David Geier is NOT a vaccine skeptic. Stop calling him that. He’s anti-vaccine.
Letting him head an “investigation” into vaccines and autism will legitimize his decades of lies and illegal medical treatments that harmed children.
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David Geier has profited for twenty years off his anti-vaccine agenda
If you’ve been trying to disconnect from the deluge of chaos coming from the US Federal Government (like I have, to be quite honest), here’s a recent development:
David Geier, a long-time anti-vaccine activist, has been selected by RFK Jr to lead the new “investigation” between the supposed link between vaccines and autism.
As a reminder, that link has been debunked repeatedly following the fraud of Andrew Wakefield in 1998. We have decades of research, countless epidemiological studies, and overwhelming consensus of the legitimate globaly scientific community (I summarized that here).
If you don’t know who David Geier is and why his leading this “investigation” is SO dangerous, read on.
David Geier and his father Mark are staunch anti-vaccine activists. They are NOTORIOUS in my field amongst me and my colleagues. Many folks doing scicomm only experienced the full brunt of anti-vaccine rhetoric during the pandemic, but there is a WHOLE world behind that.
David Geier is one of the most harmful figures in that world, along with RFK Jr, Joseph Mercola, Del Bigtree, and the rest of the Disinformation Dozen.
First, he is not a scientist or a healthcare professional in any capacity. His extent of science knowledge is a Bachelor’s in Arts in Biology.
He and his father, Mark Geier (who was a licensed physician at one point), founded an autism “clinic” in the early 2000s, named things like “Genetic Centers of America,” and really ramped up their efforts to attract scared parents around 2003 t0 2006. These so-called autism clinics were not legitimate medical facilities—it was a vehicle for disseminating scientifically baseless, unethical, and dangerous “treatments” to families of autistic children under the false promise of a cure.
What they did was created a national network of fraudulent “clinics” where they claimed to do clinical research and could cure children’s autism because it was caused by “mercury poisoning” from thimerosal in vaccines.
Not only has this claim been long debunked but thimerosal:
is not mercury: remember, a chemical is NOT the sum of its parts.
isn’t harmful at levels that were found in vaccines as a preservative
hasn’t been used in vaccines since 2001 in the US, well before their predatory treatment centers ramped up (aside from a small fraction of flu vaccines that are in multi-dose vials)
But none of that mattered to the Geiers. They operated highly unethical clinics in which they would fabricate diagnoses of “mercury toxicity” to justify charging parents for and treating children with incredibly dangerous things.
These treatments included:
Chelation therapy: Chelation is a medical process used to remove heavy metals from the body in cases of real and confirmed poisoning.
However, David and his father pushed chelation therapy on autistic children—an unproven, risky, and potentially life-threatening treatment—based on the false premise that “mercury poisoning” from vaccines causes autism.
There is no evidence that ANY of these children treated had mercury toxicity, certainly not from vaccines. Also worth noting: autism has a genetic link—it is not caused by poisoning. That’s why chelation is also not approved for autism and legitimate scientific experts warn against using this.
It’s use in wellness circles can cause serious harm: kidney damage, seizures, and death. Children have died from improperly administered chelation therapy.
Lupron Injections: Lupron (leuprolide acetate) is a drug used to delay puberty (or treat certain cancers).
It binds to the gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) receptor in the pituitary gland, causing the release of luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH). In girls, this causes an initial release of estrogen; in boys, this causes a release of testosterone.
Following that, Lupron leads to reduction in the GnRH receptors, which causes:
Reduced LH and FSH production by the pituitary
Reduced sex hormone production—a state similar to chemical castration or menopause.
This medication has specific medical indications in children, such as precocious puberty (puberty beginning at a young age). When administered in children otherwise? It delays puberty and critical development that occurs during that period.
David and Mark Geier justified their use of Lupron by claiming that testosterone “binds” to mercury, making chelation less effective, therefore, you needed to suppress testosterone to reduce autism symptoms while also doing their unproven chelation therapy. (Dr. David Gorski wrote about this in 2011, here).
In case it wasn’t clear: there is NO scientific basis for this.
But the Geier’s use of Lupron in children with autism caused real hormonal disruption, developmental delays, and long-term endocrine risks. Where are the parents screaming about “endocrine disruption” now?
Let me say this plainly: David Geier administered medications to chemically castrate children.
And he’s held up by the same people who are demonizing gender affirming care? He did the opposite of that, without any informed consent, or a medical license.
David and Mark Geier are guilty of medical malpractice.
To that point, in 2007, David Geier was fined for illegally practicing medicine without a license in Maryland, where he was helping run the Geier clinic.
His father, who did have an MD, had his medical license revoked in multiple states for gross misconduct, including misdiagnosing children to justify these off-label and inappropriate treatments—treatments which harmed children and made them, David and Mark, a lot of money.
Regulators called their practices dangerous, exploitative, and outside any reasonable standard of care.
They claimed to be conducting research, but none of their protocols were approved by an Institutional Review Board (IRB). They published studies in fringe journals with no credible peer review, often co-authoring papers together and citing their own work to create a false sense of legitimacy.
Oh and those “studies?” Those are the ones circulated and referenced by RFK Jr, his anti-science organization Children’s Health Defense, and Physicians for Informed Consent. And they will be the same “studies” he will cite now that he’s been given a national megaphone.
