Jessica Biel

In The Politics of Autism, I look at the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism.  Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms have helped spread this dangerous myth.

Antivaxxers usually claim that they are pro-vaccine.  Even Jenny McCarthy has said that she is pro-vaccine. That is just not true.

Melissa Matthews at Yahoo:

Jessica Biel wants you to know that she not anti- vaccinations. Yesterday, the 37-year-old actress was dubbed an "anti-vaxxer" by some outlets after she spoke to California legislators about about proposed bill #SB277. Today, she claims to be pro-choice when it comes to vaccinations in an Instagram post.

The whole thing began on the social media channel when environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., posed for several photos with Biel captioned, "Please say thank you to the courageous @jessicabiel for a busy and productive day at the California State House."

The pair went to Sacramento to lobby against SB 276, a California state bill that proposes to require approval from a state public health officer when seeking medical exemptions for vaccinations.

News of Biels' visit has gone viral on social media and media outlets. This morning, the actress responded to claims that she is an "anti-vaxxer" in an Instagram post:

"I am not against vaccinations - I support children getting vaccinations and I also support families having the right to make educated medical decisions for their children alongside their physicians. My concern with #SB277 is solely regarding medical exemptions...

Generation Rescue Rebrands

In The Politics of Autism, I look at the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism.  Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms have helped spread this dangerous myth.

Anna Merlan at Jezebel:

Generation Rescue, the charity whose public face and board president is actor Jenny McCarthy, and which promotes debunked and sometimes dangerous treatments for autistic children, seems to rebranding away from the subject of autism and towards a much more broad set of medical issues. Sometime in May, the Generation Rescue website was taken offline, replaced with a page that reads, simply, “Stay tuned for what’s next.”

Even before the site disappeared, there were signs that McCarthy and Generation Rescue hoped to retool the organization into a “functional medicine” nonprofit, rather than one focused on the controversial and non-scientific autism recovery claims they’ve made for years. The apparent rebrand feels almost Goop-esque, a way for McCarthy and the organization to enter a much broader and less clearly defined “wellness” space, where many more kinds of questionable pseudoscience are possible.

Generation Rescue was founded by a businessman named J.B. Handley, who, like McCarthy, claims that vaccines cause autism. (Both Handley and his wife Lisa, like McCarthy, have claimed that one of their three children developed autism after being vaccinated. Yet another enormous studypublished in March has thoroughly refuted the idea that vaccines cause autism.

1022 Measles Case: Time to Act

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing disease to spread.

From CDC:

From January 1 to June 6, 2019, 1,022 individual cases of measles have been confirmed in 28 states. This is an increase of 41 cases from the previous week. This is the greatest number of cases reported in the U.S. since 1992 and since measles was declared eliminated in 2000.

Matthew Crane at The Sacramento Bee:

At a time when vaccination standards have been thrust into the spotlight by Senate Bill 276 and remain a point of national fixation, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent comments are deeper than political pandering to a target demographic. The remarks represent more than an everyday gaffe. They are outright irresponsible and emblematic of how policymakers and public health agents have responded to the anti-vaccination movement.

Recently, Newsom indicated concern with the role of government in SB 276. He contends that, though he believes in the importance of vaccinations, he holds reservations about inserting bureaucracy into the “very personal” decision whether to vaccinate one’s children.

The persistence of the anti-vaccination public health catastrophe can be squarely attributed to such ineffectual and poorly informed comments.

 Elizabeth Cohen, John Bonifield and Debra Goldschmidt at CNN:

Health authorities in New York say they've faced formidable challenges to quell the current outbreak: anti-vaxers who specifically targeted the state's ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, bombarding them with lies that vaccines cause autism.

"We are now countering not only the vector of the measles virus, but we're countering the vector of the anti-vaxers, and that message - that insidious message -- is just as challenging as the most contagious virus on the face of the earth," said Dr. Oxiris Barbot, the commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

New York health authorities face an additional challenge: ultra-Orthodox Jews travel frequently to Israel and Europe, where there have been more than 100,000 measles cases this year.

