I think you're reading every element of it wrong...
Jay hasn't indicated being an "anti-vaxxer" in anything I've seen from him...
I'm not an "anti-vaxxer" either...
But I do oppose stupidity, ignorance, and fraud in medicine... just as I oppose stupidity, ignorance and fraud in other things. And, I'll never give anyone in medicine "a pass" on having to prove themselves... with real science backing their arguments... just because they choose to wear a white lab coat ? I've seen an awful lot of stupidity, ignorance and fraud... in medicine.
No "thing"... is intrinsically good, or evil ? Vaccines are not... but, that doesn't mean they're immune :<) to evil influences that convert potentially good things into a source of evil... or, simply subject them to stupidity, ignorance and fraud ?
I have seen a few things others might be missing... particularly in relation to vaccines.... as a business... and thus also understand something of the "anti-vaxxer" label in its origins... and where it stands today... as an epithet applied by drug companies hoping to use it to deflect the arguments of critics...
Some time back, I happened to be called upon as "an expert" to present analysis and an argument about the role of thiomersal in vaccines... thiomersal being a form of mercury used as a preservative in vaccines.
The "anti-vaxxer" crowd insisted and still insists that thiomersal is a primary cause of Autism. The drug companies insisted thiomersal is harmless... I ended up being the arbiter between the two... not in any official decision making capacity... but in terms of delivering the definitive argument... that pretty well defined the outcome in the result...
When you look at the Wikipedia page... plenty of evidence there's still a hot contest going on, there...
But, what that misses... is that back then, when it happened, the drug companies lost the argument... based on science... and their own data... The contest sill going on now... is with a set point at a different level, with most of that white-washed in the reporting now as:
Following a mandated review of mercury-containing food and drugs in 1999, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) determined that under the existing vaccination schedule "some children could be exposed to a cumulative level of mercury over the first 6 months of life that exceeds one of the federal guidelines on methyl mercury." [20] [21] They asked vaccine makers to remove thiomersal from vaccines as quickly as possible as a precautionary measure, and it was rapidly phased out of most US and EU vaccines, [22] [23] but is still used in multi-dose vials of flu vaccines in the U.S. [24] [25] No vaccines in the European Union currently contain thiomersal as a preservative. [26].
Using the companies own data.... and multi-source government data and criteria on the toxicity of mercury... I showed a couple of things: First, that the drug companies were making a classic mistake in medicine... in miscalculating dosing by ignore body mass. The took the standards for exposure to mercury in an adult, and the dosage present in an adult dose of vaccine... noted the dosage was below threshold... so all good But, they were giving that dose to an infant weighing only a few pounds... not a 180 pound adult ? And, they were ignoring that adult physiology is not the same as an infants during an exceptionally rapid phase of neural growth... ignoring that growth alters susceptibility to toxins... and that neural tissues are particularly susceptible...
Using their data, corrected for their errors... they were overdosing infants with proven to be toxic forms of mercury at 100 times the allowable standard... that still ignoring the impact of increased susceptibility...
That's why there was a removal of thiomersal from vaccines... not as "a precautionary measure" but as a "holy shit" realization...
And, that was the right call... but, not the only impact either... the government's own standards for mercury exposures in different regulations... were all over the map... as different agencies took the same basic information and computed values from it... incorrectly. So, that got better standardized, too, in result...
The companies continue to argue that thiomersal is a non-toxic form of mercury... without any reasonable evidence that is true... and, in-spite of that requiring not only a different understanding than we do have of the stability of the compound... but lacking any explanation for why thiomersal works as a preservative...
Preservatives work... because they are toxic... to the organisms you want to protect against ? So, if you claim "it works" and "its not toxic".... you own the burden of proof in showing how both can be true... showing how it does work... and how it is not toxic to humans. Last I looked, they have not done that, or even made reasonable efforts to attempt it....
Thus far... last I looked... they've failed completely in presenting any science that justifies their opinion...
But, that also doesn't matter... as they are now forced to comply with standards that have lowered the allowable exposures sufficiently to prevent them flat out poisoning infants with massive doses of mercury that likely do more than cause "a risk" of brain damage ?
That's the proper role of oversight... and why you need it... as without it all you get is stupidity, ignorance and fraud... or, all that, only with a big dollop of greed thrown in...
Does thiomersal cause Autism ? I don't know. But, I don't have to know that... to apply basic principles in evaluating toxicity risks ? And they simply failed to do that VERY BASIC work properly...
They can't stop fighting it, either... which has nothing to do with science or truth... because... LIABILITY...
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