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Jenny McCarthy: "I Am Not Anti-Vaccine'"

Hugh Pickens DOT Com (2995471) writes "Jenny McCarthy is claiming she has been misunderstood and is not anti-vaccine. In an op-ed in the Chicago Sun-Times, McCarthy tries to ignore everything she's been saying about vaccines for years and wipe the record clean. 'People have the misconception that we want to eliminate vaccines,' McCarthy told Time magazine science editor Jeffrey Kluger in 2009. 'Please understand that we are not an anti-vaccine group. We are demanding safe vaccines. We want to reduce the schedule and reduce the toxins.' But Kluger points out that McCarthy left the last line out of that quotation: 'If you ask a parent of an autistic child if they want the measles or the autism, we will stand in line for the f--king measles.' That missing line rather changes the tone of her position considerably, writes Phil Plait and is a difficult stance to square with someone who is not anti-vaccine. As Kluger points out, her entire premise is false; since vaccines don't cause autism, no one has to make the choice between measles (and other preventable, dangerous diseases) and autism. Something else McCarthy omitted from her interview with Kluger: 'I do believe sadly it's going to take some diseases coming back to realize that we need to change and develop vaccines that are safe,' said McCarthy. 'If the vaccine companies are not listening to us, it's their f*cking fault that the diseases are coming back. They're making a product that's sh*t. If you give us a safe vaccine, we'll use it. It shouldn't be polio versus autism.' Kluger finishes with this: 'Jenny, as outbreaks of measles, mumps and whooping cough continue to appear in the U.S.—most the result of parents refusing to vaccinate their children because of the scare stories passed around by anti-vaxxers like you—it's just too late to play cute with the things you've said.' For many years McCarthy has gone on and on and on and on and on and on about vaccines and autism. 'She can claim all she wants that she's not anti-vax,' concludes Plait, 'but her own words show her to be wrong.'"

588 comments

  1. Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Is it because of her advanced medical degree? Her first hand knowledge of the pharmaceutical industry?

    1. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I agree. People who get their medical advice, especially for their kids, from celebrities are destined to have Darwin knock at their door sooner or later.

    2. Re:Why do people listen to her? by arth1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I agree. People who get their medical advice, especially for their kids, from celebrities are destined to have Darwin knock at their door sooner or later.

      What celebrity did this Jenny person get medical advice from?

    3. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Boobs.

    4. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      "McCarthy tries to ignore everything she's been saying about vaccines for years and wipe the record clean."

      Wow, Just like Obama.
      All those campaign promises about getting rid of the secret courts and the patriot act. Now he Ignores it all.

    5. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Sique · · Score: 2

      Actually, she is against vaccination in general, and the alleged vaccination-autism-connection was just playing in her hand. Now that the anti-vaccination stand shows to have detoriating effects like the outbreak of illnesses that once were thought to be in check, she backpedals on the anti-vaccination stand and uses the alleged connection to defend herself.

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
    6. Re:Why do people listen to her? by gtall · · Score: 4, Insightful

      And we have studies detailing the risk for vaccines and none of them implicate autism. The woman refuses to accept them. This is akin to the World Trade Center nutjobs who claim a conspiracy...which would only involve several hundred people who all managed to keep their mouths shut due to some mystical influence from...choose your hobgoblin: The Illuminati, the Jews, the Government, the Man, the Aliens, the Republicans, Ronald MacDonald, the Gecko on the insurance commercials, Gordon Gekko, former President Bush, Condoleeza Rice, Sasquatch, etc.

      The woman is either a liar or too dim to understand the implications of what she's saying. In either case, she's a menace to the other dimbulbs who believe her and society which relies on vaccines.

    7. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree. People who get their medical advice, especially for their kids, from celebrities are destined to have Darwin knock at their door sooner or later.

      What celebrity did this Jenny person get medical advice from?

      Probably that douche who keeps showing up on Oprah in full OR-regalia since Phil bolted. You know, because otherwise we'd all be confused about his being a doctor.

    8. Re:Why do people listen to her? by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 1

      The same reason they listen to the anti-nuke hysterics?

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    9. Re:Why do people listen to her? by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      McCarthy, and her PR team, have a well reasoned, defensible position, including the last line re: measles vs. autism - even if there is no scientific proof of a measles vaccine / autism link, it is still a valid statement.

      The McCarthy PR campaign also projects a strong sense of the "whatever pleases, or resonates with, the most people right now" - taking that same message and emphasizing different perceptions of it at different times.

      Personally, I think the McCarthy "message" is being promoted first and foremost to benefit the McCarthy team (her, her publicist, and the whole crew that make a phenomenon like that happen....) There might have been an inkling of a heartfelt idea at the core of it, but it's been blown up way beyond that.

    10. Re:Why do people listen to her? by duckintheface · · Score: 1

      All of the references cited in the OA are about other people characterizing McCarthy's position. I have not seen any direct quote from her that indicates an opposition to the principle of vaccines or the efficacy of all vaccines. She is misguided in insisting that vaccines cause autism, but that is not the same thing as being against vaccination in general.

      --
      "He took a duck in the face at 250 knots." -- William Gibson, Pattern Recognition
    11. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is it because of her advanced medical degree? Her first hand knowledge of the pharmaceutical industry?

      She's hot.

      Duh.

    12. Re:Why do people listen to her? by dosius · · Score: 1

      Most likely, that disgraced quack Andrew Wakefield.

      --
      What you hear in the ear, preach from the rooftop Matthew 10.27b
    13. Re:Why do people listen to her? by TapeCutter · · Score: 5, Informative

      The claims themselves come from a single medical paper published in the late 90's that was eventually proven beyond reasonable doubt to have been a deliberate fraud. The reason for the fraud was to promote a competing vaccine by sowing doubt in the saftey of the existing vaccine formula. Jenny IS the (minor, soft porn) celebrity whoring her intelectual honesty for attention and profit.

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    14. Re:Why do people listen to her? by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      The delusion here, with any public figure who reaches tens or hundreds of millions of people, is that you are dealing with "a person."

      Think about "Joe the Plumber" - he was just a guy who got a microphone stuck in his face, spoke his mind, and had it spread out on a national stage. The professionals don't operate like that, they've got "hive mind" at work with people monitoring public opinion in the various "markets," script writers carefully choosing words that balance the varying perceptions of those words, and "message managers" that emphasize, and de-emphasize, the various messages to various groups. People who attempt to be public figures at a national level without that kind of support are eaten alive by the ones who do it competitively.

      Bands that promote themselves through YouTube have "a chance" to gain some popularity, but I haven't seen any of these garage phenomena reach Nirvana proportions, and, in my opinion, that's a good thing. McCarthy is at Nirvana scale, and Obama makes her look like a sad side show.

    15. Re:Why do people listen to her? by GoCrazy · · Score: 1

      No, it seems the adjective "un-safe" was just an ad hoc addition to her anti-vaccination campaign after being proven wrong. She previously rallied against vaccinations in general because they were filled with "toxins".

      --
      No beer and no TV make Homer something something
    16. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Cordus+Mortain · · Score: 1

      Because Americans love a conspiracy?

    17. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      blah blah excuse blah, nope, she's simply a fucking idiot

    18. Re:Why do people listen to her? by jythie · · Score: 1

      She only changed to the 'safe' argument when her original ones were discredited, so it is less about wanting actual changes and more about moving the goal posts to ensure she is always on the anti-side. No amount of safety will be enough for her or her supporters, as long as there is one person out there with one side effect she will claim they are dangerous since statistics matter less then a heart wrenching personal story.

    19. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yep, same bunch of mystical spirit woo woo ga ga enviromentalist green shit eco loons, too much time on their hands celebrities who get convinced they have a super duper secret of the world sold to them by quacks and scammers.