When the Disneyland measles outbreak occurred in California in 2014, the state moved swiftly. Within a few months, lawmakers introduced and passed legislation getting rid of religious and philosophical exemptions for vaccines. Now, schoolchildren in California have to be vaccinated unless they have a medical excuse.

Similar bills have languished in the New York legislature since January.

Divisions in Autism

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss divisions and factions within the autism community.

To the extent that the stakeholders form a “community,” it is a quarrelsome one. James Madison identified the causes of faction, including a zeal for different ideas and interests.  In autism politics, the factional disagreements are diverse and deep.    Emotions run high because the stakes are high. Few things are more frightening to parents than not knowing whether a child will ever be able to live independently, indeed to survive without them.  For people with autism, the issue involves their very identity.  

Jonathon Rose at History News Network:

One also has to be mindful that the autism community is riven by ideological divisions, and the unwary researcher may be caught in the crossfire. For instance, if you invite an autistic individual to tell their own story, they might say something like this:

As a child, I went to special education schools for eight years and I do a self-stimulatory behavior during the day which prevents me from getting much done. I’ve never had a girlfriend. I have bad motor coordination problems which greatly impair my ability to handwrite and do other tasks. I also have social skills problems, and I sometimes say and do inappropriate things that cause offense. I was fired from more than 20 jobs for making excessive mistakes and for behavioural problems before I retired at the age of 51.

Others with autism spectrum disorder have it worse than I do. People on the more severe end sometimes can’t speak. They soil themselves, wreak havoc and break things. I have known them to chew up furniture and self-mutilate. They need lifelong care.[7]

This is an actual self-portrait by Jonathan Mitchell, who is autistic. So you might conclude that this is an excellent example of the disabled writing their own history, unflinchingly honest and compassionate toward the still less fortunate, something that everyone in the autism community would applaud. And yet, as Mitchell goes on to explain, he has been furiously attacked by “neurodiversity” activists, who militantly deny that autism is a disorder at all. They insist that it is simply a form of cognitive difference, perhaps even a source of “genius”, and they generally don’t tolerate any discussion of curing autism or preventing its onset. When Mitchell and other autistic self-advocates call for a cure, the epithets “self-haters” and “genocide” are often hurled at them. So who speaks for autism? An interviewer who describes autism as a “disorder”, or who even raises the issues that Mitchell freely discussed, might well alienate a neurodiversity interview

Autistic Woman Is a Contestant for Miss Florida

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss depictions of ASD in popular culture.  Autistic people continue to smash stereotypes.

Ray Sanchez at CNN:

Growing up with autism, Rachel Barcellona was told to limit her expectations.

"I was basically promised that I would never graduate any school really or have any friends," she told CNN affiliate WFLA. "Pretty much everything bad was going to happen to me because I have autism."

Later this month, Barcellona, 22, will make history as the first contestant with autism to take the stage of the Miss Florida pageant.

"I want to use my voice to inspire hope to others," Barcellona told CNN affiliate WFTS in April after being selected to speak at the United Nations for World Autism Day.
...
On the website of the Dyspraxia Foundation USA, Barcellona wrote that she has Asperger's syndrome, loves to sing opera and hopes one day to open a school for children with disabilities. She also described her struggles with epilepsy, the neurological disorder dyspraxia, and the learning disorder dyscalculia.

"The phrase, 'You don't look autistic,' I get that all the time," Barcellona told WFTS. "And I just want to say, 'What does autism look like to you?'"

Trump Has Not Changed His Position on Vaccines

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the issue's role in presidential campaigns. In the 2016 campaign, a number of posts discussed Trump's support for the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. He also has a bad record on science and disability issues more generally.

In response to a question, Trump recently said that parents should get vaccinations for their children. Some reports suggested that he was changing his position, but he was not. He has always claimed to be "pro-vaccine," but he has told parents to space out vaccinations. Many antivax activists make the same claim. But "spacing out" vaccines is harmful advice.

At a GOP debate:

Autism has become an epidemic. Twenty-five years ago, 35 years ago, you look at the statistics, not even close. It has gotten totally out of control.

I am totally in favor of vaccines. But I want smaller doses over a longer period of time. Because you take a baby in -- and I've seen it -- and I've seen it, and I had my children taken care of over a long period of time, over a two or three year period of time.

