#1748: Brian Hooker

The 2004 study “Age at first measles-mumps-rubella vaccination in children with autism and school-matched control subjects: a population-based study in metropolitan Atlanta” is one of an almost endless string of solid studies refuting the delusional idea that there is an association between vaccines and autism. Antivaxx conspiracy theorists, on their side, naturally want the evidence to fit what they have convinced themselves is true for non-evidence-based reasons and are accordingly very interested in anything that can be used to discredit such studies. Enter enter William Thompson, one of the coauthors of that study. The original study couldn’t do a comparison of certain subgroups of subjects based on race since the data on race were incomplete (that’s a simplification; you can read the complete explanation here). Well, Thompson was unhappy with that decision, so he suggested Brian Hooker take a look at andd analyze the data (and let’s be clear; the CDC did not “hide” any data as conspiracy theorists claim; they are and have always been available – instructions here – in fact Hooker himself got the data he used from the CDC.) And that was the start of what has later been called “the CDC whistleblower affair”, and it really, truly is a whole lot of nothing (even Thompson has been careful to avoid endorsing the antivaxx spin – Hooker thinks that’s because the powers that be have gotten to him).

But who is Brian Hooker? Hooker has a degree in biochemistry, but has no formal training in statistics, epidemiology, or any field pertinent to the study of vaccines or autism. But he is a hardcore anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist. Hooker also has a son with autism and an open case claiming vaccine injury before the Vaccine Court. He is also a board member of an anti-vaccine organization called Focus Autism. When the quackery-friendly journal Health Impact News got Hooker to comment on a 2013 DiStefano et al. study that for the nth time undermined the idea behind the antivaxx conspiracy theorist rally cry “too many too soon”, they introduced him, audaciously, as follows: “There are probably very few people in the world who have spent as much time looking at CDC studies related to vaccines and autism as Dr. Hooker. Dr. Brian Hooker, a PhD scientist, has been fighting the CDC since 2004 in trying to get them to comply with Freedom of Information Acts to see the CDC research that supposedly shows there is no link between mercury in vaccines and autism.” Well, yeah. That’s what cranks do. It’s quite a bit like getting Jim Fetzer to talk about 9/11 and terrorism, I suppose (Hooker has himself participated inseveral “conspiracy realist” conferences and movements to talk about how the CDC covers up the data that would vindicate what Hooker has convinced himself into believing without accessing those data). Health Impact News elegantly sidestepped the question of whether Hooker has anything resembling any competence on or education or training related to the issue. At least Hooker’s comment amply displayed his lack of relevant competence.

Anyways, Hooker reanalazyed the CDC data. If the data had been reanalyzed properly they would have made no difference, but Hooker’s goal wasn’t proper analysis but to force a conclusion that supported his ideological stance, and by mangling the data – he basically treated data for a case control study as data for a cohort study (he doesn’t really understand what a case control study is), and then used inappropriate statistical methods to analyze them (Hookeradmitted in a presentation at an anti-vaccine conference that he used a very simple technique, that “simplicity is elegance”, and that he prefers to do simple things rather than intellectually challenging things; that’s, to put it bluntly, not how statistics work). Well, to make a long story short (full story here) he managed to make it look as if there was a slight association between vaccines and autism for African American boys given their first MMR vaccine between 24 and 31 months of age: no one else! – so even if you ignore all of the flaws in the study and assume that his findings are accurate, Hooker’s study actually shows that the MMR is not associated with autism. Thus, even Hooker’s analysis disproves the conclusions of Andrew Wakefield’s debunked and retracted 1998 study – often cited as the main instigator of the modern antivaxx movement – though Wakefield nevertheless and absurdly took Hooker’s analysis to vindicate him, which is not surprising in light of recent research on conspiracy thinking.

The results were published in the journal Translational Neurodegeneration, though when the incompetency of the analysis was exposed the paper was retracted, and the anti-vaxx community screamed ‘conspiracy’: if you can game the system and get your pseudoscience published, you won, and it is unfair for the referees to change their mind later and disqualify the victory just because the results were false and the methodology disastrously flawed. Actually, the journal retracted the study because inappropriate and incompetent statistical methods and analysis, and because Hooker had dishonestly failed to disclose glaring conflicts of interest: though he admitted that he “has been involved in vaccine/biologic litigation,” which implies that he is no longer involved in such litigation, he failed to mention that he was at the time of submitting the paper involved in a case involving his own son, and hence that he stood to benefit greatly from studies that could support a connection between vaccines and autism. Makes a bit of a difference with regard to conflicts of interest, don’t you think? We don’t wish to imply that Hooker was lying, but he was.

