conspiracies / good news / misinformation

Anti-Vaxxers Defeated by Twelve-Year-Old Whiz Kid

karenlernst65 Comments

And they know they’ve been defeated. Do you want to know how we can tell? Because they are spending their time trying to tear this kid down.

Perhaps you are the last person in the world who hasn’t seen the phenomenal video by science whiz kid Marco Arturo. Marco presents all the evidence that vaccines cause autism–in a folder full of nothing. (I’m embedding the video at the bottom of this post–please watch it an up-vote it!)

The anti-vaxxers sure haven’t missed it. Some of our favorites have written rebuttals. Let me type that again so we can all understand what they are doing. The anti-vaxxers are rebutting a satirical video made by a 12-year-old. Surely they are taking this video in stride, right?

Uh, no. No they are not. They are losing their minds.

Blogger and salesperson Kate, who runs Modern Alternative Health, claims the video is “devoid of facts and amounts to little more than uninformed bullying” [emphasis hers]. Really, Kate? A 12-year-old is bullying you? I know a lot about bullying, about how people use their social power to make you feel excluded and to gain control over you. What kind of small person are you that a 12-year-old you have never met has social power over you? But she’s not done. Immediately after claiming that she is being bullied, she resorts to this classless diatribe:

Naturally, it’s being heralded by the kind of brain-dead pro-vaccine nut jobs that the internet regularly produces.  The kind of people who don’t understand the importance of actually examining new scientific information critically and having an honest conversation. . . . I kind of imagine them as “cavemen” of sorts — pounding on their keyboards, drooling, and thinking that they have won, while all of the actual intelligent people are smirking and shaking their heads at how painfully, obviously ignorant they are.

In the world of Kate (MAM) and other anti-vaxxers, a 12-year-old is a bully, pro-vaxxers don’t understand science, and only anti-vaxxers are intelligent (and smugly so). Also, up is down, black is white, and the sky is green.

From there, Kate’s post goes nowhere, repeating that the kid is a bully and that pro-vaxxers are terrible and dumb in all ways. It also doesn’t actually present any science showing that vaccines cause autism. In other words, she kind of proves Marco’s point.

By the way, here’s some evidence (okay lots of evidence) showing that vaccines DO NOT cause autism.

But MAMKate is not alone. National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) is getting in on the act of rebutting a 12-year-old’s satirical video. (Because NO voices must ever say anything positive about vaccines without being actively shouted down.)

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NVIC has a history of classless, terrible behavior, including promoting the harassment of children. This time, they are getting in on the “take Marco down” campaign by posting a hit piece written by “Levi Quackenboss.”

The Quackenboss piece begins by claiming scientific pursuits concerning vaccines are a religious belief and intimates that Marco shouldn’t even be on Facebook because he is not the requisite 13-years-old yet. So actually, the piece begins by slamming Marco for being young and influenced by his parents (and science).

Then, in anti-vaccine style, she (Quackenboss) picks up the goalposts and moves them downfield. SV-40! Acellular pertussis! HPV! Monkey pox! Faked moon landings! Spaghetti at the ceiling! She discusses anything except, you know, how vaccines don’t cause autism–the actual topic of the video. It’s pure throat clearing written by someone who loves her own voice.

Then she goes on with a condescending and easily refutable diatribe, writing:

Little dude, I totally get that you love science but I’ve got some sad news for you: there’s very little science in vaccine science.

And following with every possible anti-vaccine trope she can find. Here are some answers for her:

After all these myths, Quackenboss ends with a smug little kicker, something meant to put a 12-year-old in his place:

Look, clearly you’re a smart kid in your knockoff Polo shirt and your eyeglasses that look like wraparound safety goggles.  I trust that one day you’re going to figure out that you’ve been lied to, not only by your parents but by your government and the leaders of this world, and you’re going to look back on this insulting video and say, “God, what a little prick I was.”

And that’s OK, Marco.  We’ll be here for you when you do.

But you know what, anti-vaxxers? Marco doesn’t need you and he isn’t interested in you waiting for him. One of you visited him, and he was ready for you.

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Credit: Karen Halabura

A final piece of advice for anti-vaxxers: pick on someone your own size. I mean that two ways: while Marco is smaller than you in stature, he is far larger than you when it comes to class and intellect.

Here’s Marco’s video. Please give it a watch. It will restore your faith in our future.

