Justin Wilkins
@justinwilkins.bsky.social
Pharmacometrician, PhD. Senior consultant and founder at Occams, past president of the International Society of Pharmacometrics, co-developer of nlmixr2. Opinions my own. 🇿🇦🇩🇪🇬🇧🇸🇪🇨🇭🇪🇺🇺🇦
Reposted by Justin Wilkins
The official CDC website on autism and vaccines is now a screed of cherry-picked data and conspiratorial thinking claiming that actually vaccines *might* cause autism.
This is where we’re at folks…
🧪
This is where we’re at folks…
🧪
November 20, 2025 at 11:54 AM
The official CDC website on autism and vaccines is now a screed of cherry-picked data and conspiratorial thinking claiming that actually vaccines *might* cause autism.
This is where we’re at folks…
🧪
This is where we’re at folks…
🧪
Autism and Vaccines
Answers to common questions about vaccine safety and autism.
www.cdc.gov
November 20, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Reposted by Justin Wilkins
40 years ago today the world was introduced to a small boy and his best friend. Happy birthday Calvin & Hobbes.
November 18, 2025 at 6:37 AM
40 years ago today the world was introduced to a small boy and his best friend. Happy birthday Calvin & Hobbes.
Reposted by Justin Wilkins
In short, acetaminophen exposure during pregnancy is not linked to the risk of developing autism, ADHD, or intellectual disability.
The study has been published in Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). YES, it is PEER-REVIEWED.
• jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
🧪🧵⬇️
The study has been published in Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). YES, it is PEER-REVIEWED.
• jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
🧪🧵⬇️
![Design, Setting, and Participants
This nationwide cohort study with sibling control analysis included a population-based sample of 2,480,797 children born in 1995 to 2019 in Sweden, with follow-up through December 31, 2021.
Exposure
Use of acetaminophen during pregnancy prospectively recorded from antenatal and prescription records.
Main Outcomes and Measures
Autism, ADHD, and intellectual disability based on International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision and International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision codes in health registers.
Results
In total, 185909 children (7.49%) were exposed to acetaminophen during pregnancy. Crude absolute risks at 10 years of age for those not exposed vs those exposed to acetaminophen were 1.33% vs 1.53% for autism, 2.46% vs 2.87% for ADHD, and 0.70% vs 0.82% for intellectual disability. In models without sibling control, ever-use vs no use of acetaminophen during pregnancy was associated with marginally increased risk of autism (hazard ratio [HR], 1.05 [95% CI, 1.02-1.08]; risk difference [RD] at 10 years of age, 0.09% [95% Cl,
-0.01% to 0.20%l), ADHD (HR, 1.07 [95% Cl, 1.05-1.10];
RD, 0.21% [95% Cl, 0.08%-0.34%]), and intellectual disability (HR, 1.05 [95% CI, 1.00-1.10]; RD, 0.04% [95% Cl, -0.04% to 0.12%]).
To address unobserved confounding, matched full sibling pairs were also analyzed. Sibling control analyses found no evidence that acetaminophen use during pregnancy was associated with autism (HR, 0.98 [95% Cl, 0.93-1.04]; RD, 0.02% [95% Cl, -0.14% to 0.18%l), ADHD (HR, 0.98 [95% Cl, 0.94-1.02]; RD, -0.02% [95% Cl, -0.21% to 0.15%]), or intellectual disability (HR, 1.01 195% Cl, 0.92-1.10]; RD, 0% [95% Cl, -0.10% to 0.13%1).](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:llgfbjvsqkaicezsf7mzjxr3/bafkreicpuvkboryiemrnkjuo7g2yj7garvjkjiw7i33ktwnguhri4csrn4@jpeg)
October 30, 2025 at 4:02 PM
In short, acetaminophen exposure during pregnancy is not linked to the risk of developing autism, ADHD, or intellectual disability.
The study has been published in Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). YES, it is PEER-REVIEWED.
• jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
🧪🧵⬇️
The study has been published in Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). YES, it is PEER-REVIEWED.
• jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
🧪🧵⬇️
Happy Halloween to those who celebrate 🎃
October 31, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Happy Halloween to those who celebrate 🎃
Reposted by Justin Wilkins
Autoimmune disorders are caused by chaos globulins
July 31, 2025 at 8:20 AM
Autoimmune disorders are caused by chaos globulins
Reposted by Justin Wilkins
For… no reason, here’s that time Superman (Jon Kent) stood with protesters to stop the illegal deportation of refugees in Superman: Son of Kal-El #3. Art by John Timms.