Same exact amount, but you take this little beautiful baby, and you pump -- I mean, it looks just like it's meant for a horse, not for a child, and we've had so many instances, people that work for me.

Just the other day, two years old, two and a half years old, a child, a beautiful child went to have the vaccine, and came back, and a week later got a tremendous fever, got very, very sick, now is autistic.

I only say it's not -- I'm in favor of vaccines, do them over a longer period of time, same amount.

I'm not saying to not give vaccines, I am just saying give them small doses over a long period of time - not one massive dose for a child.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 6, 2014

No more massive injections. Tiny children are not horses—one vaccine at a time, over time.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2014

To all haters and losers: I am NOT anti-vaccine, but I am against shooting massive doses into tiny children. Spread shots out over time.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 29, 2014

Cassidy Morrison at The Washington Examiner:

Amid a growing measles outbreak, more parents are choosing to alter the recommended vaccine schedule for their children in hopes of not overwhelming their immune systems, a practice doctors say could be just as risky as not vaccinating at all.

Dr. Paul Offit, a physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, told the Washington Examiner he has seen an uptick in parents asking whether they should alter the vaccine schedule recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

He tells parents that delaying vaccines doesn’t lessen any possible side effects from vaccines themselves, but rather that “it increases the amount of time that your child is vulnerable.”
...

Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, has also seen an increase in parents asking about delaying vaccines. He told the Washington Examiner that spacing out doses is “all risk and no benefit.”

“The bottom line is that in spacing vaccines apart, parents only increase the likelihood that the vaccines won’t work,” Hotez said. “A lot of it is based on a theory with no evidence that giving vaccines close together overwhelms the immune system.”

Autism, Measles, Vaccines, and Quackery

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing disease to spread.

On June 5, 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that the number of measles cases nationwide so far in 2019 was 1,001. 

Ed Pilkington at The Guardian:

Thousands of American children are being put on homeopathic alternatives to vaccination by practitioners who claim they can prevent measles and “cure” autism, the Guardian has learned.

At least 200 homeopaths in the US are practicing a controversial “therapy” known as Cease that falsely asserts that it has the power to treat and even cure autism. The acronym stands for Complete Elimination of Autistic Spectrum Expression.

The “therapy” relies in part on administering high doses of vitamin C. Advocates falsely say it repairs the harm caused by vaccination – a double untruth as most vaccines are safe and there is no link between vaccines and autism, a condition for which there is no cure.

In addition 250 homeopaths, some of whom also practice Cease, are promoting “homeoprophylaxis” that advertises itself as an “immunological education program”. More than 2,000 American children have been put on the program which claims to build natural immunity against infectious diseases, though there is no scientific evidence that it works.

From the Public Policy Institute of California:

 As the US confronts its worst measles outbreak in more than 20 years, the California Legislature is considering a bill (Senate Bill 276) that would tighten the state’s already strict school immunization law. SB 276 would create a standardized form for parents seeking to medically exempt their children from vaccination and would require state review and tracking of exemption requests.

An overwhelming majority of adults (73%) think that parents should be required to vaccinate their children. Asked about child vaccines to prevent measles, mumps, and rubella, 62 percent of adults say these vaccines are very safe, and another 27 percent say they are somewhat safe. An overwhelming majority (79%) are concerned that the recent outbreak of measles will become more widespread (43% very concerned, 36% somewhat concerned).

Autistic Students Account for 10 Percent of Special Education Enrollment

In The Politics of Autism, I write about special education and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

Between the 2016-17 and 2017-18 academic years, the number children 3 to 21 years old served under Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Part B with a designation of autism increased from 661,000 to 710,000. As a percentage of total enrollment, that figure ticked up from 1.3 to 1.4 percent.  And as a percentage of all students served, it increased from 9.7 percent to 10.2 percent.

From The National Center for Education Statistics:

Enacted in 1975, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), formerly known as the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, mandates the provision of a free and appropriate public school education for eligible students ages 3–21. Eligible students are those identified by a team of professionals as having a disability that adversely affects academic performance and as being in need of special education and related services. Data collection activities to monitor compliance with IDEA began in 1976.