      About fucking time they listened a bit more to engineers and scientists who can do the fucking maths correctly.

    20. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      While you are correct, she is the reason that a lot of anti-vaxxers exist. They listened to her ridiculous claims of vaccines causing autism and they didn't vaccinate their kids. Regardless of what she believes, she has caused a huge amount of harm by using her celebrity pulpit to speak out about things she knew nothing about. The only thing she knew for sure was that it sucks to have a kid with autism. The rest was crap. She, and a few like her, caused most of the US anti-vax movement.

    21. Re:Why do people listen to her? by kimvette · · Score: 0

      If it weren't for those vaccines, Jenny would be sporting every STD in existence.

      --
      The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
    22. Re:Why do people listen to her? by FireFury03 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think she is wrong to connect vaccines to autism. But attacking her personally is not necessary or relevant. Her general position that she is not against vaccines in general but only against un-safe vaccines is a valid position. Why bother nit-picking nuances or perceived contradictions in wording. It's all irrelevant. The only issue is: Are existing vaccines safe and could they be made safer? All else is nonsense.

      The problem is: what constitutes "safe"? You're never going to have something that's completely safe, so it all comes down to probabilities. This is comparing the chance of your child being harmed through your actions (getting the vaccine) vs. the chance of them being harmed through your inactions (not getting the vaccine). Rationally, if getting the vaccine reduces the chances of the patient being harmed then obviously that is the right course of action, but does this make the vaccine "safe"? I suspect a lot of people take the irrational line that they don't want to take any action that might harm their child, but never properly think about the consequences of inaction, so go down the inaction line even if that is the worse choice.

      Partly, there is a problem that diseases like measles aren't very common these days, to people perceive the risk to be very low. They ignore the fact that these deseases are uncommon *because* of vaccination.

      Secondly, she seems to have a failure to understand basic statistics by her comment "If you ask a parent of an autistic child if they want the measles or the autism, we will stand in line for the f--king measles" - this argument is comparing a certainty (the child has autism) with an uncertainty (that the child will suffer lasting damage from the measels). Given the choice between a certainly autistic child and a child with a small chance of dieing (or other serious complication from measels), I might make the same decision and go with the measels, but that's not the choice the anti-vaccination crowd are making. If the argument had been comparing two certainties - "If you ask a parent of an autistic child if they want the child to die from measles or have autism" - then I imagine the response would be very different.

      Whether or not you believe that vaccines cause autism (and there is absolutely no evidence that they do), the above rational arguments still apply - if the chances of serious injury or death from measels for unvaccinated people is higher than the chances of autism for vaccinated people then having the vaccine is a complete no-brainer.

    23. Re:Why do people listen to her? by marcello_dl · · Score: 1

      I am intrigued by your theory and wish to subscribe to her newsletter.

      --
      ---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
    24. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Bill_the_Engineer · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I have not seen any direct quote from her that indicates an opposition to the principle of vaccines or the efficacy of all vaccines. She is misguided in insisting that vaccines cause autism, but that is not the same thing as being against vaccination in general.

      Actually here is a quote from her given during a Good Morning America interview in 2008:

      McCarthy and Carrey said that while they do support immunization, they and their allies believe children receive "too many vaccines, too soon, many of which are toxic."

      "We are not here to destroy the vaccine program. We're here to lend our voices for the millions of people calling for balance and moderation when it calls to substances that we give our children," Carey said. "They are not bottomless pits that you endlessly pour the substances into. You have to consider the cumulative effect. Not only that, the possible interaction. Every other drug has interaction with other drugs and yet they assume vaccines won't."

      She is basically straddling the fence. Being enough anti-vaccine to encourage parents from having their children vaccinated yet not enough to where she doesn't have an exit strategy which will not threaten any product endorsements, possible TV/movie roles or make it impossible for her to simply say she was misunderstood when she is proven wrong.

      Notice how she didn't say which vaccines shouldn't be given to children. She just basically said don't trust your pediatrician and just left it to the parents' fear to figure that out.

      --
      These comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my employer or colleagues...
    25. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Wow.

      I don't think I've ever seen a strawman argument played quite so blatantly. I actually had to do a double take when reading that. What the hell does McCarthy have to do with Obama? For all you know duckintheface may just as well take issue with Obama's policies. But you wouldn't know that because he made NO MENTION of Obama at all.

      You may have a valid point, you may even be right. But you negate all of that by being so amazingly off topic (and therefore obviously nothing more than an ideolog looking for a reason to rant about anything that disagrees with your flawed world view).

      if you want to be taken seriously, learn to have adult conversations.

    26. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Joce640k · · Score: 5, Insightful

      She says she'd be OK with a "safe" vaccine.

      Fair enough, let's go with that for a moment:

      How will she decide when a vaccine is "safe"? What science will she use to make that decision...?

      --
      No sig today...
    27. Re:Why do people listen to her? by RoboJ1M · · Score: 1

      "Dimbulbs" is my new favourite plural.

    28. Re:Why do people listen to her? by MrNaz · · Score: 1

      Do you have a citation to that medical paper and a robust dissection of it? It'd be great to know from where all this nonsense started.

      --
      I hate printers.
    29. Re:Why do people listen to her? by es330td · · Score: 1

      I thought the SAG card came with a certificate making the holder an automatic expert on any topic on which he or she chooses to speak. For goodness sake, these are the Beautiful People. Aren't they supposed to be superior at all times?

    30. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Here's something for a start, from the British Medical Journal:

      http://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.c7452

    31. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Let's admit that these two situations are not the same. Obama is now in possession of information that he couldn't get before becoming President. So that may justify the change in his position.

      While McCarthy is in possession of no new information that justifies any change in her position. Other than realizing what everyone else already knew that vaccination is necessary to avoid getting sick.

    32. Re:Why do people listen to her? by S.O.B. · · Score: 1

      ...choose your hobgoblin: The Illuminati, the Jews, the Government, the Man, the Aliens, the Republicans, Ronald MacDonald, the Gecko on the insurance commercials, Gordon Gekko, former President Bush, Condoleeza Rice, Sasquatch, etc.

      Damn you Geiko Gecko! Your constantly changing accent isn't fooling anyone. I've been to tropical countries and I've seen your operatives in my hotel room watching me while I sleep.

      --
      Some of what I say is fact, some is conjecture, the rest I'm just blowing out my ass...you guess.
    33. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMR_vaccine_controversy

      Read all the sources

    34. Re:Why do people listen to her? by gnasher719 · · Score: 2

      The problem is: what constitutes "safe"? You're never going to have something that's completely safe, so it all comes down to probabilities.

      If four million parents in the USA alone take their kids to be vaccinated, I'd be quite sure that some of them will die on their way in traffic accidents. So, just down to probabilities. Of course if you don't vaccinate them they could fall off a step ladder at home (which is a surprisingly high cause of death), so not vaccinating isn't safe either.

    35. Re:Why do people listen to her? by stjobe · · Score: 2
      --
      "Total destruction the only solution" - Bob Marley
    36. Re:Why do people listen to her? by gnasher719 · · Score: 1

      The only issue is: Are existing vaccines safe and could they be made safer?

      The questions are: Is vaccinating a lower risk than not vaccinating? And: By spending the same amount of money, do we get more risk reduction by trying to make vaccines safer, or are there places where the money would be better spent?

    37. Re:Why do people listen to her? by tsqr · · Score: 1

      Why do people listen to her?

      Probably for the same reason they listen to celebrities' opinions on all sorts of things they're unqualified to give advice on, from social issues to reverse mortgages.

    38. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Virtucon · · Score: 2

      It's the blond and tits thing. For some strange reason these seem to hold mysterious powers over people. Frankly she's a retarded douchebag but then again so are about 90% of the celebrities out there.

