Tag: toxicologist

Why Is a Toxicologist Making Claims About Vaccines and Autism?

It will never end, will it?

Both toxicologist and research should be in quote marks…

Vaccines are very clearly not associated with autism, but that doesn’t seem to keep us from getting new anti-vaccine heroes popping up now and then with new theories from their “research.”

Is it different this time?

Unlike most of the other anti-vaccine experts who are practicing way out of their field of expertise when they talk about vaccines, Ashley Everly is a toxicologist, so is actually an expert on vaccines, right?

“Most toxicologists begin by working at the bench, conducting experiments on in vitro and animal models. Over time, as they gain experience, they may move up to supervise others. While a master’s degree is sufficient for applied research positions, a Ph.D. degree with postdoctoral experience is required for the highest levels.”

Toxicology Overview

Ashley Everly does not have a master’s degree and has not published any research about vaccines. Her opinions are not those of a toxicologist, but of a mother who thinks that her child was injured by vaccines.

Her Facebook copypasta post, while posted as a toxicologist, should remind you of just one very important fact. The great majority of working toxicologists do not share her opinions about vaccines.

“Vaccines are among the most efficacious and cost-effective prevention tools… Parents of children with non-medical exemptions to immunization requirements have been documented to have perceptions of lower susceptibility to and severity of vaccine preventable diseases and perceptions of lower safety and efficacy of vaccines compared to parents of vaccinated children. Moreover, compared to parents of vaccinated children, vaccine hesitant parents had less trust in the government and the health care system.”

Scientific Liaison Coalition (SLC) Epidemiology of Vaccine Refusal webinar

What is the Scientific Liaison Coalition (SLC)?

It is a group of eight toxicology organizations that “increase awareness of toxicology and related sciences on human health,” including the:

  • American Academy of Clinical Toxicology (AACT)
  • American College of Toxicology (ACT)
  • Environmental Mutagenesis and Genomics Society (EMGS)
  • Safety Pharmacology Society (SPS)
  • Society for Risk Analysis (SRA)
  • Society of Toxicologic Pathology (STP)
  • Society of Toxicology (SOT)
  • Teratology Society (Teratology)
  • Union of Toxicology (IUTOX)

And not surprisingly, they teach folks that vaccines are safe, effective, and necessary.

Some of these folks are also the ones doing research on new vaccines.

But, of course, they do a lot more.

The Society of Toxicology wants everyone to know that they are working to help reduce our exposure to potential environmental sources of methylmercury.

“Toxicologists have played a major role in identifying the health risks associated with exposure to methylmercury.”

Society of Toxicology on Mercury : A Long-Appreciated Hazard

What don’t they scare folks about? Thimerosal and ethymercury in vaccines!

“Recent research has confirmed that the ethylmercury component found in Thimerosal is less hazardous than methylmercury. These are different compounds and should not be considered as equivalent neurotoxins. Experimental conditions can be created that result in neurological cell dysfunction. However, current literature supports the contention that childhood vaccinations do not deliver a sufficient dose to produce these neurological injuries.

American College of Medical Toxicology on the IOM Report on Thimerosal and Autism

Neither does the American College of Medical Toxicology.

Maybe that’s why Ashley Everly and other anti-vaccine folks have moved on to MTHFR, glyphosate, aborted fetal cell DNA, and aluminum…

More on Toxicologists and Vaccine Safety