 

65 thoughts on “Anti-Vaxxers Defeated by Twelve-Year-Old Whiz Kid”

  2. You obviously did.

    I expect that outside the anti-vaccine echo chamber, put downs of 12 years old don’t work to your favor. This boy is beyond you. Petty attacks on him won’t make up for the power of his message and the fact that the science is on his side, not yours.

    Liked by 8 people

  3. Like many other people, I read Karen’s blog. I also read yours, Levi. I’d like to comment on it (if only to correct your many lies on this subject) but you won’t let me. You lie about vaccines, slander good people and censor anyone who disagrees with you. That is shameful.

    Liked by 10 people

  6. “I kind of imagine them as “cavemen” of sorts — pounding on their keyboards, drooling, and thinking that they have won, while all of the actual intelligent people are smirking and shaking their heads at how painfully, obviously ignorant they are.” Wow. So all of us scientifically minded, science educated people are pounding on our keyboards and drooling. I guess I’ve been called worse. Today I was called a fool who would be stuck in the matrix. Or whatever. It’s ok; I will continue to try and educate the vaccine hesitant and ignore the rest of the tribe. Picking on a 12 year old kid. Really?

    Liked by 7 people

  8. It’s really creepy how “Levi Quackenboss” writes under about 22 different pseudonyms I’ve seen. It’s also cruel and classless how both “Levi” and MAM attack a 12-year-old, particularly in such a public venue. That kind of behavior just goes to show how hateful, cruel, and immature the AV cult is. And yet they’re constantly caterwauling about pro-science advocates supposedly bullying them.

    Liked by 8 people

  9. Great post, Karen. I read here but don’t comment. But since Levi Quackenboss was saying you were talking to an empty room, I figured I’d join in the pointing out that Levi is wrong.

    I also took the time to read Levi’s post. It was the most embarrassing thing I’ve seen in a long time. I had visions, the whole time I read it, of a preschooler stomping around in a petulant rage, storming about taking their toys and going home because no one would play by their rules. The condescension and complete rudeness were appalling.

    Liked by 7 people

  10. The thing I like most about Marco’s video is that it has been seen and admired by more people than have seen and admired Wakefield’s hoaxumentary which might have to be retitled Vexxed. And the hoaxumentary reportedly cost $400K.

    Liked by 7 people

  11. Katie of Modern Alternative Health never fails to amaze me. I find it so disturbing the echo chamber she has built around herself and how confidently she insults others. The one thing about her post you didn’t mention is how she linked to a handful of papers on pubmed claiming that is “proof” of her side. I’d love to see someone go through and explain about each of those papers.

    Liked by 5 people

    • Christy

      Paper #1 “Aluminum adjuvants in vaccines likely causally linked to autism” = Do aluminum vaccine adjuvants contribute to the rising prevalence of autism? Tomljenovic L, Shaw CA. J Inorg Biochem. 2011 Nov;105(11):1489-99. doi: 10.1016/j.jinorgbio.2011.08.008. Epub 2011 Aug 23. which was eviscerated here: http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2011/12/08/and-global-warming-is-caused-by-the-decr/

      (This is one where should read the comments).

      Liked by 3 people

      • Paper # 3 = Assessment of Hair Aluminum, Lead, and Mercury in a Sample of Autistic Egyptian Children: Environmental Risk Factors of Heavy Metals in Autism. Mohamed Fel B, Zaky EA, El-Sayed AB, Elhossieny RM, Zahra SS, Salah Eldin W, Youssef WY, Khaled RA, Youssef AM. Behav Neurol. 2015;2015:545674. doi: 10.1155/2015/545674. Epub 2015 Oct 5.

        1. It’s hair analysis which is notoriously wonky. I haven’t found any analysis yet but I also haven’t read the full paper.

        Liked by 3 people

    • Paper #2 = Aluminum in the central nervous system (CNS): toxicity in humans and animals, vaccine adjuvants, and autoimmunity.
      Shaw CA, Tomljenovic L. Immunol Res. 2013 Jul;56(2-3):304-16. doi: 10.1007/s12026-013-8403-1. .