      --
      Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
    39. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Virtucon · · Score: 1

      Exactly... Not to mention that depending on where you live your kid has a higher chance of death from a drive-by shooting or random stabbing than a vaccination shot.

      --
      Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
    40. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      She claims to be not anti-vax, but her messed up logic makes her effectively anti-vax. You almost have to attack her personally because she doesn't even make a rational argument when you take in everything she is claiming.

      Kind of like saying, I'm not anti-Jew, only anti-bad-people, but I believe all Jews are bad people.. That is some f'd up logic.

    41. Re:Why do people listen to her? by neilo_1701D · · Score: 2

      But that paper was peer reviewed

      Commenting specifically on medical peer review in this case: if you fake your results you can prove anything.

    42. Re:Why do people listen to her? by squiggleslash · · Score: 5, Insightful

      ...which is why we found out it was a fraud.

      I don't think you're making the case you think you're making ;-)

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    43. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I have an autistic son. I agree with some of what is quoted above "too many vaccines, too soon".

      Essentially I believe that it could be harmful for young babies/toddlers to have too many vaccines administered at the same time - 3 vaccines during the same office visit, for example. I can only imagine how many adults would opt for several shots at the same time.

      We don't know what the cause of autism really is, that's the real problem. Autism is nasty, and more often not, permanent.

      My third son went from talking and acting normal to non-verbal for years around the time of his 2 years vaccines. Now, it's likely coincidence. I'm not blaming vaccines - since there is no established link based on current research. But we need to find the cause for autism.

      In the meantime, I've had another child - a baby girl who is great. She is completely fine. But, I've been overly protective and worried that she could become autistic. She is getting her vaccines, but slowly, on MY terms.

      I'm surprised the amount of negativity the community has presented on this subject.

    44. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree with where you're going

      She assumes they're all unsafe because of "unknown" interactions. By her logic, it is impossible to ever know if they're safe. I agree with part of her argument, that the accumulative affects of general safe stuff can be dangerous, but I take it more of the stance of apply that to chemicals. Vaccines are so hugely beneficial that there is no question that we should get them, except in the case of a family history of bad reactions or something similar.

    45. Re:Why do people listen to her? by dave420 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And found to be false. Your point? His data set was from experimentation he performed himself, so it's not as if the data could be shared and different conclusions made. When it comes to climatology, the data sets are shared all over the place, and anyone can check the methodology behind the collection of data, and the conclusions drawn from it. You comparing the two makes you sound as scientifically-illiterate as Jenny McCarthy. Are you happy now?

    46. Re:Why do people listen to her? by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      Her Tatas. She's got 'em, and she's been happy to show them off.

    47. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's because anti-science dumbfucks (there is no kinder word for them) worship celebrities and she is famous.

      The hot has faded but the bimbo remains.

    48. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Won't cite the retracted Wakefield article, but here is the BMJ debunking of it, along with an editorial short version.
      http://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.c5347
      http://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.c7452

    49. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Khyber · · Score: 3, Informative

      " Why bother nit-picking nuances or perceived contradictions in wording."

      Ain't shit perceived. It's plain as fucking day to anyone who's read her bullshit diatribes over the years.

      She's trying to pull back the bullshit she's said.

      " Her general position that she is not against vaccines in general but only against un-safe vaccines is a valid position."

      No, it's back-tracking on her own shilled and uninformed LIES.

      " The only issue is: Are existing vaccines safe and could they be made safer? All else is nonsense."

      Son, we were using MERCURY-BASED VACCINES for decades. I'll guarantee you McCarthy had some of those very vaccines.

      This is pure hypocrisy and back-tracking because her ass has been caught in the biggest lie she's ever lived.

      Whomever modded you up isn't very bright.

      --
      Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
    50. Re:Why do people listen to her? by ceoyoyo · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Peer review isn't meant to assure accuracy. It's a filter to stem the tide of obvious crap. Scientific journals started as letters that scientists wrote to each other. They're the same thing now, except the letters get published centrally. An article in a scientific journal is "hey, look, we did this, and this is what we found."

      Wakefield's paper itself seems to be the honest report of a valid experiment. Since he found something that would have important consequences, it was subsequently examined in depth. Nobody could replicate his results. That can happen, because statistical false positives and honest mistakes happen all the time, but further investigation revealed that Wakefield experimented without ethics approval on his son's friends, cherry picked data, purposely misrepresented data, and had a serious undisclosed conflict of interest in owning a share in and consulting for an alternative vaccine company.

      The Wakefield thing is how science is supposed to work. The public needs to learn that single articles published in scientific journals aren't necessarily correct. In fact, analysis suggests that most of them are not correct.

    51. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Khyber · · Score: 0

      " I have not seen any direct quote from her that indicates an opposition to the principle of vaccines or the efficacy of all vaccines. "

      Then you obviously didn't pay one fucking lick of attention when she was on TV for several years, spewing her medically-unsound bullshit.

      --
      Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
    52. Re:Why do people listen to her? by ceoyoyo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      She has made specific claims about vaccines being unsafe. These claims are wrong, yet she's stuck to them. She's also given medical advice to millions of parents based on these demonstrably wrong claims. Regardless of what she claims her philosophical stance is, she's guilty of gross and willful negligence causing multiple deaths.

    53. Re:Why do people listen to her? by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      And Oprah made both of them.

    54. Re:Why do people listen to her? by FuzzNugget · · Score: 1

      Big tits. Bigger personality.

    55. Re:Why do people listen to her? by LWATCDR · · Score: 2

      Except that vaccines have nothing to do with Autism.
      http://www.scientificamerican....

      It is genetic, which is hard for patents to deal with. It is so much simpler to for a person to blame a big evil company than to hear that they passed on a "defect" to their child.
      Of course the parents are not to blame but that doesn't mean that they will not blame themselves or that others will not blame them.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    56. Re:Why do people listen to her? by azav · · Score: 5, Informative

      The problem is herd immunity.

      If those people are within our "herd" and one of their kids gets infected with ebola-marburg-plague-mumps-pox, then they become a disease transmission vector to the rest of the herd.

      And in that case, everyone who comes in contact with them becomes exposed to it and those who have not yet been immunized against ebola-marburg-plague-mumps-pox, run the risk of getting infected.

      Now, if that was polio, you get crippled and paralyzed.
      If that was mumps, there is no treatment, you suffer and hopefully don't get an additional disease (30% testicular atrophy).
      If that was measles, you get a 4 day whole body rash and a fever up to 104F (40C)
      If that was rubella, it's similar to measles, but slightly less severe.
      If that was varicella, well that's chicken pox and we mostly know what fun that's like. Plus possible scarring for life if the pix is severe + shingles later on in life.

      We all know what little disease transmission factories kinder gardens are.

      The parent who doesn't vaccinate their kids exposes everyone's kids (and their parents) to infection.

      --
      - Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
    57. Re:Why do people listen to her? by interkin3tic · · Score: 1

      A bit off-topic, but I'm pretty sure that if Darwin were alive today, he'd be very frustrated at his name being applied to social situations like this. For one thing, I expect he would have been convinced by Eldredge and Gould and would say till he was blue in the face "that is not how evolution works." For another, he'd likely point out that ignorance is not inherited, and thus this is not selection on any level.

    58. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then again, I just consider it "evolution in action" We are culling the stupid ones (at least their descendants) out of the herd. Self selection makes it ethical. Let her go on speaking. Later some of the survivors can sue her for damage due to medical malpractice. Zwei fliegen mit einer klappe schlagen.

    59. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Enigma2175 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The only thing she knew for sure was that it sucks to have a kid with autism. The rest was crap. She, and a few like her, caused most of the US anti-vax movement.

      And she didn't even know that, because her kid does not have autism.

      --

      Enigma

    60. Re:Why do people listen to her? by interkin3tic · · Score: 1

      It's because the media reports it. They report it as "Hey, you like celebrities! Here's a celebrity saying stuff!" And people watching are unable to separate that from actual information.

