The Vaccinologist's Desk (Dr Helen Petousis-Harris)

My latest blog, breaking down RFK Jr.’s tin foil hat claims about aluminium in vaccines and autism. Epidemiologists see adjusted hazard ratios. RFK Jr. sees messages from the aluminium mothership🪱🚀 diplomaticimmunity.blog/no-rfk-jr-th...

5/ 🧠 What does it all mean?
— A lack of evidence that aluminium in vaccines causes autism, autoimmunity, or allergy.

www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/... #AluminumMyths #PublicHealth #AutismFacts #ScienceMatters

4/ 📉 CIs were incompatible with even modest risk increases. In plain English: If aluminium did cause problems, this study would’ve picked it up. It didn’t. ⚠️ But, this won’t stop the aluminium claims from spreading. Disinformation doesn’t care about data — it cares about drama

3/ 📊 What they found (per 1 mg of aluminum from vaccines by age 2):
— Autism: HR 0.93 (↓ 7% risk)
— ADHD: HR 0.90
— Asthma: HR 0.96
— Autoimmune disease: HR 0.98
— Allergies: HR 0.99
Translation: no increased risk — and in some cases, a slightly lower one.

2/ 💉 Study details:
— 1.2 million children
— 24 years of data
— Real-world vaccine exposure
— Outcomes: autism, ADHD, asthma, autoimmune & allergic diseases
— Published: Annals of Internal Medicine, 2025

1/ Aluminium in Vaccines — What 1.2 Million Kids Just Told Us
A huge Danish study by @andershviid.bsky.social and team just looked at aluminium in childhood vaccines and 50+ chronic diseases.
What did they find? Not harm. Not even a whisper of it.

Here’s what you need to know ⬇️

10 Obvious Logical Fallacies in the "Injected vs Ingested" Aluminium Claim Explore 10 logical fallacies in the “Injected vs Ingested” aluminium claim, revealing how misconceptions shape our understanding of vaccine safety.

2/2 In my latest blog, I unpack 10 logical fallacies behind the “injected vs. ingested” claim that has traction in anti-vax circles. From appeals to nature to confirmation bias, this post highlights the reasoning errors that fuel fear.👇 Read the full post. diplomaticimmunity.blog/aluminum-vac...

1/2 LOGIC LEAKS: In the swirling chaos of vaccine misinformation, this argument keeps bubbling up: “But injected aluminium is different!” Yes — it is. So is drinking vs. drowning. Route matters. But that doesn’t make aluminium adjuvants dangerous.

There is no bottom to the depths that tyranny will dive. #supportscience #academicfreedom

😡i made a meme

Risk of Guillain-Barré syndrome after COVID-19 vaccination or SARS-CoV-2 infection: A multinational self-controlled case series study The association between Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) and certain COVID-19 vaccines is inconclusive. We investigated the risk of GBS after COVID-19 va…

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is a rare neurological disorder where the body’s immune system attacks the nerves, affecting about 1 to 4 people per 100,000 each year. It is rare! You need a lot of people to be able to do a study like this one!👇

Well said.

Dr Siouxsie Wiles' Covid curse: ‘Abuse changed my world’ Pandemic fallout turned her into a hermit, but her future’s looking brighter.

The last few years have been pretty hard & I’ve largely become a bit of a hermit. But I’ve briefly emerged to talk about the thing that’s reignited my spark - menstrual cups! Thanks to NZ Women’s Weekly and Elizabeth Easther for coaxing me out of my shell. www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/si...

#PandemicAgreement #NZPol #Vaccines #PublicHealth #Disinfo #GlobalHealth apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf...

This isn't Geneva hijacking Wellington, just countries agreeing not to trip over each other mid-crisis. Peters invokes a false dichotomy, presenting the issue as if NZ must choose between preserving sovereignty or signing the Agreement. In reality, the agreement explicitly protects nat sovereignty.

Winston Peters says it threatens NZ sovereignty. But Article 24.2 (and a bunch of others) literally says WHO can’t tell us what to do.

The WHO Pandemic Agreement is not a global coup. It’s a blueprint for doing pandemics less badly next time.
Yes, I support it. It strengthens cooperation, not control.

US Vaccine Watchdog Effort Begins as Measles Surge Draws Alarm The Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota has quietly begun to steer a national initiative to safeguard the scientific foundations of US vaccine policy — a b...

New: Walmart heiress Christy Walton is backing a vaccine watchdog effort at @cidrap.bsky.social as measles surges and political pressure mounts on US health agencies. “This is a firebreak against political arson,” @helenp-h.bsky.social told me. Gift link to Bloomberg story ⬇
tinyurl.com/4nwbjefr

The roads are certainly leading to Rome on the matter of shingles vaccine and reduced dementia risk. Cool aye ! 😎

Groundbreaking project at Auckland Uni stopped in its tracks by US funding cut Funding cut by Trump administration “isn’t just fiscally wasteful — it’s ethically indefensible”, says vaccinologist and professor Helen Petousis-Harris.

Another victim of political whim and the delegitimization of science. 🤬Breaks my heart. 💔 www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3606...

Can Vaccines Help Combat Dementia and Stroke Effectively? Yep! Viral infections increase dementia and stroke risk. Discover how vaccines—especially Shingles vaccines—may protect brain health and delay cognitive decline.

🧠 Can vaccines protect your brain?

Latest blog. The evidence is growing - shingles, flu & COVID vaccines lower risk of dementia & stroke.
Better vaxxed than sorry. Hope they expanded funding
Viral villains vs vaccine heroes 👉 diplomaticimmunity.blog/dementia-and... #Vaccines #BrainHealth #Shingrix

Top science journal faced secret attacks from Covid conspiracy theory group | Computer Weekly One of the world’s most prestigious general science journals, was the target of a two-year long sustained and virulent secret attack by a conspiratorial group of extreme Brexit lobbyists with high-lev...

An excellent long read about how conspiracist attacked one of the worlds leading scientific journals. Both extraordinary and also horribly unsurprising. www.computerweekly.com/news/3665534...

"Let it rip" for chickens? Don't put your eggs in that basket. The Great Birdington Declaration

Nice explainer on why letting H5N1 rip (yes, it was proposed by RFK Jr.) is a terrible, ignorant, and flat-out dangerous idea for many reasons...
Kudos to @drjenndowd.bsky.social 🛟📉🧪 policy

Yep

Hell yes. We had just about every tight chest reported to the regulator as myo. Amazing when we did chart review…. 🙄 but the list of symptoms is pretty similar in many respects.

This is true. Events erroneously reported as anaphylaxis are many. Also the stress response is vastly under estimated and associated with stigma. Stress reactions often reported as myocarditis too. interesting how many ‘anaphylaxis’ cases can be revaccinated without event.🤔

Holy shit. This is *the* gold-standard measurement of atmospheric CO2 -- the one in all the charts.