| Discipline | Anti-vaccine activism |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Edited by | John Oller |
| Publication details | |
| History | 2020–present |
| Yes | |
| License | CC 4.0 NC ND |
| Standard abbreviations | |
| ISO 4 | Int. J. Vaccine Theory Pract. Res. |
| Indexing | |
| ISSN | 2766-5852 |
| Links | |
The International Journal of Vaccine Theory, Practice, and Research is an anti-vaccine journal. It is known for promoting misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
The editor-in-chief is John Oller, a former linguistics professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette who published a book falsely linking vaccines to autism in 2009. [6] [4] Its senior editor, Christopher Shaw, is a professor at the University of British Columbia's Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences department who has promoted scare stories about vaccines. [6] Its associate editors are Russell Blaylock, a former neurosurgeon who has baselessly claimed that wearing face masks helps SARS-CoV-2 enter the brain, [7] and anti-vaccine activists Stephanie Seneff and Brian Hooker. [2] [4] Hooker and associate editor Mary Holland are also members of the anti-vaccine group Children's Health Defense. [2]
Matti Sällström (Karolinska Institute), said of the journal: "The editorial board is a joke. None of the editors or associate editors are scientists of a good reputation. Some even are not in the scope of the title of the journal." [4]
In May 2021, Seneff published a paper with co-author Greg Nigh (a naturopath) [8] titled "Worse Than the Disease? Reviewing Some Possible Unintended Consequences of the mRNA Vaccines Against COVID-19" [9] in the then-brand new journal. [10]
In October 2023, the journal published a paper baselessly implying that Pfizer had knowingly avoided reporting deaths that happened during clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine. The paper was cited as a source by The Epoch Times , a far-right newspaper known for promoting anti-vaccine misinformation. [2]
In September 2024, James Lawler (University of Nebraska Medical Center), said the journal is "not a real journal". He described a paper published in the journal claiming that COVID-19 vaccines contain nanobots as "a case study on how to spot disinformation", and said its content was "scientific gibberish with no basis in actual biology or the scientific method" and "relatively amateurish gibberish... that a reasonable person with a high-school level biology education should be able to easily debunk." [11]
Brian S. Hooker a biologist and chemist who was department chair and Professor Emeritus of Biology at Simpson University. He is known for promoting the false claim that vaccines cause autism.
Russell L. Blaylock is an author and a retired U.S. neurosurgeon.
MDPI is a publisher of open-access scientific journals. It publishes over 390 peer-reviewed, open access journals. MDPI is among the largest publishers in the world in terms of journal article output, and is the largest publisher of open access articles.
Harald Walach is a German parapsychologist and advocate of alternative medicine.
Food and Chemical Toxicology is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering aspects of food safety, chemical safety, and other aspects of consumer product safety. It is published by Elsevier and was established in 1963. The editor-in-chief is Bryan Delaney.
Sherri J. Tenpenny is an American anti-vaccination activist and conspiracy theorist who promulgates disproven hypotheses that vaccines cause autism. An osteopathic physician by training, she is the author of four books opposing vaccination. In 2023 the State Medical Board of Ohio indefinitely suspended Tenpenny's medical license for failure to participate in its investigations. Her license was restored in 2024.
Stephanie Seneff is an American computer scientist and anti-vaccine activist. She is a senior research scientist at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Working primarily in the Spoken Language Systems group, her research at CSAIL relates to human–computer interaction, and algorithms for language understanding and speech recognition. In 2011, she began publishing controversial papers in low-impact, open access journals on biology and medical topics; the articles have received "heated objections from experts in almost every field she's delved into," according to the food columnist Ari LeVaux.
Christopher Ariel Shaw is a Canadian neuroscientist and professor of ophthalmology at the University of British Columbia.
Del Matthew Bigtree is an American television and film producer who is the CEO of the anti-vaccination group Informed Consent Action Network. He produced the film Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe, based on the discredited opinions of Andrew Wakefield, and alleges an unsubstantiated connection between vaccines and autism. He served as communications director for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s 2024 presidential campaign and subsequently took a leading role in two groups associated with Kennedy's political career.
The Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN) is one of the main anti-vaccination groups in the United States. Founded in 2016 by Del Bigtree, it spreads misinformation about the risks of vaccines and contributes to vaccine hesitancy, which has been identified by the World Health Organization as one of the top ten global health threats of 2019. Arguments against vaccination are contradicted by overwhelming scientific consensus about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines.
Misinformation related to immunization and the use of vaccines circulates in mass media and social media in spite of the fact that there is no serious hesitancy or debate within mainstream medical and scientific circles about the benefits of vaccination. Unsubstantiated safety concerns related to vaccines are often presented on the internet as being scientific information. A large proportion of internet sources on the topic are mostly inaccurate which can lead people searching for information to form misconceptions relating to vaccines.
Pierre Kory is an American critical care physician who gained attention during the COVID-19 pandemic for advocating widespread off-label use of certain drugs as treatments for COVID-19, as president and co-founder of the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC). Kory testified twice to the U.S. Senate regarding COVID-19. During his testimony in December 2020, Kory erroneously claimed that the antiparasitic medication ivermectin was a "wonder drug" with "miraculous effectiveness" against COVID-19.
Robert Wallace Malone is an American physician and biochemist. His early work focused on mRNA technology, pharmaceuticals, and drug repurposing research. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Malone promoted misinformation about the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines.
Noora is a COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed by Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences in collaboration with Plasma Darman Sarv Sepid Co. in Iran. Introduced in June 2021, it was announced as having "successfully passed the first phase of its clinical trial" two months later.
The Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC) is a group of physicians and former journalists, formed in April 2020, that has advocated for various unapproved, dubious, and ineffective treatments for COVID-19. The group was led from the start by Paul E. Marik and Pierre Kory, both of whom would later join conservative or right-wing groups promoting COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and misinformation. In August 2024 both men had their medical board certifications revoked.
In many countries a variety of unfounded conspiracy theories and other misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines have spread based on misunderstood or misrepresented science, religion, and law. These have included exaggerated claims about side effects, misrepresentations about how the immune system works and when and how COVID-19 vaccines are made, a story about COVID-19 being spread by 5G, and other false or distorted information. This misinformation, some created by anti-vaccination activists, has proliferated and may have made many people averse to vaccination. This has led to governments and private organizations around the world introducing measures to incentivize or coerce vaccination, such as lotteries, mandates, and free entry to events, which has in turn led to further misinformation about the legality and effect of these measures themselves.
John Lorimer Campbell is an English YouTuber and retired nurse educator known for his videos about the COVID-19 pandemic. Initially, the videos received praise, but they later diverged into COVID-19 misinformation. He has been criticised for suggesting COVID-19 deaths have been over-counted, repeating false claims about the use of ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment, and providing misleading commentary about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines. As of March 2024, his YouTube channel had 3 million subscribers and over 750 million views.
The Daily Sceptic is a blog created by British commentator Toby Young. It has published misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines and engaged in climate change denial.
Anti-vaccine activism, which collectively constitutes the "anti-vax" movement, is a set of organized activities proclaiming opposition to vaccination, and these collaborating networks have often fought to increase vaccine hesitancy by disseminating vaccine-based misinformation and/or forms of active disinformation. As a social movement, it has utilized multiple tools both within traditional news media and also through various forms of online communication. Activists have primarily focused on issues surrounding children, with vaccination of the young receiving pushback, and they have sought to expand beyond niche subgroups into national political debates.
Turbo cancer is an anti-vaccination conspiracy theory alleging that people vaccinated against COVID-19, especially with mRNA vaccines, are suffering from a high incidence of fast-developing cancers. Although the idea has been spread by a number of vaccine opponents, including several health professionals, turbo cancer is not supported by cancer research, and there is no evidence that COVID-19 vaccination causes or worsens cancer.