      It's part of a much bigger problem. People are unable to separate press statements from reality as well. That's probably the bigger issue.

      The media needs to do some regulating in order for things like this to stop happening. What's really frustrating is they DO decide what is news and what isn't, they'll ignore real stories, they ignore voices in politics that aren't framed in the way they want it to be framed. So for them to act like they're not responsible as they report the news, not make it, is absurd. They could ignore McCarthy and other antivaxers. They don't because it's easier to report shit like that than do actual journalism.

    61. Re:Why do people listen to her? by UnknowingFool · · Score: 4, Interesting

      McCarthy and Carrey said that while they do support immunization, they and their allies believe children receive "too many vaccines, too soon, many of which are toxic."

      Basically when faced with overwhelming facts, McCarthy like many others either double down or move the goal posts. In the beginning of the anti-vax movement, it was "All we ask is someone to do the research on the vaccine." When the initial research came back that no link could be proven it was: "All we ask is someone to look at the thiomersal effects." When more studies came back that thiomersal could not be linked to Austism either it was: "You can't just do epidemiological studies." When Wakefield's paper was retracted due to fraud, it was "They are trying to silence him." They are true believers; anything that goes against their beliefs must be denied.

      In their complete ignorance, McCarthy and others seem to ignore basic facts of medicine. All medication has the possibility of side effects. Vaccines like many other medications has gone under extensive testing before it was released. There still is the possibility of terrible side effects but statistically the vaccine is much safer than the disease and the incidence of side effects are very, very small. Saying that the vaccines need to be safe is like saying that we shouldn't drive cars because they are unsafe.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    62. Re:Why do people listen to her? by BonThomme · · Score: 4, Funny

      Do you have a citation that Jenny has intellectual honesty available for whoring?

    63. Re:Why do people listen to her? by MillerHighLife21 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The main issue in the entire discussion has always been absolutism on both sides. This idea that it's either no vaccines or all vaccines exactly as scheduled. There are times when a child can receive up to 6 vaccines at the same time and that's a little bit shocking. Many parents concerned with so many stories that specifically revolved around MMR asked to have the shots separated into 3 vaccines instead of all in one. They wanted their kids to get the shots, just wanted to do it a little bit slower. That's not unreasonable but the companies stopped producing the separate versions of the vaccines. For a while you could still get it but only if you purchased a 10 pack of each of them, which some parents were still willing to do.

      My kids are fully vaccinated but my wife also works providing therapy for kids with autism every single day and talks to a lot of parents. We hear all of the stories...and there are a lot. Real parents. Parents with masters degrees. Parents who are unwilling to tell you what happened because they don't think you'll believe them. I don't know if there is a connection or not, but there are enough stories from real people (read: not Jenny McCarthy) that it makes you concerned as a parent.

      When our doctor had the kids scheduled to get more than 2 vaccines at a time we got 2 and then scheduled the others for the next month. It meant more doctors visits but our kids got all their shots and it put our concerns at ease. That's not unreasonable. That solves both problems.

      If society in general could simply say, "Look, although we don't have any studies showing the connection between vaccines and autism, we understand you still have concerns. If that is the case, you can do your child's vaccines this way. It will cost more. It will mean more visits to the doctor but your child will get all their shots and it will let you spread things out."

      The current climate of simply yelling at parents and labeling them "anti-vax" for even being concerned is the problem. There is definitely a middle ground but there's a lot more people that seem to just want to insist they're right rather than find a reasonable compromise.

      --
      "Don't teach a man to fish, feed yourself. He's a grown man. Fishing's not that hard." - Ron Swanson
    64. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, not blindly trusting the medicine men seems like a pretty reasonable stance.

      At least to anyone not subscribing to the church of sciencetology. (No, I didn't misspell that. It's called being sarcastic.)

    65. Re:Why do people listen to her? by UnknowingFool · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Essentially I believe that it could be harmful for young babies/toddlers to have too many vaccines administered at the same time - 3 vaccines during the same office visit, for example. I can only imagine how many adults would opt for several shots at the same time.

      I've traveled overseas extensively. Sometimes I need to get 3 or more vaccines for certain areas. I haven't died yet. They most serious side effect was I didn't feel 100% after getting multiple vaccines. I didn't get sick. The flaw in your argument is that you assume your child is the first human ever to get multiple vaccines at once and it hasn't been tested before. It has. The schedule has undergone years of testing before released.

      My third son went from talking and acting normal to non-verbal for years around the time of his 2 years vaccines. Now, it's likely coincidence. I'm not blaming vaccines - since there is no established link based on current research. But we need to find the cause for autism.

      The coincidence is that the vaccine schedule is close to the time when Autism can be first diagnosed in children. When Wakefield's paper first came out, many researchers looked at it because it was the first testable link. It turned out to be fraud though. How much time and research was wasted on chasing fraud? That research could have been spent on real research into the causes.

      I'm surprised the amount of negativity the community has presented on this subject.

      There have been many outbreaks of diseases that could have been prevented due to this nonsense. Some children have died. We should be negative.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    66. Re:Why do people listen to her? by compro01 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Furthermore, if it's rubella and a pregnant woman gets it, the child is likely to have some of an array of birth defects.

      --
      upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
    67. Re:Why do people listen to her? by njnnja · · Score: 1

      I think it is more accurate to say that knowledge is not inherited. But interestingly the correction wouldn't change the veracity of your statement.

    68. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Theovon · · Score: 0

      We’re exposed to environmental toxins CONSTANTLY. Vaccines, we give once every month or so? Wouldn’t it be a more productive use of our energies to clean up our environment and diets?

      Of course, it costs no money to avoid vaccines, and all it requires is a bunch of whining about conspiracies. Eating better and not ruining the planet actually takes EFFORT, something many Americans don’t seem to believe in much.

    69. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Immerman · · Score: 1

      >ignorance is not inherited

      True, but a predisposition toward willful ignorance might be. (ignoring experts in favor of celebrities or authority figures)

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    70. Re:Why do people listen to her? by imikem · · Score: 2

      + Small brain. She should have stuck with the plan of showing her tits, being mildly entertaining, and using her mouth mainly for pleasuring male dangly bits.

      --
      Perscriptio in manibus tabellariorum est.
    71. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Peer review isn't meant to assure accuracy. It's a filter to stem the tide of obvious crap.

      That's not correct. Take the referee guide from Nature.

      The primary purpose of the review is to provide members of the Editorial Board with the information needed to reach a decision. It could also instruct the authors on how they can strengthen their paper to the point where it may be acceptable.

      When writing the review, referees should be mindful that they are assessing the manuscript on technical soundness. Judgements on the importance of a paper will be made after publication.

      To enable rapid and easy decisions we have developed a template approach. The review process will answer the following questions:

      Is the paper technically sound?
      Are the claims convincing? If not, what further evidence is needed?
      Are the claims fully supported by the experimental data?
      Are the claims appropriately discussed in the context of previous literature?
      If the manuscript is unacceptable in its present form, does the study seem sufficiently promising that the authors should be encouraged to consider a resubmission in the future?
      In addition to answering the previous questions, referees can provide further information, including comments that may answer the following:

      Is the manuscript clearly written? If not, how could it be made more accessible?
      Have the authors done themselves justice without overselling their claims?
      Have they been fair in their treatment of previous literature?
      Have they provided sufficient methodological detail that the experiments could be reproduced?
      Is the statistical analysis of the data sound?
      Are there any special ethical concerns arising from the use of animals or human subjects?

    72. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So you just said both of them are ignorant twats but one of them has people to clean up after them so we should believe that ignorant twat but not the other one.

    73. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And, if you want to talk about an Organization that's bigger than any one woman...

