You, Stuart and many others might believe that BMJ Public Health needs to retract this paper urgently but not on the grounds you mention. Unsupported implications fueling the anti-vax movement is much to vague and needs supporting evidence and sloppy but biased copy/paste of the Karlinsky and Kobak paper , though clearly a case of plagiarism, do not make the case for retraction incontrovertible according to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (https://publicationethics.org/sites/default/files/plagiarism-published-article-cope-flowchart.pdf). Sorry.
I agree that BMJPH cannot retract based on social media posts or substacks.
But the criticism (as laid out in this substack) is substantial and warrants a BMJPH formal investigator or re-peer review (inc e.g. by Karlinsky) that is made transparent. A decision to retract could be made on the basis of such a process (and the process *might* conclude not to retract of course).
So hard to reach people who have already made up their minds. Agree this certainly doesn't help but when your entire family parrots the line 'we don't want to take a vaccine because the government lied to us and now we don't trust that they are safe', I don't know what else can be done to convince them. Very depressing.
As ever, with misinformation, it’s all about what is LEFT OUT, that would otherwise completely disprove the narrative.
It’s so sad such a large proportion of this planet seems to want to believe any conspiracy theory going. As proven, “Fake News travels faster and reaches more people than the truth” 🙄.
What I just don’t quite understand is “Who actually benefits from the suffering created by it”?
I'm sorry you had to spend your time diligently debunking this unprofessional nonsense. I'm sure you have much better things to do, but thank you for your caring thoughtful efforts in this regard.
How can we share this widely and how can we add pressure for BMJ Public Health to retract the article? As you say, plagiarism alone should be sufficient grounds.
How the fuck did this crap get published??? Apparently they have not learned anything from the Andrew Wakefield mistake🤬 Another junk study where children were tortured and scientists quit the study. He started the anti vaccine bullshit.
How did such rubbish get published? And in BMJ Public Health? Surely there must be a few people who allowed it through, knowing it was dodgy but so keen to push the antivax agenda that they turned a blind eye? Of course those who wrote it will now be lauded by the anti vax crowd- only money and fame in their futures and grifters are of course going to grift- but feeling very let down by the BMJ.
I belong to a locum group for doctors, there are 2 antivaxers on it, we are supposed to be discussing locums, contracts etc but instead we regulary get sent articles from the Telegraph/TikTok/youtubec on antivax or attacking doctors who have promoted vaccination, saying they took bak handers from pharmacy companies and worse.
Anti vax stuff is relentless and everywhere. Thousands off deaths caused already.
But it pays, look at Andrew Wakefield, lives in a mansion in the US and was married to a supermodel , for a while...
And look out, now they are coming for sunscreen(no really, look it up..), which apparently 'causes skin cancer' and parents are being advised to 'build up their children's immunity to sun' by gettng them sunburnt regularly. Can't wait to see that one in BMJ Public Health...
Naomi Klein' latest book 'Doppleganger' goes into the anti-vax stuff in some detail; Naomi Wolf and Steve Bannon feature strongly as prime movers. It's very scary but this is the world we live in now, scientists are losing the battle.
Extremely helpful piece and simply explained. Thank you. Sadly many eyes won’t see this. Anti-vax spreads easily on social media.
You, Stuart and many others might believe that BMJ Public Health needs to retract this paper urgently but not on the grounds you mention. Unsupported implications fueling the anti-vax movement is much to vague and needs supporting evidence and sloppy but biased copy/paste of the Karlinsky and Kobak paper , though clearly a case of plagiarism, do not make the case for retraction incontrovertible according to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (https://publicationethics.org/sites/default/files/plagiarism-published-article-cope-flowchart.pdf). Sorry.
I agree that BMJPH cannot retract based on social media posts or substacks.
But the criticism (as laid out in this substack) is substantial and warrants a BMJPH formal investigator or re-peer review (inc e.g. by Karlinsky) that is made transparent. A decision to retract could be made on the basis of such a process (and the process *might* conclude not to retract of course).
I presume you have written to the editor of BMJPH expressing all your concerns which is the usual place to start.
As it happens, yes. But it is also important to explain to people who may have seen the media headlines what it means.
So hard to reach people who have already made up their minds. Agree this certainly doesn't help but when your entire family parrots the line 'we don't want to take a vaccine because the government lied to us and now we don't trust that they are safe', I don't know what else can be done to convince them. Very depressing.
Thanks so much Stuart and Christina 💙
As ever, with misinformation, it’s all about what is LEFT OUT, that would otherwise completely disprove the narrative.
It’s so sad such a large proportion of this planet seems to want to believe any conspiracy theory going. As proven, “Fake News travels faster and reaches more people than the truth” 🙄.
What I just don’t quite understand is “Who actually benefits from the suffering created by it”?
I'm sorry you had to spend your time diligently debunking this unprofessional nonsense. I'm sure you have much better things to do, but thank you for your caring thoughtful efforts in this regard.
Many thanks for this
👏👏👏👏👏
How can we share this widely and how can we add pressure for BMJ Public Health to retract the article? As you say, plagiarism alone should be sufficient grounds.
How the fuck did this crap get published??? Apparently they have not learned anything from the Andrew Wakefield mistake🤬 Another junk study where children were tortured and scientists quit the study. He started the anti vaccine bullshit.
How did such rubbish get published? And in BMJ Public Health? Surely there must be a few people who allowed it through, knowing it was dodgy but so keen to push the antivax agenda that they turned a blind eye? Of course those who wrote it will now be lauded by the anti vax crowd- only money and fame in their futures and grifters are of course going to grift- but feeling very let down by the BMJ.
I belong to a locum group for doctors, there are 2 antivaxers on it, we are supposed to be discussing locums, contracts etc but instead we regulary get sent articles from the Telegraph/TikTok/youtubec on antivax or attacking doctors who have promoted vaccination, saying they took bak handers from pharmacy companies and worse.
Anti vax stuff is relentless and everywhere. Thousands off deaths caused already.
But it pays, look at Andrew Wakefield, lives in a mansion in the US and was married to a supermodel , for a while...
And look out, now they are coming for sunscreen(no really, look it up..), which apparently 'causes skin cancer' and parents are being advised to 'build up their children's immunity to sun' by gettng them sunburnt regularly. Can't wait to see that one in BMJ Public Health...
What's next, I wonder? "Build up your children's immunity to automobile accidents by encouraging them to play in traffic?"
Naomi Klein' latest book 'Doppleganger' goes into the anti-vax stuff in some detail; Naomi Wolf and Steve Bannon feature strongly as prime movers. It's very scary but this is the world we live in now, scientists are losing the battle.
oh yes, a brilliant book and shes so interesting when you hear her speak as well.