#945: David Mihalovic

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. And the methodology appears to be, primarily, googling anti-vaccine sites for PRATTs. His “publication” “9 Questions That Stump Every Pro-Vaccine Advocate and Their Claims,” has subsequently made its rounds in the more unhinged parts of the loonosphere (and as a joke on the more serious ones). The nine questions are answered here (as well as here). And they are really easy to answer if you try. But Mihalovic and his ilk doesn’t. For instance, the very first question is “Could you please provide one double-blind, placebo-controlled study that can prove the safety and effectiveness of vaccines?” for which a quick search on PubMed yields hundreds. Pubmed, by the way, yields no double-blinded, placebo-controlled study that can prove the safety and effectiveness of naturopathic medicine. But I guess evidence is just required for claims Mihalovic disagrees with, and accountability is a standard that applies to people that don’t accept his claims, not to himself. When sciencebasedmedicine.org quickly and easily responded to the questions, Medical Voices’s Nick Haas responded with a challenge to a live debate, since live debates are better mediums for rhetorical tactics and gish gallops.

Diagnosis: Stock denialist who apparently fails to realize that thoroughly refuted claims don’t constitute good reasons. A minor figure, but a cogwheel in the machinery of anti-civilization nonetheless.