From school year 2000–01 through 2004–05, the number of students ages 3–21 who received special education services under IDEA increased from 6.3 million, or 13 percent of total public school enrollment, to 6.7 million, or 14 percent of total public school enrollment.1 Both the number and percentage of students served under IDEA declined from 2004–05 through 2011–12. Between 2011–12 and 2017–18, the number of students served increased from 6.4 million to 7.0 million and the percentage served increased from 13 percent of total public school enrollment to 14 percent of total public school enrollment.

 

The Cliffs of Autism

In The Politics of Autism, I write:

When disabled people reach their 22d birthday, they no longer qualify for services under IDEA. ... People in the disability community refer to this point in life as “the cliff.” Once autistic people go over the cliff, they have a hard time getting services such as job placement, vocational training, and assistive technology. IDEA entitles students to transition planning services during high school, but afterwards, they have to apply as adults and establish eligibility for state and federal help. One study found that 39 percent of young autistic adults received no service at all, and most of the rest got severely limited services.

Medicaid and private insurance have their own cliffs. 

Joseph Lee, the brother of an autistic person write at The Globe Post about a Medicaid cliff:

The crux of this issue is Medicaid’s age caps. Like most families of autistic children, the few therapy sessions we can afford for Esther rely heavily on the Early Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment (EPSDT) Medicaid benefit, which entitles children to any services medically necessary to address their health conditions. This entitlement discontinues, however, after the age of 21.
...
To Esther and my family, the EPSDT age cap is an insult. It advances an underlying societal stigma that autistic adults are hopelessly unintelligent and incapable. Having access to a comprehensive range of services should be guaranteed for all people with disabilities who are among the most medically fragile and have the most complex needs.

Restricting autistic adults from these services doesn’t just neglect the simple fact that autism is a lifelong developmental disability – more harmfully, it conveys the notion that autistic adults are lost causes that society should stop investing in..

Blythe Bernhard at Disability Scoop:

While nearly every state requires insurance companies to cover autism therapies, most cut off mandatory coverage beyond childhood.

Age caps for people with autism are arbitrary since “they don’t suddenly become cured at age 18 or age 21,” said Lorri Unumb, CEO of the Council of Autism Service Providers.

This year, however, several state legislatures including New Mexico, New York, Utah and Virginia removed age restrictions on insurance coverage. About a dozen states now require coverage regardless of age.

RISE Act

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the growing number of college students on the spectrum. 

A release from Senator Bob Casey:

U.S. Senators Bob Casey (D-PA), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Todd Young (R-IN) introduced the Respond, Innovate, Succeed, and Empower (RISE) Act to help ease the burden of transitioning to college for students with disabilities. The legislation would amend the Higher Education Act (HEA) and clarify that students with previous documentation of a disability would be able to continue using that documentation as proof when they transition to higher education. This would help ensure students who receive special education or accommodations because of a disability do not need to spend time and money to go through unnecessary new diagnostic testing.

The RISE Act would also make school policies and data more transparent for students and families so they can make informed decisions on the college that best fits their needs. The legislation provides additional support for technical assistance to colleges and universities to better serve people with disabilities.

...

The RISE Act is endorsed by the following organizations:

The National Center for Learning Disabilities, AIM Institute for Learning and Research, American Association of People with Disabilities, Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, Association of University Centers on Disabilities, Autistic Self Advocacy Network, Decoding Dyslexia Network, Eye to Eye, Higher Education Consortium for Special Education, Learning Disabilities Association of America, National Alliance on Mental Illness, National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities, National Down Syndrome Congress, Teacher Education Division of the Council for Exceptional Children and The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates.

Amid Measles Outbreak, CA Governor Reluctant to Tighten Vax Exemptions

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing disease to spread.

From CDC: "From January 1 to May 31, 2019, 981 individual cases of measles have been confirmed in 26 states. This is an increase of 41 cases from the previous week. This is the greatest number of cases reported in the U.S. since 1992 and since measles was declared eliminated in 2000."

Hannah Wiley and Sophia Bollag at The Sacramento Bee:

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Saturday he’s concerned about having government officials sign off on vaccine exemptions, arguing those decisions should be made between patients and doctors without government involvement.