    74. Re:Why do people listen to her? by MarkvW · · Score: 0

      But she advocates e-cigarettes.

      Why anyone listens to that self-contradictory fool is beyond me.

    75. Re:Why do people listen to her? by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 0

      But she advocates e-cigarettes.

      And what's wrong with e-cigs? All the nicotine, none of the carcinogens. Sounds like a winner to me (from the pov of someone who has never smoked, and doesn't actually know anyone who still smokes)

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    76. Re:Why do people listen to her? by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 1

      Wot's wrong with reverse mortgages?

    77. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Megol · · Score: 1

      The claims themselves come from a single medical paper published in the late 90's that was eventually proven beyond reasonable doubt to have been a deliberate fraud. The reason for the fraud was to promote a competing vaccine by sowing doubt in the saftey of the existing vaccine formula. Jenny IS the (minor, soft porn) celebrity whoring her intelectual honesty for attention and profit.

      First in what way is her type of acting relevant here? It's a big mistake to think she was a celebrity and people listened to her because of it, in fact most people never heard of her before the promoting of this pseduo-science began.

      Also I don't see any "whoring [of] her intelectual [sic] honesty" either. She obviously believed and still believe that vaccines can be a trigger for autism. In order for this to be dishonest she'd have to say things without believing it and for something to be classified as "whoring" it would require she did this purely for money.

    78. Re:Why do people listen to her? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Interesting

      >ignorance is not inherited

      True, but a predisposition toward willful ignorance might be.

      There is strong evidence that it is. Stupid people have stupid kids, and those kids tend to be nearly as stupid even if adopted and raised by someone else.

    79. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He said "listen" not watch...

    80. Re:Why do people listen to her? by ultranova · · Score: 5, Informative

      In order for this to be dishonest she'd have to say things without believing it

      There's also dishonesty in talking with great conviction about a subject you have inadequate knowledge of.

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

    81. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "I've traveled overseas extensively. Sometimes I need to get 3 or more vaccines for certain areas. I haven't died yet. They most serious side effect was I didn't feel 100% after getting multiple vaccines. I didn't get sick. The flaw in your argument is that you assume your child is the first human ever to get multiple vaccines at once and it hasn't been tested before. It has. The schedule has undergone years of testing before released."

      Actually the flaw in your argument is that everybody reacts identically to all medicine. You read the part about this being my THIRD son right? The other two were vaccinated and had no problems.

      "The coincidence is that the vaccine schedule is close to the time when Autism can be first diagnosed in children. When Wakefield's paper first came out, many researchers looked at it because it was the first testable link. It turned out to be fraud though. How much time and research was wasted on chasing fraud? That research could have been spent on real research into the causes."

      I have a pretty good idea of when autism can be seen, as I raised my son from birth. He LOST the ability to speak - I'd like to find out what happened. I feel that any money or time spent researching any possible like is money well spent, regardless of the outcome. Ten years of seeing what autism is has led me to this.

      "There have been many outbreaks of diseases that could have been prevented due to this nonsense. Some children have died. We should be negative."

      The amount of negativity is interesting to me. Many vaccines are *optional*, others are mandated for public school. We have this choice in this country. The argument of "some children have died" is weak. I could just as well say "some children have lived".

      We should be understanding and helpful.

    82. Re:Why do people listen to her? by ultranova · · Score: 3, Insightful

      knowledge is not inherited.

      Sure it is, just not through DNA. The whole reason we have such long adolescence is to receive cultural inheritance.

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

    83. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      even with a masters degree, they are idiots who do not understand co-incidence, probably business degrees, met a lot of those think they know it all and are as dumb as rocks

    84. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Sique · · Score: 5, Interesting

      There are times when a child can receive up to 6 vaccines at the same time and that's a little bit shocking.

      Yes, they get a preparation that is called Hexavac. It is one shot with six vaccines. It works. And you prefer your child to get six shots? Six times in a doctor's office, six times being pierced, being hurt and feeling dizzy afterwards? I prefer Hexavac everytime (and both my children got it).

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
    85. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Megol · · Score: 1

      But she advocates e-cigarettes.

      Why anyone listens to that self-contradictory fool is beyond me.

      I don't think you understand the word contradict.
      If one wants to use the legal drug called nicotine then one can use cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco, snuff or snus. All these are processed tobacco products which in addition with the nicotine contains a range of other components many which are known or suspected promoters of cancer and other health problems.

      E cigarettes ideally contain a fluid base that is safe, flavoring that is safe and (optionally) nicotine which isn't safe but a know factor. I wrote "ideally" as the market is largely unregulated ATM.

    86. Re:Why do people listen to her? by ultranova · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I can only imagine how many adults would opt for several shots at the same time.

      I did. Why wouldn't I? It's not like actual pathogens act like mooks in a film and come at me one (type) at a time, so if I can't deal with multiple declawed versions at once, I'm dead already.

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

    87. Re:Why do people listen to her? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      It is genetic, which is hard for patents to deal with.

      It is partly genetic. But the causes of autism are complex and poorly understood. If one identical twin is autistic, the other is likely to be, but not always. So there is a strong genetic component, but that is not the sole cause. Autism is also correlated with low birth weight, and poor prenatal nutrition, such as low levels of folic acid. Autism has been correlated with some drugs, such as prenatal exposure to some anti-depressants. One big problem is that autism appears to be most effected by prenatal conditions very early in the pregnancy, before many women even realize that they are knocked up.

      Some things we can do to reduce autism:
      1. Obviously, better education. The causes of autism should be taught in high school health and/or biology classes.
      2. If women are going to drink soda pop instead of fruit juice, maybe we should put the folic acid in the soda.
      3. Provide cheap and widely available pregnancy tests, so women know sooner. The cost of providing these test would be WAY less than the societal costs of dealing with autistic kids.
      4. Develop a prenatal test for autism, so parents can have the option to terminate the pregnancy. Social conservatives will love this.

    88. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Megol · · Score: 1

      She has made specific claims about vaccines being unsafe. These claims are wrong, yet she's stuck to them. She's also given medical advice to millions of parents based on these demonstrably wrong claims. Regardless of what she claims her philosophical stance is, she's guilty of gross and willful negligence causing multiple deaths.

      No. The idiots that listened to unscientific claims and acted according to them indirectly caused deaths.

      What happened with the idea to take responsibility for ones actions?!?

    89. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Immerman · · Score: 1

      Sure, intelligence has a strong genetic component, along with most every other biological attribute. But I would want to see evidence to back any claim that stupidity correlates with willful ignorance - I've known far to many extremely smart people who are willfully ignorant in certain realms.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    90. Re:Why do people listen to her? by MillerHighLife21 · · Score: 2

      As far as my kids were concerned, it was 3 times they got to have a sucker (remember, 2 at a time).

      --
      "Don't teach a man to fish, feed yourself. He's a grown man. Fishing's not that hard." - Ron Swanson
    91. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Bill_the_Engineer · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I think the stories from parents come not from the vaccines doing actual harm but from the fact that coincidentally the age when symptoms of autism presents itself is the same as when the vaccines are scheduled to be administered.

      Other factors that adds to parents concerns are the rate of autism being diagnosed appears to be rising exponentially based on the graph presented by AutismSpeaks: The rate for 1985 was 1 in 2500, the rate in 1995 was 1 in 500, and the rate for 2009 was 1 in 110. If you looked at the text rather than the very prevalent graph you would have read that the criteria for positive diagnosis of autism has changed and public awareness increased significantly during the time period graphed which can make the graph a little misleading.

      AutismSpeaks also gave another possible reason for the increase over the years being attributed to the increase of the average parental age. Several research papers have demonstrated a link between autism and parental age and have concluded that the chances for a child being born with autism increases with parental age.

