I posted a more detailed article at Daily Kos yesterday, titled in the format used on The Big Bang Theory, The Vaccination Intervention. I was pleased to see the comment section, now 500 strong and climbing, didn’t degenerate into an all out flame war. But there were a few commenters whot were making claims that sounded like they’d been piped straight from an anti-vaxxar website or seminar. Per usual, these individuals appeared impervious to evidence and reason.
As the evidence mounted that the link to autism was a dead-end, anti-vaxxars did what most pseudoscientists do. They upped the ante with ever more elaborate conspiracies, and moved the goal posts by making claims that were less and testable. Too many too soon is a good example:
Respectful Insolence — As I’m so fond of saying, the vaccine-autism hypothesis is not “pinin’ for the fjords.” It is no more! It has ceased to be! It’s expired and gone to meet its maker! It’s a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! If antivaccinationists hadn’t tried to nail it to the perch it’d be pushing up the daisies! Its metabolic processes are now ‘istory! It’s off the twig! It’s kicked the bucket, it’s shuffled off ‘is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisible!! It IS AN EX-HYPOTHESIS!!
BTW, I keep waiting for my Big Pharma payoff to arrive, but so far, nada. Cheap bastards.
There’s some religious angles to this deal. Some vaccines were developed using fetal tissue, then there’s the general distrust of government, fanned by series like X-files and nurtured by the religious right whenever there’s a democrat in the WH. But by and large we’re lucky there’s not a ton of industry money or verses in the Bible fueling this particular anti-science racket. There’s a critical point in any population beyond which large scale epidemics of preventable disease can flourish. We may be pushing in that direction in some communities, but so far at least, we haven’t exceeded that line. Much to our benefit, whether you accept the science or buy into the nonsense.
Yeah. There’s not a lot of money in persuading people not to buy something. Unlike AGW.
BTW, I keep waiting for my Big Pharma payoff to arrive, but so far, nada. Cheap bastards.
There’s some religious angles to this deal. Some vaccines were developed using fetal tissue, then there’s the general distrust of government, fanned by series like X-files and nurtured by the religious right whenever there’s a democrat in the WH.
There’s also a lot of anti-autistic prejudice behind the conspiracy theory: our very existence is such an afront to some people that there must be an evil force behind it.
I particularly liked, in response to my asking one apparent anti-vaxxer when I asked if he/she had been vaccinated, “…i am pro vaccines i just have misgivings in the sheer amount and the philosophy (magic drugs)of them.” And that after saying he/she had been given the sugar cube! And his/her aunt had polio.
Thank goodness for magic drugs.
I reckon this song :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1xw0Ob5bqs
sums the whole vaccine /anti-vax issue up perfectly
You are being unkind.
Both Mulder and Scully (and several others) were saved many times by the black oil vaccine. Cold temps, the black oil vaccine, this is what is needed to stave off the alien virus.
Hoping Stephen’s recent blog silence is due to being busy with a new job!