Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Vaccine Aluminum: Yet Another Attempt at Math by an Antivaxxer

I just can't underscore enough the way antivaxxers make claims as though they are fact without actually working out the math nor understanding the science behind vaccines and pharmacokinetics.  I'm by no means an expert in pharmacokinetics but having just a few basic math skills and understanding of the literature goes a long way in accurately demonstrating how vaccine components are handled in the human body.

This time, 4health aka @VBalance03, who was already previously corrected on math errors and logic errors regarding formaldehyde, attempts to question the comparison of vaccine aluminum adjuvants with aluminum in TPN following a link I referred to about the difference between injection and ingestion.  A previous antivaxxer had suggested that vaccines were being injected directly "into the bloodstream".



Of course, this is blatantly untrue and why I pointed this out with a link explaining how injected and ingested components reach the bloodstream.

In response, 4health points to formaldehyde again completely ignoring again how much formaldehyde is made naturally in the human body.  She then points to a comparison of IV Aluminum vs vaccine aluminum adjuvant amounts.





As I've stated before, math simply isn't a strong suit for many antivaxxers as demonstrated most recently regarding aluminum (Harold's errors) when another antivaxxer tried to do math.  4health doesn't seem to understand how/why TPN is used and how to make a comparison between IV aluminum exposure (pretty much 100% bioavailability) vs vaccine aluminum adjuvant exposure (very very little is bioavailable).  This is discussed in the link I provided:


And here's the math:

To compare apples to apples, I'll use a typical 2 month old who weighs roughly 5.8 kg receiving TPN (for whatever reason) vs another 2 month old of the same weight receiving their routinely recommended vaccinations including Pediarix, HiB, and Prevnar (PCV 13) with aluminum adjuvant amounts listed on the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia page .

As 4health pointed to, the FDA limit for aluminum in TPN is 25 micrograms (mcg) per liter = 0.025 mcg/mL.  At a weight of 5.8 kg, typical maintenance IV fluids would be about 100 mL/kg/day (every pediatrician knows this)  = 24 mL/hr.  At a rate of 24 mL/hr, that would be 0.6 mcg of aluminum in TPN per hour given x 24 hours in a day = 14.4 mcg/day.   100% is bioavailable.

A 2 month old receiving 3 vaccines would receive 0.125 mg (PCV or Prevnar), 0.85 mg (Pediarix), and 0.225 mg (HiB) of aluminum salt for a total of 1.2 mg/day.  The rate of absorption (as previously discussed re Harold's errors) of aluminum from this adjuvant salt is 0.6% = 0.0072 mg/day = 7.2 mcg/day.  

In summary, 4health strikes again and continues to discredit herself as well as antivaxxers in general who make false claims like this that simply don't hold up to actual scrutiny with correct math.  I've pointed out many many of her errors and lies before.  It remains to be seen how she responds to this new one.


Edited to add (23 November 2017) - It's been over 12 hours now since this blog post was pointed out to 4health.  It took her about an hour to realize that this was a new post pointing out her errors - she kept ignoring it and asking for an explanation.  I pointed out the link to this blog at least 8 times.









When it finally dawned on her that this was a new post, she has continued (and still continues) to make excuses not to "read it".  I suspect she has read it by now but simply can't admit it.













Saturday, November 04, 2017

Switzer Family Christmas Newsletter 2017

I never get our Christmas newsletter done this early!  Even have our cards, annual calendar, and ornaments already ordered as well!  Enjoy and have a great holiday!