      (Source: AutismSpeaks)

      --
      These comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my employer or colleagues...
    92. Re:Why do people listen to her? by ahodgson · · Score: 1

      Well, the interest charges will eat up your estate, for one. They're a perfectly valid tool if all your money is in your house, but I doubt their proponents walk people through the economic implications and any alternatives.

    93. Re:Why do people listen to her? by LWATCDR · · Score: 2

      It seems to be largely genetic and starts before birth. http://www.medicalnewstoday.co...

      "1. Obviously, better education. The causes of autism should be taught in high school health and/or biology classes."
      We do not know all of them so sure at some point.
      "2. If women are going to drink soda pop instead of fruit juice, maybe we should put the folic acid in the soda."
      It is already in cereal and bread products. http://womenshealth.gov/public...
      "3. Provide cheap and widely available pregnancy tests, so women know sooner. The cost of providing these test would be WAY less than the societal costs of dealing with autistic kids." They seem pretty cheap to me at least in the US.
      "4. Develop a prenatal test for autism, so parents can have the option to terminate the pregnancy. Social conservatives will love this."
      Wow since autism is not always crippling do you really think this is close to a good or moral idea? Suppose being transgender or even gay was found to be testable would you be okay with that being a reason to terminate a pregnancy? A great number of autistic people now lead happy productive lives if the issue found early enough and they get the right education.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    94. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Aren't those fake to?

    95. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because medicine advances faster than medical ethics and we would rather cling to a conspiracy theory than being told that the chances of having a healthy child decreases as the paternal age increases.

      When we take a chance and give birth to a child at an advanced age, we would like to feel like it is someone else's fault when something goes wrong.

    96. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Funny

      Well, I'd kinda ponder listening to a porn star concerning the validity of a few vaccines for a few select diseases. You can consider that some kind of expertise...

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    97. Re:Why do people listen to her? by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 1

      The only economic implications are "you get X monies per month for Y years, then we kick you out of your house".

      They don't actually come back making you sell off assets to pay interest, do they? Also: interest on someone owning your house. I guess it's low-cost rent.

      Remember: You only need income until you die. After that, whatever you have left is unimportant.

    98. Re:Why do people listen to her? by wagnerrp · · Score: 1

      No. Ignorance is the ability to learn, combined with the lack of knowledge. I suppose you could claim some genetic trait for motivation that prevents you from going out and acquiring knowledge, but that's a bit of a stretch. Stupidity, on the other hand, is the simple inability to learn, and can be inherited, thus the statement, "Ignorance can be fixed, but stupid is forever."

    99. Re:Why do people listen to her? by UnknowingFool · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Actually the flaw in your argument is that everybody reacts identically to all medicine. You read the part about this being my THIRD son right? The other two were vaccinated and had no problems.

      No, that was your flaw. You presented an anecdotal example. I presented a counter example. That also belies what you said: "Essentially I believe that it could be harmful for young babies/toddlers to have too many vaccines administered at the same time - 3 vaccines during the same office visit, for example". You had no qualifiers like "For the most part . . . "

      In fact you even ask for if an adult would opt for multiple vaccines. I presented myself as an example because I've done it. In your statement, you also imply that somehow multiple vaccines at once are unproven or experimental. They are not. The vaccine schedule has been extensively tested. As a parent you don't have to follow it, but questioning it because you think there is no science or testing behind it is another matter.

      I have a pretty good idea of when autism can be seen, as I raised my son from birth. He LOST the ability to speak - I'd like to find out what happened. I feel that any money or time spent researching any possible like is money well spent, regardless of the outcome. Ten years of seeing what autism is has led me to this.

      What I'm saying is that before a certain age, diagnosing Autism can be problematic (as with any neurological testing of children). The time when symptoms start showing is right as the vaccine schedule starts to increase in the number of vaccines. The science behind the causes of Autism is pointing to an abnormal development of certain areas of the brain. The cause is not purely genetic but may be epigenetic as noted by the twin studies. Unfortunately the last ten years of research was hampered by Wakefield and his fraud.

      The amount of negativity is interesting to me. Many vaccines are *optional*, others are mandated for public school. We have this choice in this country. The argument of "some children have died" is weak. I could just as well say "some children have lived".

      The problem is that some of the children died not because the parents had a choice but because someone else chose not vaccinate. Herd immunity exists for a reason. It protects those that cannot be or have not been vaccinated. What do you say to a parent whose child died because of your choices? The negativity for me is that the science has long been established. McCarthy and her denialism has caused so much pain and yet she refuses to take responsibility for what she had done.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    100. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Polio fucked up my sister's whole life. Don't talk about things when you don't have a clue what you're talking about dumbass. I got the vaccine and am fine, she caught polio 2 months before the vaccine reached the public. She spent her entire childhood in hospitals.

    101. Re:Why do people listen to her? by SecurityGuy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Essentially I believe that it could be harmful for young babies/toddlers to have too many vaccines administered at the same time - 3 vaccines during the same office visit, for example. I can only imagine how many adults would opt for several shots at the same time.

      This is exactly the problem. You believe that based on what? This adult would opt for several shots at the same time. Saves me another trip to the doctor and possibly another copay.

      I'm surprised the amount of negativity the community has presented on this subject.

      Irrationality can be very annoying. We have this amazing thing called science that lets us tease truth out of nature, and a vocal subset of the population wants to go back to the dark ages of superstition and fear. This is frustrating when the consequences are entirely predictable, and include helpless kids getting sick or dying.

      But we need to find the cause for autism.

      On that, I couldn't agree more. The Wakefields and McCarthys of the world have done incalculable harm in dragging us down this blind alley.

    102. Re:Why do people listen to her? by gerardrj · · Score: 1

      But some knowledge is inherited, it is called instinct. No-one teaches a wild newborn mammal to locate a teat, they "just know", the brain inherited the specific knowledge via structure encoded in DNA. It seems that evolved traits/behaviors could have been learned/taught behaviors as some point.

      --
      Article X: The powers not delegated... by the Constitution...are reserved...to the people
    103. Re:Why do people listen to her? by wagnerrp · · Score: 2

      And what's wrong with e-cigs? All the nicotine, none of the carcinogens.

      I know I saw a headline just in the past week or two saying that wasn't the case.

    104. Re:Why do people listen to her? by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      If that was mumps, there is no treatment, you suffer and hopefully don't get an additional disease (30% testicular atrophy). . .

      Also note your effects represent best case scenarios. As with any disease they are far worse effects that are possible. For example: mumps --> deafness. Death is also possible.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    105. Re:Why do people listen to her? by cellocgw · · Score: 1

      How unsurprising you posted as AC, given the complete falsehood of everything you wrote.

      Aside from that minor observation (!!)), maybe you could try taking a look at the current, large, polio outbreaks in certain Middle East and African regions due to a lack of innoculations there, for starters.

      --
      https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
    106. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Chewbacon · · Score: 1

      Craig Ferguson had a great bit about this, but used Tom Cruise as an example. "He's an ACTor. Not a DOCtor. They sound similar but are not the same thing!" McCarthy is a bimbo. I'm not sure how you make the connection to doctor from there unless you watch too much Grey's Anatomy.

      --
      Chewbacon
      The Bible is like Wikipedia: written by a bunch of people and verifiable by questionable sources.
    107. Re:Why do people listen to her? by MXB2001 · · Score: 0

      Because of her gigantic silicone breast implants. They are fitted with hypnotic nipples that emit alpha waves and induce a sleep like state in the brain. Of course there was no thought given to shielding her brain (such as it is) from the effect.

      --
      01/01/01
    108. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There does also exist a small % of population that can be severely affected by Polio. For them the vaccine will likely not help them at all, but instead hurt them just the same as if they had caught it. In fact--it would be better for them to risk catching it by chance rather than to infect them with the live vaccine and highly increase their odds of contraction. You think the vaccine protected you? You are likely among the 95% that wouldn't be affected by it whether you caught it by chance or were given it via vaccine.