June 13, 2025 at 4:06 PM
For… no reason, here’s that time Superman (Jon Kent) stood with protesters to stop the illegal deportation of refugees in Superman: Son of Kal-El #3. Art by John Timms.
Reposted by Justin Wilkins
Doctors say that vaccines do not cause autism. X-user @cryptomaga1488 says that they do. For busy parents, it can be hard to know who to trust.
June 3, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Doctors say that vaccines do not cause autism. X-user @cryptomaga1488 says that they do. For busy parents, it can be hard to know who to trust.
Reposted by Justin Wilkins
Big, important news. Possibly the most important new research project I know of.
Worth a read!
Worth a read!
Science-integrity project will root out bad medical papers ‘and tell everyone’
Thrilled to announce this new $900,000 project headed by @jamesheathers.bsky.social
Thrilled to announce this new $900,000 project headed by @jamesheathers.bsky.social
Science-integrity project will root out bad medical papers ‘and tell everyone’
Group behind Retraction Watch aims to pinpoint the most influential flawed health data.
www.nature.com
June 4, 2025 at 4:44 AM
Big, important news. Possibly the most important new research project I know of.
Worth a read!
Worth a read!
Reposted by Justin Wilkins
Hopes fuels resistance. Hope gets us up when we don't think we can make it any further. From the little things to the big.
What is it that drives your hope?
I hope for a world in which my kids live in joy, not fear.
#HopeIsAPractice
What is it that drives your hope?
I hope for a world in which my kids live in joy, not fear.
#HopeIsAPractice
June 2, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Hopes fuels resistance. Hope gets us up when we don't think we can make it any further. From the little things to the big.
What is it that drives your hope?
I hope for a world in which my kids live in joy, not fear.
#HopeIsAPractice
What is it that drives your hope?
I hope for a world in which my kids live in joy, not fear.
#HopeIsAPractice
Why am I wasting my time debating software engineers on the benefits of vaccines on LinkedIn? Literally minutes of my life I’m not getting back
May 30, 2025 at 10:05 PM
Why am I wasting my time debating software engineers on the benefits of vaccines on LinkedIn? Literally minutes of my life I’m not getting back
Reposted by Justin Wilkins
STOP asking AI systems for "opinions" and presenting their outputs as reasoned responses.
AI systems don't think or reason. They don't have "opinions." All they're doing is rewriting/recreating answers cobbled together from whatever materials were fed to it.
AI systems don't think or reason. They don't have "opinions." All they're doing is rewriting/recreating answers cobbled together from whatever materials were fed to it.
May 30, 2025 at 8:51 PM
STOP asking AI systems for "opinions" and presenting their outputs as reasoned responses.
AI systems don't think or reason. They don't have "opinions." All they're doing is rewriting/recreating answers cobbled together from whatever materials were fed to it.
AI systems don't think or reason. They don't have "opinions." All they're doing is rewriting/recreating answers cobbled together from whatever materials were fed to it.
Reposted by Justin Wilkins
We are looking for post-docs interested in studying T cell responses to M. tuberculosis infection…especially basic T cell immunologists who are interested in learning to work with BSL3 pathogens. The NIH intramural program is an amazing place to train!
May 30, 2025 at 8:47 PM
We are looking for post-docs interested in studying T cell responses to M. tuberculosis infection…especially basic T cell immunologists who are interested in learning to work with BSL3 pathogens. The NIH intramural program is an amazing place to train!
It’s a never-ending source of joy to me that the official language of Wakanda is Xhosa.
Yes, I’m a comic book geek there I said it
Yes, I’m a comic book geek there I said it
May 30, 2025 at 9:05 PM
It’s a never-ending source of joy to me that the official language of Wakanda is Xhosa.
Yes, I’m a comic book geek there I said it
Yes, I’m a comic book geek there I said it
This is a very nice piece of work. We see the same thing in #pharmacometrics all the time: give five modelers the same dataset and the same question to be answered and you're going to get five different models (although hopefully all producing consistent answers to the question). 🧪
Kowall et al. published a multi-analyst epi study on the effect of marital status on cardiovascular disease (link.springer.com/article/10.1...). What can be learned from this effort? Check out our new commentary! link.springer.com/article/10.1...
with @mendelrandom.bsky.social & Marcus Munafò
with @mendelrandom.bsky.social & Marcus Munafò
![What can be learned when multiple analysts arrive at different estimates
Kowall et al. (2025) have brought the multi-analyst approach to epidemiology, with instructive results. With this approach, multiple researchers analyze the same data set to answer the same research question. Or, at least, what appears to be the same research question. In fact, the very first paper that popularized this approach [1] has been criticized for using a vague research question (“Are soccer referees more likely to give red cards to players with dark skin tone than light skin tone?”), which apparently led the analysts to try to answer quite different questions—from a simple question about a bivariate statistical association to much more complex causal questions about racial bias [2].
