11

A friend recently posted this on their Facebook:

Vaccines don't cause autism. They cause hypertoxicity which leads to neurological impairment, and cell death. DRAW YOUR OWN CONCLUSIONS! ~Dr. D.Mihalovic

Vaccines don't cause autism. They cause hypertoxicity which leads to neurological impairment, and cell death. DRAW YOUR OWN CONCLUSIONS! ~Dr. D.Mihalovic

In my personal opinion, it reeks of woo, and finding sources that make Mr. Mihalovic look like a loon isn't hard, but I need a more solid foundation to work from if I plan to rattle any beliefs. I find it telling that Wikipedia doesn't appear to have a "hypertoxicity" article, but I've never heard the term before. Is it being used in much the same sense that "toxins" are invariably used to sell expensive placebos, or is it an actual term that's being (mis)used here?

Reinstate Monica -- notmaynard
  • 1,659
  • 1
  • 19
  • 17
David Perry
  • 303
  • 2
  • 9
  • 2
    It would help if they defined "hypertoxisity" and exactly what is supposedly causing it... You're right, _reeks_ of woo. – JasonR Jun 06 '12 at 12:00
  • Reminds me of the Amazing Randi joke about homeopathy, "Did you hear about the guy that overdosed? He forgot to take his medicine!” – user1873 Jun 06 '12 at 13:30
  • 1
    I would just ask why hypertoxisity means, and what toxins are involved? – Brendan Long Jun 06 '12 at 14:36
  • If you type hypertoxicity into google scholar a bunch of articles do come up. The same goes for typing toxins. Both terms in themselves aren't unscientific. They just seem to be able to be easily abused. – Christian Jun 07 '12 at 14:27
  • 3
    "Draw your own conclusion"! Based on what? – nico Jun 08 '12 at 06:28
  • 10
    It’s very helpful that quacks have agreed on a uniform corporate design. That way, they are instantly recognisable. – Konrad Rudolph Jun 08 '12 at 06:47
  • Vaccines present the healthy immune system with an example of something that must be neutralized. Hypertoxicity is not a medical term. The vaccine may be be an analog, killed bacterium, or disabled virus, or weakened live form. Only the live form can cause disease, and then only to a dysfunctional immune system (HIV, cyclosporin), and the unmodified disease would be a much greater threat. The body, however, can damage itself if the immune system over reacts, as in an egg allergy. Avoiding vaccinations would be a way of reducing the overpopulation problem. –  Jun 08 '12 at 04:06
  • Define "woo" for those with 2-year-old dictinaries... – GEdgar Apr 22 '15 at 18:07
  • Since the word "hypertoxicity" doesn't exist it would be pretty hard for vaccines to cause it. Thus I would call it busted. – Loren Pechtel Apr 22 '15 at 20:22
  • If nothing else you can take your friend to task for quoting "Dr D Mihlovic". David Mihalovic is not a doctor. – DJClayworth Apr 23 '15 at 01:01

1 Answers1

5

A bit of context. Mr Mihalovic is not a doctor, but an anti-vaccine advocate and a "naturopath" -- in other words:

David Mihalovic is an ND, which stands for “naturopathic doctor” or, more appropriately, “not a doctor”. According to himself he “specializes in vaccine research.” It is, however, unclear where that research is published – there are no hits on Pubmed, for instance – though he does write propaganda for the anti-vaccine website Medical Voices Vaccine Information Center.

http://americanloons.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/945-david-mihalovic.html

I don't know if this quote is made up or not, but the most similar thing I could find is this image which is about "synergistic" toxicity.

synergistic toxicity

http://preventdisease.com/news/14/051514_9-Ways-Vaccines-Reducing-Immunity-Inducing-Immune-Overload-In-Children.shtml

He referst to this article which was written by authors in an undisclosed conflict of interest, they are funded by anti-vaccination propaganda groups. In any case, the article has been thoroughly debunked, and, if you think of it, it also contradicts the claim of Mihailovic.

Mihalovic claims that some vaccines, when used together, are toxic/deadly: a bit like two-part glue, if you like. The authors of the debunked article claim that the number of shots is relevant -- which is ludicrous, of course -- and that they found a linear relationship between the number of shots taken (they call them "vaccines", but it's not what they are) and infant mortality.

There's also another link that claims that vaccines cause type I diabetes, but that seems off-topic with respect to the original claim. Unsurprisingly, it's also written by a person which holds patents on "methods of testing vaccines for their ability to cause diabetes and methods of preventing diabetes", in other words, who has an open interest in making such claims.

TL:DR; Vaccines are safe. Lack of vaccination is irresponsible and causes harm to children and immunocompromised groups.

Sklivvz
  • 78,578
  • 29
  • 321
  • 428
  • Just a note: synergistic toxicity is real enough. The classic example is grapefruit -- consume a completely safe quantity of grapefruit plus a theraputic dose of any of a number of medicines, and you risk dying from overdose effects. – Mark Apr 22 '15 at 23:46
  • Can you give me a reference for that? – Sklivvz Apr 23 '15 at 00:17
  • Wikipedia has an entire article on [grapefruit-drug interactions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grapefruit–drug_interactions); if you want something peer-reviewed, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3589309/ looks like a decent overview. – Mark Apr 23 '15 at 00:36
  • Mihailovic, Mihalovic ... are you debunking two different guys or what? – GEdgar Apr 23 '15 at 02:10
  • 1
    For that matter, so is Anaphylaxis. Some details in this [Nobel acceptance speech](http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1913/richet-lecture.html). So in theory vaccines with some of the same ingredients could do something similar (I hear mention of peanut oil...). The problem with that is it's generally considered safe to give flu vaccines made in chicken eggs to those who are _already_ allergic to eggs... – Clockwork-Muse Apr 23 '15 at 10:46
  • @GEdgar fixed spelling. – Sklivvz Apr 23 '15 at 10:55
  • @Mark wow, til. I had no idea. – Sklivvz Apr 23 '15 at 11:00