    109. Re:Why do people listen to her? by wagnerrp · · Score: 1

      What happened with the idea that there can be more than one responsible party?

    110. Re:Why do people listen to her? by silentcoder · · Score: 1

      Not to mention:
      *Measles is fatal in a significant minority of cases - an immune herd rules out those cases being exposed before vaccination.
      *The people most likely to have side effects from vaccination are the ones who also need it most - they are the people who will DIE if they get the REAL thing.

      --
      Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
    111. Re:Why do people listen to her? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Wow since autism is not always crippling do you really think this is close to a good or moral idea?

      It would be a far worse and immoral idea for me to presume that I, or anyone else, has the right to make this decision for other people. It would also be immoral to willfully deprive parents of information about their own child. It should be up to the parents to have the test done or not done, and it should be up to the parents to decide what to do with the results. The bottom line is that if it is not your kid, it is not your decision to make.

    112. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      whale is the last place one should go for information concerning vaccines or anything else for that matter. Check the history of this group for yourself; there are many, many sources that debunk the claims of whale and its ilk.

    113. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "And what's wrong with e-cigs? All the nicotine, none of the carcinogens."

      Why do they ingest nicotine? And why by inhaling? How shallow are their lives that they need a drug to get through their day. Is it REALLY safe. We won't know for decades, after any lasting damage is done. I think it's plain stupid to inhale anything unnecessary. A lot of things you can't control, but why add to the damage?

      But let me break down your questions - "What's wrong with e-cigs?" - We don't know that yet.
      "none of the carcinogens" - We don't know that yet.

      But you're right, those idiots that use them should just keep on keeping on. But they should also remember it was their choice when in the future they get sick from them and a tired society says "Fuck you, you did it to yourself, insurance is not going to fix it for you. Pay for the fix out of your own pocket, or die like the idiot you are".

      My $0.02.

    114. Re:Why do people listen to her? by danlip · · Score: 1

      ignorance is not inherited

      The kind of willful ignorance exhibited by the anti-vax crowd and the christian right is certainly indoctrinated into children by the parents. The children will likely display the same trait as the parent. Certainly some children overcome it, but that is a de novo mutation. Evolution is always statistical, not absolute, and nothing has to be 100%. So if you have 2 populations, and one is less likely to survive than the other because of a trait like this, I think that is a valid invocation of Darwin's name.

    115. Re:Why do people listen to her? by mlw4428 · · Score: 1

      > I have an autistic son.

      Irrelevant.

      > Essentially I believe that it could be harmful for young babies/toddlers to have too many vaccines administered at the same time - 3 vaccines during the same office visit, for example. I can only imagine how many adults would opt for several shots at the same time.

      Your belief is irrelevant unless you have actual, peer reviewed, verifiable studies. Ultimately it's your children so raise them however you want. Just don't get upset if the school doesn't let your kid in the door because you're afraid of something that has been studied heavily and found to not be harmful.

    116. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Copid · · Score: 1

      "Marge, it takes two to lie. One to lie and one to listen."

      -Homer J. Simpson

      --
      An interesting anagram of "BANACH TARSKI" is "BANACH TARSKI BANACH TARSKI"
    117. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That link is an excerpt from a book published in 1957. Hardly tainted by current opinion.

    118. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why does she think that they assume the vaccines don't have any drug interactions? (or adverse effects) They do, and they know about them, and they are all published, and all doctors explain this as part of informed consent. They are very few and mostly minor, which is why the risk-benefit is so good. This is also why it's critical that everyone that can be vaccinated should be, so they can protect those who do have adverse effects and can't take it.

    119. Re:Why do people listen to her? by cyn1c77 · · Score: 1

      Is it because of her advanced medical degree? Her first hand knowledge of the pharmaceutical industry?

      Uh, duh! She has large fake breasts (medical experience), is attractive, was in Playboy and has 1.14 Million twitter followers.

      Obviously she is someone that we should listen to!

    120. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      I thought that, largely because of the autism fears, all the childhood vaccines in the US now do not use thimerosal (the methylmercury-based preservative), but instead have switched to other preservatives to allay these fears.

    121. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Chance of getting infected by Sabin (live) polio vaccine: 1 in 2.5 million
      Chance of getting infected by Salk polio vaccine: 0

      You understand that those numbers are a lot lower than your 5% that would be affected by polio right?

      They're even a lot lower than the roughly 1% of people who get polio who become to one degree or another paralyzed.

      Medical technology has come a long way from the scary articles Ms McBean quoted in 1957.

    122. Re:Why do people listen to her? by MillerHighLife21 · · Score: 1

      I'd agree some of the time. The stories that get your attention are dramatic changes in a very short time span within a few days. When people try to make attributions months out it's a reach. Parents are around their kids every single day. They notice changes immediately.

      Initially, we weren't going to do anything differently. My son was six months old and already babbling, trying to talk in what seemed like whole sentences. Then he got his 6 month shots and stopped completely. Happened immediately. He slept most of the day of the shots and then the next day just stopped trying to talk. Did not utter a word until he was over 2 years old after that and it scared us to death, so from that point on we took precautions and tried to spread things out. It turns out he is apraxic and has been in therapy since he was 2 years old. Did it the age manifestation of apraxia just happen to occur the day after the vaccinations? Maybe...but implying a correlation when the only change outside of the eat/sleep/poop routine was those shots is not exactly hard to do.

      He's 5 now and you'd barely be able to tell anymore and that's mostly due to extensive therapy and early diagnosis. Therapists and teachers notice but most other people don't.

      --
      "Don't teach a man to fish, feed yourself. He's a grown man. Fishing's not that hard." - Ron Swanson
    123. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Irrelevant? Wow. I'm perhaps one of the closest to the topic as it gets. I'm sharing my views of the current situation from someone who has first hand experience. Not only that, but how to handle new vaccines for my new 2 year old daughter after a diagnosed Autistic son.

      Belief is not irrelevant... it's the start of hypothesis. The scientific method can be exhaustive - the fact that we are still doing additional research on this topic is proof of that. I think it's good news the research thus far has called for this to be safe.

      I wouldn't be upset if the school wouldn't let my kids in the door - because they would HAVE their vaccinations. I'm just in favor of vaccinate slowly over time. Each vaccination has side effects - whether it's a sore arm/leg, a headache, or a fever. I'm taking the approach that I'm letting my kids body get over the side effect before introducing additional vaccination.

    124. Re:Why do people listen to her? by seebs · · Score: 1

      I think that's because you're fucking with a well-researched medical procedure based on absolutely no information whatsoever that would show that you have a reason to do so.

      --
      My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
    125. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Scot+Seese · · Score: 1

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      I think that explains it.

      --
      THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK.
    126. Re:Why do people listen to her? by seebs · · Score: 1

      Not really related, there were lots of people using other preservatives already, and long before it was established that Wakefield was commiting deliberate fraud, it was well-established that if something in vaccines was causing autism, it wasn't thimerosal.

      --
      My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
    127. Re:Why do people listen to her? by interkin3tic · · Score: 1

      The kind of willful ignorance exhibited by the anti-vax crowd and the christian right is certainly indoctrinated into children by the parents.

      I hate both of those groups for the troubles they're causing, but lets not in any way shape or form imply that willful ignorance is exclusive to those groups. It's a human trait. This is not just to be PC either: punctuated equilibrium suggests that real change only happens with speciation events and extinctions. There's variation within species, but it's generally just noise that never amounts to much. It's not some individuals within a species are stronger, faster, or smarter than others, it's that some species as a whole give rise to something better, and then they die out.

      Taken as a philosophy, we're more like those people we look down on. Lets not imagine for a moment that we're more highly evolved than them.

