

You'd think that Mike Adams and his fellow antivax propagandists might be willing to take a thoughtful look at the latest studies dispelling a vaccine-autism link. You'd be wrong.

Adams: "Notice that when mercury was removed from vaccines (which is not entirely true, by the way, bringing into question yet more details about this study), the rates of autism did not drop? This means the vaccines remain dangerous to children. Autism continued to climb right alongside vaccination rates, indicating the possibility that something in the vaccines (or a combination of various chemicals) may very well be responsible for the increase."

Got that? I know, the illogic is dizzying. All along Adams and his fellow Purveyors of Doom have been doggedly telling us that thimerosal in vaccines was the cause of autism. That link has now been debunked so thoroughly that even the most gullible have trouble swallowing it. So now Adams announces that, well, even if it _wasn't_ thimerosal, well maybe it was anyway, or gosh, _something else_ in vaccines must be responsible! It must be vaccines, because we hate vaccines as Symbols of the Medical Establishment!!!

Adams: "The truth is that scientists have no idea what's causing autism."

See the above link regarding genetic causes of autism, which are increasingly being discovered and explained. Adams either is ignorant of this, or more likely refuses to acknowledge the genetic link because it can't be blamed on Big Pharma or his other pet "NewsTargets".

Adams spends the rest of his time expounding on tired and irrelevant themes, including You Can't Trust Any Research (funny, that never has stopped him from selectively quoting research that he thinks supports his views), yammering about Vioxx etc etc. He also doesn't hesitate to try to impugn the integrity of the researchers who issued the latest study:

Adams: "You see, the relevant question in this discussion is not simply whether mercury-containing vaccines cause autism. The question at hand is whether we can even trust the "science" being conducted on this subject. Do the researchers who conducted this study have any financial ties to the manufacturers of those vaccines? Have they received any speaking fees? Do they own stock in those companies? If so, this completely discredits their research due to obvious conflicts of interest.

Ooo, tell us about these "conflicts of interest", Mike.

Adams: "Now, I don't have any direct evidence that the researchers in this particular mercury vaccine study were corrupted or influenced by Big Pharma, but as an honest, independent think who knows the truth about drug companies, the mainstream media and the profit motive behind much of the Science appearing in the press today, I maintain a default position of skepticism when it comes to reading these studies."

We may be sure that if Mike could show us that Big Pharma Stooges produced this study, he'd be proclaiming it from the rooftops. He can't show any such conflicts, but that doesn't stop him from impugning the integrity of the researchers anyway.

Finally, there's this gem:

Adams: "One point worth mentioning here is that there is absolutely no requirement to have any real understanding of science, medicine, chemistry or physics to graduate from a top-notch journalism school."

Great point, Mike. There's also no requirement to have any real understanding of Science in order to function as an antivax hack on the Internet, something you've once again demonstrated.

Let's see...lack of scientific understanding, groundless personal attacks in lieu of reasoning, irrelevancies, paranoid fearmongering...sounds a lot like another classic from the antivaxers' Hall of Shame. Tweet