Nor did he mention that he is board member of Focus Autism, the anti-vaxx organization that funded the study. Nor did he mention an email he sent to former director of the CDC, Julie Gerberding, in which he wrote, that “I would personally urge you to review the Book of Matthew 18:6 and consider your own responsibility to all children of the U.S. including my own son” (But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea), but I suppose he might have dropped that just because he didn’t want to up the word count of the paper.

Hat-tip: Destroyed by science (it's not the first time we
have been compelled to post this).

Hooker seems otherwise to be one of the fringe lunatics who still thinks thimerosal, which is safe (and not the same as the unsafe methylmercury, a point lost on the chemistry challenged) in vaccines causes autism. The MMR vaccine never contained thimerosal. He also really, truly thinks that the CDC knows this but is desperately trying to cover up the truth for nefarious reasons (though, of course, you cannot really be a vaccine skeptic and not be a conspiracy theorist). Hooker and Focus Autism have no qualms about extending their conspiracy mongering beyond the CDC, either. In 2014 they attacked a high school student film (!) “Invisible Threat” that investigated the vaccine/autism link from a reasonable point of view. Suffice to say that Focus Autism’s (and it’s founder Barry Segal’s) response cannot be called “reasonable”: They accused the film of being scripted by Big Pharma and “approved by Common Core” (no less) and even put out a press release “encouraging citizens to contact their legislators to counter ECBT’s public relations effort targeting legislators”. Idiots.

The Hooker-Thompson affair is the basis for the “documentary” Vaxxed, produced by Del Bigtree and featuring e.g. anti-vaxx activist Jim Sears (who, like most anti-vaxxers, claims to be “not anti-vaccine”), Rep. Bill Posey (R-FL), and anti-GMO activist Stephanie Seneff (who has absolutely no expertise in epidemiology but who thinks that GMOs are gonna make us all autistic), which was initially supposed to be shown at the Tribeca film festival (because it was endorsed by Robert De Niro, one of the founders of the festival and a celebrity anti-vaccine loon). Actually, the Thompson-Hooker link doesn’t figure very prominently in the movie (review here) since even a cursory glance reveals it to be nothing; instead, the movie explores a range of anti-vaxx tropes and conspiracy theories.

Diagnosis: Strictly an Infowars-style conspiracy theorist, nothing else, and we believe most minimally reasonable people realize that. While he has managed to create some noise, it seems to be mostly the old, merry band of insane conspiracy theorists who buy his shit.

#1747: Rob Hood

Rob Hood is – or at least used to be – a commentator at Conservative Voice, and a deeply paranoid, raging lunatic fundie and conspiracy theorist. His main claim to fame is probably his development of “Nine Principles of Conservative Christian Thought” (“conservative” and “Christian” seem to be synonymous for Hood), which he penned in 2006 and which made some rounds in the blogosphere. Of course, some conservatives would probably identify a conservative position with, I don’t know, responsible fiscal policies, free enterprise and protection of personal freedoms. Boy, how stupid aren’t they! As Hood spells them out the core principles of conservatism are rather:

1) Evolution is a myth. Creation is real. God is real. It is still legal to say the word Jesus [yes, persecution is a core doctrine for these people; while it may still be legal to say “Jesus”, people like Hood are convinced that if libruls got their way a ban would be just around the corner.]

2) The Earth is only around 6000 years old Noah built an ark and the world was flooded which created the Grand Canyon. Millions of years is absurd. [But, of course, not really possible to deny if you harbor any commitment to truth, evidence or reason.]

3) Global Warming is a myth and is totally junk science that should be trashed. Volcanoes produce more harmful pollutants in one eruption that all of the cars and factories in the United States have in the last 50 years. [Nope; not even remotely in the ballpark.] For more on the junk science of global warming and Al Gore’s post election failure elusions, take a look at Tom Bethell’s bestseller, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science. [Yes, Tom Bethell, no less; why not Jack Chick? He wrote about global warming, too, you know, and is at least as well-informed on the issues as Bethell].

