annabenedetti
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Why Anti-vax Doctors Are Ordering 23andMe Tests
Anti-vax doctors have looked to a decade-old paper titled “Genetic Basis for Adverse Events after Smallpox Vaccination” to support testing for something called the MTHFR gene. Some anti-vaxxers believe children with certain mutations of this gene might be vulnerable to bad reactions to vaccination (to reiterate: science doesn’t support the link between vaccines and autism). So they might, say, order easy mail-in DNA tests from companies such as 23andMe, and use a third-party app to check for the MTHFR gene. But even the senior author of the 2008 paper spares nothing when it comes to debunking his own work: “It’s just not even a valid study by today’s methodology,” he told Sarah Zhang. . . .
The paper was titled “Genetic Basis for Adverse Events after Smallpox Vaccination,” and it came up in 2016 when a vaccine-skeptical doctor tried to argue that it explained her patient’s development delays. The court was not persuaded, but Reif’s co-authors began hearing of yet other doctors using DNA tests to exempt patients from vaccines. Just this month, San Francisco’s city attorney subpoenaed a doctor accused of giving illegal medical exemptions from vaccination, based on “two 30-minute visits and a 23andMe DNA test.” On anti-vaccine blogs and websites, activists have been sharing step-by-step instructions for ordering 23andMe tests, downloading the raw data, and using a third-party app to analyze a gene called MTHFR. Certain MTHFR mutations, they believe, predispose kids to bad reactions to vaccines, possibly even leading to autism—a fear unsupported by science.
Another mutatation of 23andMe...
... When I read the name of that gene, my mind wants to add a bunch of vowels to it...
Anti-vax doctors have looked to a decade-old paper titled “Genetic Basis for Adverse Events after Smallpox Vaccination” to support testing for something called the MTHFR gene. Some anti-vaxxers believe children with certain mutations of this gene might be vulnerable to bad reactions to vaccination (to reiterate: science doesn’t support the link between vaccines and autism). So they might, say, order easy mail-in DNA tests from companies such as 23andMe, and use a third-party app to check for the MTHFR gene. But even the senior author of the 2008 paper spares nothing when it comes to debunking his own work: “It’s just not even a valid study by today’s methodology,” he told Sarah Zhang. . . .
The paper was titled “Genetic Basis for Adverse Events after Smallpox Vaccination,” and it came up in 2016 when a vaccine-skeptical doctor tried to argue that it explained her patient’s development delays. The court was not persuaded, but Reif’s co-authors began hearing of yet other doctors using DNA tests to exempt patients from vaccines. Just this month, San Francisco’s city attorney subpoenaed a doctor accused of giving illegal medical exemptions from vaccination, based on “two 30-minute visits and a 23andMe DNA test.” On anti-vaccine blogs and websites, activists have been sharing step-by-step instructions for ordering 23andMe tests, downloading the raw data, and using a third-party app to analyze a gene called MTHFR. Certain MTHFR mutations, they believe, predispose kids to bad reactions to vaccines, possibly even leading to autism—a fear unsupported by science.
Another mutatation of 23andMe...
... When I read the name of that gene, my mind wants to add a bunch of vowels to it...