      “119) Aluminum in the central nervous system (CNS): toxicity in humans and animals, vaccine adjuvants, and autoimmunity
      It’s our friends Tomljenovic and Shaw again, and it’s yet another not-a-scientific-paper, but hypotheses and conjecture. This is the time when I should point out that this study was funded by the Dwoskin Family Foundation, which was founded by Claire Dwoskin. Mrs. Dwoskin is a board member of the horribly misnamed National Vaccine Information Center, a public charity anti-vaccination advocacy group. Shaw and Tomljenovic have been speakers at conferences with such other speakers as antivax neurosurgeone Russell Blaylock, MD, NVIC founder Barbara Loe Fisher, and Andrew Wakefield. As I’m not terribly fond of ad hominems, I’ll stop there.”

      http://www.docbastard.net/2016/05/124-papers-that-do-not-prove-vaccines.html

      Liked by 3 people

    • Paper #4 = A positive association found between autism prevalence and childhood vaccination uptake across the U.S. population. Delong G. J Toxicol Environ Health A. 2011;74(14):903-16. doi: 10.1080/15287394.2011.573736.

      A number of people have deconstructed the fatal weaknesses of this paper. I summarize here, as well as link to previous scrutiny.

      http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/2014/05/86-research-papers-allegedly-supporting-the-vaccine-autism-link-paper-6-a-positive-association-found.html

      Liked by 3 people

    • Paper # 5= “Mercury and aluminum together are neurotoxic” = Exposure to Mercury and Aluminum in Early Life: Developmental Vulnerability as a Modifying Factor in Neurologic and Immunologic Effects
      José G. Dórea Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2015 Feb; 12(2): 1295–1313. Published online 2015 Jan 23. doi: 10.3390/ijerph120201295 I don’t think anybody has critiqued this one yet either; his previous papers were very weak.

      Liked by 3 people

    • paper #7 = Mercury is has a causal link with the development of ASDs = Blood mercury levels in autism spectrum disorder: Is there a threshold level?
      Geier DA, Audhya T, Kern JK, Geier MR. Acta Neurobiol Exp (Wars). 2010;70(2):177-86. Thimerosal is a disproven cause of autism, so why beat this dead horse?

      Liked by 5 people

  12. Nice post, Karen. I always enjoy reading them, and you couldn’t have chosen a better topic. I hope this young man chooses a career in science or in communication, or in both.

    Liked by 7 people

  13. I suppose 12 is a bit too old for MAM to break his arm and leave him to suffer for a few weeks, like she did her own child, so she has to resort to Internet bullying him.

    Liked by 2 people

  14. I think the anti-vaccinators are angry because they can’t trick and swindle the new generation of critical thinkers. When a 12 year old is able to punch wholes in your ‘science’ argument, no wonder they throw hissy fits, harass children and try to berate ’empty’ blogs.

    Liked by 6 people

  15. When will people realise there is no science in science, just as there is no oxygen in air, no water in the oceans, no leaves on trees. I do not believe in gravity, because there is no science in it, just anecdotes about falling apples. This is why I am writing this from the dark side of the moon without a helmet. I don’t need oxygen. Neither do you. There’s no science in it. There, that’s settled.

    Liked by 4 people

  18. Living in a country where children can’t even attend public school if they’re not vaccinated, I can only support everyone who’s fighting against ignorance. Thank you for the good read karenlernst. I’m still in the process to understand this nonsense and why is it legal for parents to make a choice that can harm their children.

    Liked by 6 people

  19. Great write up and necessary to counter some of the ugliness shown from grown adults who are so immature they feel righteous in attacking a 12 year old kid.

    Those adults could take some cues from Marco who has shown intelligence, wit and the ability to get his point across without resorting to immature attacks and insults. He’s a class act and destined to do great things!

    Liked by 5 people

  20. Kate MAM who refuses to debate a doctor but feels empowered to call out a 12 year old science-literate boy with her useless, crap links. The cowardice of that is astounding.

    Liked by 5 people

  21. “Looks like you’re shouting to an empty room. Thanks for the link, not that anyone reads your blog.” I read her blog. And – in an ironic twist – so did you, as is evidenced by you being the first to comment.

    Liked by 6 people

      • You are not being bullied. Sadly, you’re being corrected by someone probably less than half your age.

        Like

    • If you’re upset that a 12-year old is smarter and more ethical than you, the proper response is to get better, not to attack him. Even your heroic forces manage to silence him and all the others who upset you with the truth, you’ll still be wrong, after all.

      Like

  24. I am leaving a comment just to add my voice to the “empty room”. Quackenbush, you are the worst sort of pseudointellectual sophist. I am not sure why you think targeting a 12 year old will help your cause, but enjoy your mental masturbation.