“I’m a parent. I don’t want someone that the governor of California appointed to make a decision for my family,” he told reporters after his speech at the California Democratic Party Convention.

Although he didn’t mention the bill explicitly, his comments indicate he doesn’t support a bill by state Sen. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, that would require the California Department of Public Health to sign off on doctors’ medical exemption requests. If the Legislature passes the bill, it would need Newsom’s signature to become law.

A release from Senator Pan:

As our country is experiencing the greatest number of measles infections in 25 years – 940 cases this year to date – the California Medical Board voted on Tuesday to support requirements in SB 276 that there is a review of medical exemptions and allow the Medical Board to receive medical exemption data to allow investigations of unscrupulous physicians.

“I appreciate that the Medical Board of California voted to support requiring reviews of medical exemptions,” said Dr. Richard Pan. “SB 276 addresses barriers to the Medical Board’s ability to perform their duty to protect the public, and the Medical Board recognized that they need SB 276 to investigate unprofessional behavior on the part of physicians violating standard of care and endangering the public by selling inappropriate medical exemptions.”

“I am pleased the Medical Board recognizes that current law is not sufficient to protect children and communities,” said Leah Russin, a mother from Palo Alto and co-founder of Vaccinate California, a group of parents who volunteer their time and energy to support vaccines in California. “The thousands of parents of Vaccinate California agree that oversight of medical exemptions is necessary.”

Under our current review system, the Medical Board can only act after the fact— they cannot prevent or invalidate unjustified medical exemptions. This system allows measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases to take hold and spread in communities with low vaccine rates.

The Medical Board’s staff analysis for SB 276 emphasized further barriers that currently exist that have prevented the Board from investigating unethical physicians selling medical exemptions: “For all quality of care cases, the Board must obtain authorization from the patient or their parent or guardian (if the patient is a minor) to release the medical records. For medical exemption cases, many times the parent or guardian does not want the Board to investigate the physician who issued their medical exemption, so the parent will not sign an authorization. This has created barriers to the Board investigating these cases because for most of these medical exemption cases, the Board does not have enough evidence to subpoena the medical records. Without the medical records, the Board’s physician expert cannot review the case to determine if the physician acted within the standard of care.”

Under SB 276, physicians will submit information to California Department of Public Health (CDPH), including the physician’s name and license number and the reason for the exemption, which CDPH will check to ensure they are consistent with the Center for Disease Control’s precautions and contraindications to vaccination. The physician must also certify that they have examined the patient in person.

Additionally, under SB 276, CDPH will create and maintain a database of medical exemptions. CDPH and County Health Officers will have the authority to revoke medical exemptions granted by licensed physicians if they are found to be fraudulent or inconsistent with contraindications to vaccination per CDC guidelines. This authority will give state and county health officers the tools necessary to contain and prevent further outbreaks. Data on physicians writing large numbers of inappropriate medical exemptions will be provided to the Medical Board of California, to investigate unprofessional conduct.

As the Medical Board’s staff analysis of SB 276 pointed out, the Board is only aware of cases that are specifically reported. Even when a physician is reported, the Board usually doesn’t have enough information to investigate questionable exemptions unless the parents choose to share information, which will not happen in these situations because the parents are working in concert with the physician. In fact, since the passage of SB 277, the Board has only completed one investigation related to medical exemptions.
As a result of the implementation of Senate Bill 277, which abolished the personal belief exemption in California, overall vaccination rates increased sharply to more than 95 percent statewide. That is greater than the 94 percent vaccination rate necessary to achieve community immunity to prevent the spread of a measles outbreak.

The increase followed the dramatic increase from 92.9 percent in the 2015-16 school year to 95.6 percent in the 2016-17 school year after implementation of SB 277 in 2016 and a vaccination rate of only 90.7 percent in 2010-11 when Dr. Pan entered the legislature and authored AB 2109. AB 2109 required parents to be counseled before they opted out of legally mandated vaccines.

Despite the success of SB 277 in increasing the overall immunization rate of kindergarten students, California has also experienced a dramatic increase in the number of medical exemptions. Since the passage of SB 277, the rate of medical exemptions has more than tripled (from 0.2% in 2015-16 to 0.7% in 2017-18). Low vaccination rates in certain pockets of the state have put children and communities at risk.

