That's not a thesis, it's a junkheap

Well, cool. You can download Judy Wilyman's anti-vaccination thesis from the University of Wollongong and read it yourself. So click, click, wait a second, and…

YAAAARGH! My eyes! I thought the social sciences side of the academic world would possibly have higher standards for writing than the science side, but no…it's awful. This should have been shredded, and Wilyman told to go back and start all over.

I got a few pages in and couldn't take it anymore. Helen Harris managed to read the abstract, and ripped it apart line by line. Orac read some more bits; would you believe she's criticizing the germ theory of disease?

It's over 300 pages long. Does she think that if you pile up the drivel high enough it becomes an architectural marvel, or something? It doesn't work that way.

Note also: her advisor is now defending her work, blaming the criticisms on a conspiracy by pharmaceutical companies with a vested interest in selling vaccines, among other familiar crank tropes.

I presume her advisor, Brian Martin, is tenured, so there's not much one can do to boot him out in disgrace. But it is perfectly reasonable to deny a discredited professor the privilege of ruining students' careers by refusing him graduate students, or requiring additional, critical sponsorship by other faculty of any students. The University of Wollongong should be taking steps to protect their reputation immediately.

More like this

"... smallpox is only transferrable by direct skin to-skin
contact. It is not transmissible through the environment or until the symptoms appear. "

Well bugger me. Glad she backed that up with a reference.

Oh wait. She didn't.

Methinks the University of Wollongong needs more applications by Ph.D. candidates from around the world, asking if they might pursue thesis topics such as:

= House flies are good luck: debunking the connection between fly infestations and transmission of gastrointestinal disease.

= The conspiracy by plumbing fixture manufacturers and the plumbers' unions, to force people to have indoor toilets.

= Immune system benefits of living with uncollected garbage and open sewers.

= Deconstructing mosquito control: postmodernist perspectives on an exercise in murderous species-ism, with comparisons to the Nazi Holocaust and school dress codes.

Needless to say, anyone here who wishes to attempt such an application should save all correspondence for publication.

Well, I see one glaring error immediately. They spelled "Woo" wrong. They spelled it W-o-l-l-o-n-g-o-n-g. But aside from that, rapacious pharmaceutical companies don't exactly contribute to a warm fuzzy well loved image when they do all the crappy things that big business loves to do these days, so there is that. So maybe this is all just a question of who is mis-managing our mythology. Why are all the heart warming stories of plagues prevented, suffering ended, and diseases cured being driven out of the public forum and being replaced by stories of corporate psychopathy? Maybe because we DO have a problem with corporate psychopathy, and this wooful thesis is, IMO, quite possibly a mis-directed attack on that.

Looking at people like Wilyman, Cruz, Trump, Lamar Smith, or Scalia, it is clearly obvious that we need a higher minimum science and math requirement in modern higher education.

I worked in immunology for 15 years, and specifically in vaccine immunology research for 6 years.

I would happily and heartily welcome a serious investigation into the relative efficacy/benefits of the range of vaccines administered in the contemporary suite, but this PhD project is the biggest stinking pile of pseudo-research that I have ever encountered, and I've seen some whoppers. That it is in a sociological department is no excuse - this is bogus crap and nonsense of the highest order.

If Wollongong does not revisit this award they should seriously be reviewed as a provider of accredited tertiary education. FFS, what's next - a PhD thesis expounding on how the Earth really is flat, despite all the sphericist propaganda?

By Bernard J. (not verified) on 16 Jan 2016 #permalink

The author of this thesis is poised to become a hero of the anti-vaxxer movement, the only question is how many young lives will she be responsible for ending from a preventable disease. I doubt she will in any way feel responsible, as Yoda would say "Belief strong in this one!"

By Ted Herrlich (not verified) on 18 Jan 2016 #permalink

merhaba eskısehırde yasıyorum.. yasım 27..bekarım ve yalnızım. Evim var. lüks değil ama ev evdir ).buradan birçok bayan arkadaş edindim.. aralarında evli dul bekar türbanlı olgun bayanlar vardı.. kimisi aylarca kaldı kimisi sadece fırsat buldukça yolu düştükçe kapımı çalıyor. ben okumuş kültürlü ne istedıgını bilen bır ınsanım..amacım hayatın sıkıcılığından biraz uzaklaşmaş, sevgının beden dliyle uygulanması ve yaşlandığımda güzel anılar hatırlamaktır…birde sızde bılırsını yalnız yasamak hıc güzel degıl.. hayat paylaşınca ve sevişince güzel…ben çalıştığım için sehır dışına çıkamıyorum. evımde bır adet kedım var rahatsız olmazsınız umarım…eskısehıre gelmek isteyen benım mısafırım olmak ısteyen hanım efendıler telefonuma ulaşabılırler.. daha önce görüştüğüm bayan arkadaşlarımdan referans alabılırler.. sizi nasıl bırı olduğumu anlatırlar.. genelde kendı arzularımı değil partnerımın hayal gücüne göre sevişirim. Sevdıgı seylerı yaparız.. karşılıklı gizlilik ve güven muhakkak olmalı.. ben kımene yakışıklı kıme cırkın geliyorum bunun bır önemı yok zaten.. amacımız insan olmak hobımızı uygulamak zevk almak.. fırsat buldukça uzun yıllar görüşebılırız..ben kimseden ırtıbatı kesmedim..tekrar görüşmek ıstemeyenlere saygı duydum aramadım…6 sene önce tanıştığım bır bayanarkadas hala telefondan arıyor. evlenmıs cocugu olmuş.. güzel olan bunu basarabılmek.. belkı bende evlenırım ) şimdi karar verdıysenız telefonuma mesaj atın.. hazırlanın yola cıkın sızı karşılıycam

So the evil big pharma plot to sell vaccines had kept the evil big cosmetic plot to sell soap and hand sanitizers unnoticed.
Arguing vaccines are unnecessary is on the same level as arguing personal hygiene including washing the hands with soap is a mere marketing device to sell more soap.

By Blanca Le Duc (not verified) on 25 Jan 2016 #permalink

Details that the author displayed here are really impressed! So maybe we should try to understand better on the idea of "thesis" and "junkheap".