    Liked by 1 person

  25. It’s not surprising that they’re so upset. Marco Arturo has easily and in a positive way reached many more people than Vaxxed in a shorter time. Yes, in part it’s confirmation bias; but it’s nice to see how many more people are receptive to this message than to Andrew Wakefield’s misinformation. It puts things in perspective: Anti-vaccine activists are vocal, but they are still a small, extreme group whose reach is very limited. Harmful, but marginal.

    Liked by 2 people

    • I’ve had friends who are not as deeply involved in the vaccine argument as I am comment and share Marco’s video. So I agree, people are more receptive to this than Vaxxed. And that is a very good thing. I will continue to fight the good fight to stop anti-vaccine activists doing more harm

      Liked by 3 people

  27. Insults aside.The kids clearly regurgitating info his parents are giving him. Because Vaxxed is bringing the truth to the masses, tons of pharma p.r. pieces are hitting. His useless rant and this site are part of that. Bottom line is we have hundreds of Immunologists, virologists, from Stanford, Harvard, UCLA CDC workers, Merck employees AMA employees WHO workers and other specialists all on our side. They not only admit the autism link, they admit to a plethora of dangers, ineffectiveness and the myth of herd immunity. Most of all we have parents . 10s of thousands of parents, coming out of the woodwork, standing up when asked if they have a vaccine damaged child. They have testified before but many never saw that. Just wait till vaxxed hits nexflix. The people will revolt against the big pharma lie. Vaccines are not dead, they are still active and vaccinated kids carry and spread disease a symptomatically. Our community in Humboldt county California has roughly 10,000 unvaccinated children. Its been that way since the 60s. 3 cases of measles, 5 whooping coughs, in 55 years since the non vaxx movement started there. ALL kids lives, ALL mild cases, month long coughs and rashes.Not 1 death or hospitalization. 12 known vaxx injured kids and dozens more likely 1s. Autism has not test, its a collection of symptoms caused by vaccines. Its not a disease ,its a symptom based condition. You should really quit disrespecting the deaths of millions of vaccine injured and murdered kids and their families. You are the lowest form of human. A hateful ,heartless wannabe educator, spiting on the graves of innocent children.

    Like

    • When anti-vaxxers come and list the thousands of parents and doctors they have, I like to remind them that the millions of parents and doctors and researchers in thousands of labs and governmental agencies and universities across the world agree that vaccines don’t cause autism. It’s not disrespect to defer to the 99.999% of scientists who agree that vaccines do not cause autism. Furthermore, you allude to some sort of conspiracy that Marco Arturo and all theses scientists and I are part of. We are all part of Pharma’s P.R. campaign. If that were true, how much would it cost Pharma to pay us all off?

      Vaxxed is a self-promotion piece written by, produced by, funded by, and starring Andrew Wakefield so that Andrew Wakefield can continue to profit off of the parents of autistic children he has conned. If you want to be angry at someone concerning the disrespect of autistic children, be mad at Andrew Wakefield.

      Liked by 3 people

    • A. I think looking at the original video – which I doubt Marco expected would go viral – shows pretty clearly it’s his thing. I expect – and hope – his parents are helping him to deal with the fallout, and backing him up. I’d hate to think of the boy alone in front of all the attacks.

      B. I think the difference in reach between Vaxxed and Marco’s video is telling. People like Marco’s video because it fits what they know. Vaxxed, at present, reached at most 40,000 people – most of them believers. To remind you, there are more than 40,000 believers in the vaccines-cause-autism and vaccines-are-the-root-of-all-evil myths in the U.S. before Vaxxed. It doesn’t look like Vaxxed is making much inroads into the general public.

      C. Vaccines vary. Some vaccines have single proteins – so-called sub-unit vaccines. Some have an inactivated – dead – pathogen. Some have a live, but weakened, virus. Most of those are weakened so they cannot replicate – and very few shed, and that very, very rarely. Here is a nice overview: https://www.verywell.com/live-vaccines-and-vaccine-shedding-2633700

      The real concern about shedding is not shedding of a weakened vaccine virus, but shedding of a virulent, wild virus or bacteria – and the vaccine-deprived children are much more likely to carry those, since they’re left unprotected against them.

      D. I’m glad the vaccine-deprived children in your county have remained healthy. It’s great to live in a first world country where responsible neighbor protect their children, thus helping protect those whose parents won’t.

      E. Autism is not a vaccine injury. Real longterm vaccine injuries are very rare. Doesn’t make it easier for the one in a million or less it happens to, but most claims of vaccine injury we see online are not from vaccines.

      Liked by 2 people

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