A very small percentage of the population, less than 1 percent, suffers from qualifying medical condition, such as a severe allergic reaction to a vaccine component that would lead to the granting of medical exemption.

1. Read the IEP 2. Trust No One. 3. Push Back

In The Politics of Autism, I write about special education and laws that affect students with disabilities, such as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.  School districts prevail in most due-process hearings.  Here are some reasons:

School districts have built-in expert witnesses in the form of teachers and staff.  They also have full access to all relevant information about a proposed placement, and often deny parents access to those programs in advance of hearings. When parents’ experts can observe children in class, districts can limit their observations.   More important, parents have to foot the bill for their experts because of a 2006 Supreme Court decision that IDEA does not authorize reimbursement of witness fees. “While authorizing the award of reasonable attorney's fees, the Act contains detailed provisions that are designed to ensure that such awards are indeed reasonable,” Justice Alito wrote for the majority. “The absence of any comparable provisions relating to expert fees strongly suggests that recovery of expert fees is not authorized.” It goes without saying that this decision disadvantages all parents, and especially those with modest incomes. 

At The Albert Lea Tribune, Sarah Kocher reports on an investigation into a Minnesota school district where parents raised concerns about their 18-year-old daughter graduating before she was ready.

Alexa Newman received special education services from Alden-Conger Public Schools since kindergarten. Legally, through a federal law called the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, students with disabilities are eligible to continue receiving a free public education until they are 21 years old.

Parents Amy and Kory Newman filed a special education state complaint with the Minnesota Department of Education in May alleging the district violated IDEA and at times did not meet Alexa Newman’s individualized education program.

“It’s just unfortunate that you trust somebody … that they’re doing what’s best for your daughter and here to find out it’s like OK, they’re just going through the motions,” Kory Newman said.

...
Kory Newman said he took full responsibility for not being engaged in his daughter’s IEP from the time she was in kindergarten all the way through her education.

“We didn’t know better,” Amy Newman said.

That has changed.

“I know more about special education now than I ever thought I would,” Kory Newman said. “I sat up at night reading.”

Amy Newman wondered how many children should have received services past 18 through SMEC and did not because their parents did not fight.

She said the couple is not filing a lawsuit. They have two younger children in the district. Now, they are looking ahead and behind at other families with students in special education. She said she wants other children to get what the law says they are entitled to: special education through age 21.

“We shouldn’t have had to fight this hard,” Amy Newman said. “… In our minds, too many have graduated, gotten their signed diploma and missed out on the opportunities.”

Antivax Misinformation Lingers on Facebook

In The Politics of Autism, I look at the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism.  Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms have helped spread this dangerous myth.

Jeff Horwitz at The Wall Street Journal:

Ten weeks after Facebook Inc. FB -3.03% pledged to fight vaccine misinformation, such content remains widely available across its platforms as the social-media giant grapples with how aggressively to limit the spread of hoaxes and deceptions.

Facebook as of this week is still running paid ads for a prominent antivaccination group that suggests unethical doctors have conspired to hide evidence of harm vaccines do to children. Both the company’s main platform and its Instagram app recommend additional antivaccine content to users who view similar material. And the top three vaccine-related accounts recommended by Instagram are “vaccinetruth” “vaccinesuncovered” and “vaccines_revealed”—all advocates for the discredited claim that vaccines are toxic.

“We’re not where we want to be,” Monika Bickert, Facebook’s head of global policy management, said in an interview. “And we know that.”

...
Some solutions implemented by the company can be less than meets the eye. Facebook’s commitment to cull advertising from antivaccine groups, for example, is being applied only to ads that include falsehoods in their actual text.

A prominent antivaccination organization, the World Mercury Project, is pitching a free e-book alleging that vaccines can cause autism, sudden infant death syndrome and sterility—all claims that Facebook would ban under its stated policy. But the company deems the ad acceptable because the ad text itself makes only vague claims about “conflicts of interest” and “tainted science,” before directing users to material containing claims explicitly banned by Facebook.