The falsehoods he and others circulate are NOT harmless differences of opinion. They’re deliberate, fabricated, lies, designed to erode scientific trust and exploit vulnerable parents.
Vaccines do not cause autism, full stop.
Language matters: Stop calling Geier a “vaccine skeptic.” He is NOT. He is an anti-vaccine profiteer.
The media outlets are awash with articles labeling David Geier as a “vaccine skeptic” — he is NOT. He is a conspiracy theorist. An opportunist. A predator. A liar. He has exploited parents for decades, promoting dangerous pseudoscience. This is not skepticism.
By calling him a skeptic, media outlets are legitimizing him and anti-science ideology. Do they call flat-Earthers “geometry skeptics?” Media outlets suggesting what he does is legitimate skepticism makes refusing objective reality mainstream. That is not ok. So why do they continue to do it?
Skepticism is a method, not a vibe. A TRUE skeptic follows evidence, revises their beliefs when confronted with new data, and values peer review and scientific consensus. That’s actually what scientists are trained to do. WE are skeptics.
Geier is the opposite. He has spent decades ignoring data, misrepresenting science, and pushing dangerous treatments on vulnerable families. He is incapable of following evidence and revising beliefs—a central tenet of skepticism.
The media is sanitizing what’s actually happening. They are legitimizing science denial. They are making it easier for pseudoscience to infiltrate policy—the very same thing they did with RFK Jr over the last 6 months.
What’s more? They confuse the public by suggesting there are equal “sides” to this discussion, which contributes to declining vaccine rates when we have record-breaking measles cases spreading from the actions of these very people.
Stop tiptoeing around our dangerous reality: David Geier is a conspiracy theorist who’s been sanctioned for unethical conduct and is being given power and a platform he has never earned, doesn’t deserve, and will only use it to cause more harm.
Geier is not remotely qualified to analyze scientific data—of any kind.
He isn’t a scientist in ANY capacity — biomedical or epidemiological. He isn’t a healthcare professional. In fact, he barely has any scientific knowledge whatsoever, aside from a Bachelor’s of Arts in Biology.
He has zero qualifications to equip him to even be ABLE to analyze millions of data points across thousands of studies and conduct a power analysis — where you can determine the weight of a given study based on the robustness of the study design.
What he will do in this role is exactly what he’s been doing for twenty years: lie to people to push his false narrative, the very same false narrative RFK Jr. has promoted.
The consequences? These two, and their allies, will profit off disinformation while undermining credible science, public health, trust in expertise. All the while causing serious and tangible harm to our society, our health, and our scientific and medical institutions.
This is not just history—it’s a warning.
We—scientific and health experts—know exactly where this goes because it is the same playbook that has been used for years. We cannot downplay the actions of bad-faith actors, especially when they are being given the reins of our highest health agencies. People will get hurt. People are already dying of preventable illnesses. People with autism are being abused and subjected to unproven “treatments” based on lies.
David Geier is a real and serious threat. He is now being given a larger and more dangerous platform to re-legitimize the same illegal and dangerous pseudoscience he pushed on children.
This isn’t about “both sides.” This isn’t a “debate.” This is about facts versus fabrication.
We do not need an “investigation” into a vaccine-autism link. That investigation has been done. Time and again. Over and over, as a result of lies upon lies. Scientists, epidemiologists, and clinicians have spent inordinate time, energy, and funding dollars relitigating the same false claims that will not go away. There is no link between vaccines and autism.
David Geier will fudge data to make the claim, as he has done for decades. That does not change reality.
But we need accountability—for those who peddle these lies under the guise of inquiry, and from the media. Their complicity is a major contributor to the situation we are in. And our society needs continued advocacy for objective reality—and not just about vaccines.
The playbook is the same no matter the topic and we are seeing it happen across the board: discredit science, undermine institutions, spread wellness pseudoscience, and exploit fear for power and profit.
That’s what David Geier has done. That’s what RFK Jr. is doing. And we must keep calling it out—loudly, clearly, and without apology.
Refuse to sanitize it. Demand better from media, from leaders, from your communities. Science denial isn’t fringe anymore—it’s legitimized in our Federal government. And humanity will suffer irreparable damage as a result.
Now, more than ever, we all must join in the fight for science.
Thank you for supporting evidence-based science communication. With outbreaks of preventable diseases, refusal of evidence-based medical interventions, propagation of pseudoscience by prominent public “personalities”, it’s needed now more than ever.
More science education, less disinformation.
- Andrea
ImmunoLogic is written by Dr. Andrea Love, PhD - immunologist and microbiologist. She works full-time in life sciences biotech and has had a lifelong passion for closing the science literacy gap and combating pseudoscience and health misinformation as far back as her childhood. This newsletter and her science communication on her social media pages are born from that passion. Follow on Instagram, Threads, Twitter, and Facebook, or support the newsletter by subscribing below:
This is a superb and critically important piece. Dr. Love not only articulates the long-standing and deeply harmful record of David Geier, but also delivers a clear and urgent warning about the dangers posed by RFK Jr.’s ascent to a position of influence over public health policy. This is not a fringe movement—it is pseudoscience being legitimized at the federal level. The consequences are profound, both for individual health and for public trust in scientific and medical institutions. Thank you, Dr. Love, for your unwavering commitment to evidence-based science communication and for calling out this threat with the clarity and moral urgency it demands.
— A physician
How are they not in jail..