Scientists Confirm There's Nothing But Misinformation On Anti-Vax Sites

Scientists Confirm There's Nothing But Misinformation On Anti-Vax Sites
Even when sites did cite peer-reviewed studies, their interpretations were flawed.

By: Agata Blaszczak-Boxe, Contributing Writer
Published: 11/04/2015 09:34 AM EST on LiveScience

Many websites that promote unscientific views about vaccinations use pseudoscience and misinformation to spread the idea that vaccines are dangerous, according to a new study.

For example, of the nearly 500 anti-vaccination websites examined in the study, nearly two-thirds claimed that vaccines cause autism, the researchers found. However, multiple studies have shown that there is no link between vaccines and autism.

About two-thirds of the websites used information that they represented as scientific evidence, but in fact was not, to support their claims that vaccines are dangerous, and about one-third used people's anecdotes to reinforce those claims, the scientists found.

Some websites also cited actual peer-reviewed studies as their sources of information, but they misinterpreted and misrepresented the findings of these studies.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/scientists-confirm-theres-nothing-but-misinformation-on-anti-vax-sites_563a31c7e4b0411d306f0cee