I think the definition of delusional wingnut might cite Hood’s conviction that the issues described in 1)–3) are political questions. Hood’s points 4–9 concerns commitment to Christianity and anti-abortion, defense against the War on Christmas, the sinfulness of homosexuality (and sex outside of marriage), the infallibility of the Bible and a commitment to the Second Amendment. Said differently: Not a word about fiscal policies or individual freedoms; contemporary conservatism is apparently not about any of that stuff but about guns, Jesus and science denial.

Hood’s wingnut paranoia is well captured in this analys: “Believe it or not many commercials have very liberal overtones and hidden messages that one would not pick up on unless one was actually trained at doing so or used to seeing. I recently saw a commercial where two men were grilling steaks outside on a patio. This commercial seemed innocent enough, but when I saw it the second time around, I noticed the two men were closer than normal and all throughout the commercial there were kids there, but no women. Get the point?” Yup, the libruls are exerting mind control through TV commercials in a deliberate plot to drive Hood insane.

Diagnosis: Insane.

#1746: Zen Honeycutt

Zen Honeycutt (we have no reason to think its not a given name) is an anti-biotech activist and figurehead in the anti-GMO movement, a conspiracy theorist, and the founder of the anti-biotech organization Moms Across America (MAA). In that role Honeycutt has been heavily involved in spreading bizarre myths, claiming things like that going GMO-free and organic cures autism (she has appeared at the Autism One quackfest conference, for instance, and on Dr. Oz's show – neither of which inspire much confidence in what she is saying – as well as The Liberty Beacon), and that glyphosate causes maladies ranging from mental illness to infertility.

People who know anything about the topics disagree approach, of course, and Honeycutt’s approach to critics is to question their integrity (and even identity) and assume that they are bought by nefarious shadow organizations, since no one can disagree with her delusions without being corrupt and out to get her and ruin the world. And of course, since Honeycutt’s main scientific credential is being a mom she dismisses non-mom contributions as irrelevant (“You don’t have children. You don’t know what it’s like. You haven’t had a child come from your body”). Indeed, the motherhood angle really is the subterfuge on which her approach to biotech issues is based; science and evidence and cold facts matter little when up against the mommy instinct (Honeycutt and her group accuse critics of being “mommy shamers”). That, and – of course – shill accusations; when you don’t understand and therefore cannot engage with the science, dismiss the scientists as corrupt; it’s the mark of idiots to try to explain why someone is wrong before establishing that they are, in fact, wrong, and thinking that questioning someone’s motives for making a claim is a substitute for evaluating the claim. But when you aren't competent to engage with the claim itself, what choice do you have? Examples of what interacting with Zen Honeycutt while disagreeing with her is like can be found here and here.

The MAA’s misinformation-based political campaigns are sponsored by donors that include Organic Consumer’s Association, Nature’s Path Organic and Nutiva, largely unregulated commercial outfits that stand to gain a lot from any successes MAA’s campaigns may enjoy. But those are good companies. The companies that in fact don’t sponsor the critics of MAA are evil, and conflicts of interest arise only for those who disagree with MAA while being (in fact not) sponsored by companies.

GMOs

Honeycutt knows nothing about GMOs, and ignorance breeds fear and so on. A good illustration of her approach can be found in her own responses (discussed here) to the “scientific report” MAA published in 2013 concerning the “stunning” nutrient content in GMO corn vs. non-GMO corn (apparently they mistook a report of soil data with nutrient contents – and promptly failed to understand the difference when it was pointed out to them), complete with no cited sources, no methods, and blatantly wrong definitions in the footnotes – when scientists pointed out the, uh, shortcomings of the “report” in the comment section, the comments were of course mostly deleted, but Honeycutt’s own telling responses include:

- “(GMO nurition) explains a lot…why animals will NOTeat GMO corn even in the dead of winter.” (A glorious example of PIDOOMA; Honeycutt doesn’t appear to understand why anyone would ask for references.)

- “(this is) Why human allergies have increased 400% since GMOs were introduced…why health issues have skyrocketed.” The increase, were it accurately reported, correlates better with the rise in sales of organic foods, in fact.

- “Irregardless of this report, I have scores of Moms who have answered our health survey who repeatedly share that going off GMOs reduced, improved or dissappeared their children’s and their own health issues.” That would be the survey on her own website.

