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A friend recently posted this on their Facebook:

Vaccines don't cause autism. They cause hypertoxicity which leads to neurological impairment, and cell death. DRAW YOUR OWN CONCLUSIONS! ~Dr. D.Mihalovic

Vaccines don't cause autism. They cause hypertoxicity which leads to neurological impairment, and cell death. DRAW YOUR OWN CONCLUSIONS! ~Dr. D.Mihalovic

In my personal opinion, it reeks of woo, and finding sources that make Mr. Mihalovic look like a loon isn't hard, but I need a more solid foundation to work from if I plan to rattle any beliefs. I find it telling that Wikipedia doesn't appear to have a "hypertoxicity" article, but I've never heard the term before. Is it being used in much the same sense that "toxins" are invariably used to sell expensive placebos, or is it an actual term that's being (mis)used here?

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    It would help if they defined "hypertoxisity" and exactly what is supposedly causing it... You're right, reeks of woo.
    – JasonR
    Jun 6, 2012 at 12:00
  • Reminds me of the Amazing Randi joke about homeopathy, "Did you hear about the guy that overdosed? He forgot to take his medicine!”
    – user1873
    Jun 6, 2012 at 13:30
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    I would just ask why hypertoxisity means, and what toxins are involved?
    – Brendan Long
    Jun 6, 2012 at 14:36
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    "Draw your own conclusion"! Based on what?
    – nico
    Jun 8, 2012 at 6:28
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    It’s very helpful that quacks have agreed on a uniform corporate design. That way, they are instantly recognisable.
    – Konrad Rudolph
    Jun 8, 2012 at 6:47

1 Answer 1

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A bit of context. Mr Mihalovic is not a doctor, but an anti-vaccine advocate and a "naturopath" -- in other words:

David Mihalovic is an ND, which stands for “naturopathic doctor” or, more appropriately, “not a doctor”. According to himself he “specializes in vaccine research.” It is, however, unclear where that research is published – there are no hits on Pubmed, for instance – though he does write propaganda for the anti-vaccine website Medical Voices Vaccine Information Center.

http://americanloons.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/945-david-mihalovic.html

I don't know if this quote is made up or not, but the most similar thing I could find is this image which is about "synergistic" toxicity.

synergistic toxicity

http://preventdisease.com/news/14/051514_9-Ways-Vaccines-Reducing-Immunity-Inducing-Immune-Overload-In-Children.shtml

He referst to this article which was written by authors in an undisclosed conflict of interest, they are funded by anti-vaccination propaganda groups. In any case, the article has been thoroughly debunked, and, if you think of it, it also contradicts the claim of Mihailovic.

Mihalovic claims that some vaccines, when used together, are toxic/deadly: a bit like two-part glue, if you like. The authors of the debunked article claim that the number of shots is relevant -- which is ludicrous, of course -- and that they found a linear relationship between the number of shots taken (they call them "vaccines", but it's not what they are) and infant mortality.

There's also another link that claims that vaccines cause type I diabetes, but that seems off-topic with respect to the original claim. Unsurprisingly, it's also written by a person which holds patents on "methods of testing vaccines for their ability to cause diabetes and methods of preventing diabetes", in other words, who has an open interest in making such claims.

TL:DR; Vaccines are safe. Lack of vaccination is irresponsible and causes harm to children and immunocompromised groups.

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  • Just a note: synergistic toxicity is real enough. The classic example is grapefruit -- consume a completely safe quantity of grapefruit plus a theraputic dose of any of a number of medicines, and you risk dying from overdose effects.
    – Mark
    Apr 22, 2015 at 23:46
  • Can you give me a reference for that?
    – Sklivvz
    Apr 23, 2015 at 0:17
  • Wikipedia has an entire article on grapefruit-drug interactions; if you want something peer-reviewed, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3589309 looks like a decent overview.
    – Mark
    Apr 23, 2015 at 0:36
  • Mihailovic, Mihalovic ... are you debunking two different guys or what?
    – GEdgar
    Apr 23, 2015 at 2:10
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    For that matter, so is Anaphylaxis. Some details in this Nobel acceptance speech. So in theory vaccines with some of the same ingredients could do something similar (I hear mention of peanut oil...). The problem with that is it's generally considered safe to give flu vaccines made in chicken eggs to those who are already allergic to eggs...
    – Clockwork-Muse
    Apr 23, 2015 at 10:46

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