In contrast, the research question passed on to analysts in Kowall et al. (2025) seems less ambiguous: Does marital status influence the incidence of cardiovascular disease? But less ambiguous does not equal unambiguous. Considerable...](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:gz53felr7btxgmbxae5aooxi/bafkreidvs4c7wvoh63tr2ptmvnnl5hya246ofttwyzlvotkmqhnpwgbf4a@jpeg)
May 30, 2025 at 7:28 AM
This is a very nice piece of work. We see the same thing in #pharmacometrics all the time: give five modelers the same dataset and the same question to be answered and you're going to get five different models (although hopefully all producing consistent answers to the question). 🧪
Reposted by Justin Wilkins
The went from cute to adorable in those last 5 seconds.
May 29, 2025 at 8:45 AM
The went from cute to adorable in those last 5 seconds.
Reposted by Justin Wilkins
Reposted by Justin Wilkins
Reposted by Justin Wilkins
Guys I’m going to say something difficult… fail them
May 14, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Guys I’m going to say something difficult… fail them
Reposted by Justin Wilkins
I can’t help but scratch my head at the anti-green, deregulation rhetoric currently circulating in Germany.
Rationalising regulations, like supply chain reporting, makes sense — but halting investments is self-defeating for the West’s key clean tech hub.
Let's review a few facts.
1/4
Rationalising regulations, like supply chain reporting, makes sense — but halting investments is self-defeating for the West’s key clean tech hub.
Let's review a few facts.
1/4
May 14, 2025 at 10:18 AM
I can’t help but scratch my head at the anti-green, deregulation rhetoric currently circulating in Germany.
Rationalising regulations, like supply chain reporting, makes sense — but halting investments is self-defeating for the West’s key clean tech hub.
Let's review a few facts.
1/4
Rationalising regulations, like supply chain reporting, makes sense — but halting investments is self-defeating for the West’s key clean tech hub.
Let's review a few facts.
1/4
Because threatening other countries always goes well.
Trump vows to force higher medicine prices in EU as he looks to lower US drugs costs
White House sets out plans for price targets and eliminating ‘middlemen’ in executive order
www.irishtimes.com
May 14, 2025 at 8:49 AM
Because threatening other countries always goes well.
Reposted by Justin Wilkins
I'm the 1st scientist in my family. My parents were amazed I could attend @caltech.edu, an elite private school, for my PhD studies FOR FREE. In fact, I was paid to become a PhD chemist. STEM is a pathway to a good career. I study TB- a disease that impacts millions. Fund NIH.
May 13, 2025 at 6:24 PM
I'm the 1st scientist in my family. My parents were amazed I could attend @caltech.edu, an elite private school, for my PhD studies FOR FREE. In fact, I was paid to become a PhD chemist. STEM is a pathway to a good career. I study TB- a disease that impacts millions. Fund NIH.
Reposted by Justin Wilkins
I cannot state this strongly enough: If you are upset about the way this government is treating trans people and immigrants, and you have a Labour MP, for God sake write to them.
May 13, 2025 at 9:39 AM
I cannot state this strongly enough: If you are upset about the way this government is treating trans people and immigrants, and you have a Labour MP, for God sake write to them.
Reposted by Justin Wilkins
I think about this comic at least once a week
May 10, 2025 at 5:47 AM
I think about this comic at least once a week
Reposted by Justin Wilkins
I'm a tool of big pharma, but I can say this is a good description of my counterparts at the FDA. They all have PhDs and could be swimming Scrooge McDuck style in pharma money. Instead they tool away evaluating claims made by sponsors and get yelled at from every direction.
Not to be too pro technocrat, but it is astounding how much this country depended on the selflessness of like a few hundred thousand highly educated public servants who, for peanuts, made sure our food and medicine and environment etc were safe. And in return these servants were demonized.
“When it comes to .. raw milk, I want to be free to form a relationship with a local farmer, look him in the eyes, pet his cow, and then decide if I feel safe to drink the milk from his farm.”
— Casey Means, Trump’s latest surgeon-general nominee.
www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
— Casey Means, Trump’s latest surgeon-general nominee.
www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
May 8, 2025 at 1:43 PM
I'm a tool of big pharma, but I can say this is a good description of my counterparts at the FDA. They all have PhDs and could be swimming Scrooge McDuck style in pharma money. Instead they tool away evaluating claims made by sponsors and get yelled at from every direction.