- “Not eating something that has this many toxins in it would for sure be a factor in an improvement in health.” Yes, the toxin gambit. Only Honeycutt can know how her mind gets GMOs to have anything to do with toxins, but she probably doesn’t.

At least it gives you an idea of what you are dealing with.

Glyphosate

Honeycutt and MAA are also ardent campaigners against glyphosate (actual facts here) with all the accuracy and precision of the dolphin healing section at whale.to. According to Honeycutt and the MAA glyphosate residues can be linked to autism, allergies, infertility, eczema, fibromyalgia, Crohn’s Disease, cancer, childhood tantrums and pneumonia, and the existence of such residues in breastmilk is accordingly a real cause for concern. Of course, glyphosate doesn’t cause any of the things mentioned (this one refutes the idea that glyphosate is a carcinogen, for instance), and residues are in any case not found in breastmilk, as confirmed by real scientists with real studies. The idea that it does, comes from an incorrectly processed assay of ten samples with a method that is known to generate false positives, gathered and reported by … none but Zen Honeycutt herself and published in the reputable venue of the MAA website. Honeycutt’s response to the refutation of her results was to invoke a Monsanto-led conspiracy. She didn’t engage with the data, of course.

Standard trajectory of GMO
debates. I'd like to hat-tip this
one, but I'm not sure what the
source is.

Not surprisingly, Monsanto is Honeycutt’s prime nefarious Illuminati shadow government agency (this is a telling refutation of that idea), and one of the main reason why people continue to disagree with Honeycutt is “the hold Monsanto has on our media”.

Her tweet “@BarackObama Teen pregnancies are at an all time low because our people are being sterilized by glyphosate in our food and water‼!” sums her approach to facts up fairly well. In fairness, the idea expressed in the tweet isn’t new – insane conspiracy websites like NaturalNews and GreenMedInfo have been pushing it for a while. But it is exasperatingly stupid.

Cures

Fortunately, eating organic can reverse or even cure the maladies caused by GMO foods. (According to Honeycutt, “we want not only GMO free but organic, to avoid pesticides,” which suggests that she is under – or at least pushes – the delusion that organic foods are pesticide-free). On Dr. Oz’s show, Honeycutt claimed that her son had at some point been experiencing autism symptoms; because her doctor didn’t test him for glyphosate levels, Honeycutt used a private lab which detected glyphosate levels “8 times higher than found anywhere in Europe urine testing,” and that within six weeks of going “completely GMO-free and organic, his autism symptoms were gone and the level of glyphosate was no longer detectable.” She didn’t back up her claims because the idea that autism can be reversed by going organic is ridiculous and false.

Another cure for autism pushed by Honeycutt is … “molecular hydrogen”. That’s right. Molecular hydrogen is a tiny form of hydrogen that enters your cells and turns the bad free radicals (not the good ones) into water; and to top it all: it’s natural, so it’s safe. The cure comes in the form of a little pill that you drop into water containing hydrogen and magnesium and releases hydrogen gas. Yes, magnesium hydride tablets. 

Diagnosis: Though their grammar is better than the grammar of people who think they are vampires and rant about how alien atheist-Muslim lizards from Mars are trying to mind-control them through their television sets, the actual claims made by Honeycutt’s group aren’t many steps up. And the tactic of accusing your opponents to be shills for Monsanto because your mommy instinct tells you that you’re right and that those who disagrees you with you are organized and wouldn’t disagree with you if they were honest isn’t much better than the tactic of dismissing your opponent’s claim that lizard people conspiracies are unlikely by pointing out that this is precisely what those in on the lizard people conspiracy would say. But the MAA has influence – even some political clout – and that’s very, very scary.

#1745: Doretta Holyfield-Vega

Another very minor but ridiculous figure, Doretta Holyfield-Vega is an “Independent Minister” and concerned resident of Alabama who filed suit against the government for “the removal of prayer” from schools and other public places, claiming that such “removal” was a violation of her religious freedom. The district court dismissed the case and the appeals court upheld that dismissal. Of course the courts dismissed the case because of Holyfield-Vega’s lack of standing rather than bothering to engage with the ridiculous, crazy persecution conspiracies that were fueling the complaint and similar complaints about persecution from figures on the religious right. One fun detail about the suit is that Roy Moore was named as a defendant.

Diagnosis: Raging fundie with a raging fundie’s trademark martyr complex. A minor figure mostly good for laughs, but her delusional view of the world is scarily widespread.