    128. Re:Why do people listen to her? by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      Our society recognizes that some people are in trusted positions and need to be held to a higher level of responsibility for their actions as a result. Physicians are sued all the time for giving bad medical advice. That's why they have malpractice insurance. Businessmen, researchers, lawyers, etc, who knowingly lie or are negligent in their professional capacity can also be held responsible. Celebrities who are trusted by a large number of people and insist on giving potentially dangerous advice are no different.

    129. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "porn star"? Is that what flashing your naughty bits in a magazine is to you? Get back on your lawn old man.

    130. Re:Why do people listen to her? by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      But the causes of autism are complex and poorly understood. If one identical twin is autistic, the other is likely to be, but not always.

      There are cases of autism where one twin has severe autism but the other does not. So it's not 100% genetic.

      This is Bridget. She passes her day running her fingers across her computer screen. Locked in her own world, she has spent the past 13 years drifting apart from her identical twin sister, Jenna.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    131. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The main issue in the entire discussion has always been absolutism on both sides. This idea that it's either no vaccines or all vaccines exactly as scheduled. There are times when a child can receive up to 6 vaccines at the same time and that's a little bit shocking.

      I think most people that are "pro-vaccine" would be okay with it if you wanted to simply spread out the shots over a few weeks. Yes, the current schedule includes multiples at once, and is what's approved and what's been most tested, so it's probably smartest to follow that schedule. However, insisting on e.g. receiving them one at a time would probably be viewed, at worst, as being overly cautious, but not particularly risky.

      The PROBLEM is that many people aren't just cautious, they're using their fear of vaccines as a way to delay them, potentially indefinitely. Frequently, when they say they're going to "delay" getting them, often that's code for "until they force me to do it", which could be many years e.g. until they enter school, or maybe their whole lives. That's the real problem -- those poor kids are generally spending years at risk of getting the diseases themselves and/or transmitting it to innocent babies and others with compromised immune systems or for whom the vaccine didn't take for some reason. All because their parents have some irrational fear of the vaccines or their ingredients.

    132. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Titties.

    133. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have a pretty good idea of when autism can be seen, as I raised my son from birth. He LOST the ability to speak - I'd like to find out what happened.

      You probably shouldn't have beaten him about the head so much.

      The argument of "some children have died" is weak. I could just as well say "some children have lived".

      Except that the dead children are still dead and the ones that lived without vaccines were lucky and would still be alive had they been vaccinated.

    134. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What do you think is in the vaccines that would be harmful to give a child all at once? I challenge you to name a substance that your child got less of by receiving multiple different injections instead of just one.

      You are allowing yourself to be biased by stories of autistic children from your wife. Your absolute fear of raising one of those children is allowing you to grasp on to foolish ideas that have no bearing on whether your child will have autism. Then if your child grows up to be fine, you will tell other parents your story and reinforce their foolish ideas as well.

      Meanwhile there are millions of children that got these vaccines all at once and did not develop autism. Yet somehow you ignore those cases.

    135. Re:Why do people listen to her? by davester666 · · Score: 1

      I forget which one is the smart one, but one of her breasts can tell her if it's safe or not.

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    136. Re:Why do people listen to her? by houghi · · Score: 1

      The only issue is: Are existing vaccines safe and could they be made safer?

      No, that is not an issue. It is a typo of questioning that Fox "News" would use.
      A similar question would be "Are kids safe from duckinthefaces rape attempts or should we do more to protect them?"

      What she does now is trying to safe face, while still telling people she wasn't wrong. What she SHOULD do is say "Shit, I was wrong."

      People have been put in danger and proably even died because she told it was unsafe to take vacines and you call that nit-picking? She should be held resposible for what she did and put in jail.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    137. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "How will she decide when a vaccine is "safe"? What science will she use to make that decision...?
      Reply to This Parent Share Flag"

      By what is said on the women's talk shows, of course.

      Sheesh.

    138. Re:Why do people listen to her? by j-beda · · Score: 1

      It is a shame that some parents are scared. I am glad that the research has shown the standard schedules are both safe and effective.

      I hope that this focus on autism and vaccination has not caused such as shift in research focus so that actual causes and possible therapy have not been overlooked.

    139. Re:Why do people listen to her? by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

      Society is all about the population deciding what rights people do and do not have.
      So when does the right of a parent to terminate a life of an embryo/fetus/child end?
      While you may argue that an embryo is not a "person" you must agree that it is alive.
      Is their a term of pregnancy, or viability?
      You are right that it would be immoral for you as an individual to make the rules but it is not imoral for society to create rules.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    140. Re:Why do people listen to her? by OneAhead · · Score: 2

      I don't see how that contradicts GP. The difference between assuring accuracy and stemming the tide of obvious crap lies not in what you're measuring, but in how high you place the bar. Think of it as a spam filter; if you set it too paranoid, you're going to have an unacceptable level of false positives.

    141. Re:Why do people listen to her? by BitterOak · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The problem is herd immunity.

      I agree with you that the problem is "herd immunity", but not in the way you think.

      The problem is in people's perception of the risk vs. benefit of vaccines, and the phrase "herd immunity" does a lot to distort that perception. It suggests that perhaps the risk to an individual getting a vaccine is greater than the benefit to that individual, and the primary reason for the pushing the vaccine on people is for the greater good of the population. First, that isn't true: for pretty much all the standard vaccines people get, the risk to the individual by not getting the vaccine is greater than the risk to the individual by getting it. "Herd immunity" is really a bonus, in that getting a vaccine reduces everyone else's risk of getting the disease as well. However, no reasonable parent is going to subject their child to a risk of harm if the sole benefit is to other people's children, and so placing too much emphasis on "herd immunity" really could be doing more harm than good as it could distort the public perception of the benefits of vaccines for the individuals getting them.

      A second problem is the terminology itself. As anyone in advertising will tell you, word choice can have a profound psychological effect on people's perceptions. The word "herd" in all other usages of which I'm aware applies to livestock, such as cattle. When doctors talk to parents about "immunizing the herd", it suggests, even just subconsciously, that health care professionals see children as livestock, and not human beings. While this may not be true, if parents are already wary of vaccinating their kids, the phrase "herd immunity" certainly won't push them in the direction of wanting to.

      --
      If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
    142. Re:Why do people listen to her? by OneAhead · · Score: 4, Insightful

      And for the lazy readers, here's the webcomic version. ;-)

    143. Re:Why do people listen to her? by gmack · · Score: 1

      Here is the flaw with that thought: Vaccinations are down in some areas but there have been no reductions in the Autism diagnosis rates so the anti vaccination crowd have inadvertently disproved their own theory.

    144. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Boobs? They're store bought. You too can buy them, honk them like a clown's car horn, and avoid all the bat-shit-lunatic moronic thought diarrhea that spews from Ms. McCarthy.

    145. Re:Why do people listen to her? by tachin1 · · Score: 0

      Wow since autism is not always crippling do you really think this is close to a good or moral idea?

      It would be a far worse and immoral idea for me to presume that I, or anyone else, has the right to make this decision for other people. It would also be immoral to willfully deprive parents of information about their own child. It should be up to the parents to have the test done or not done, and it should be up to the parents to decide what to do with the results. The bottom line is that if it is not your kid, it is not your decision to make.

      The reasoning you use is correct, the flaw is that you can't assert that its not somebody else's decision to make and at the same time propose a solution for other people to take.
      I'll argue that making a specific course of action available to others needs to be debated as more than personal choice, otherwise, you would just develop this test yourself and apply it yourself as well, but asking others to create something for you is not about personal choice, that's the thing about living in a society, you cannot leverage the benefits of a society purely for personal gain and ask everyone else to back off. Once available, then its definitely a personal choice.
      In this case, your answer is smarmy in the sense that it objects to the morality of deciding for somebody else while not addressing the morality point raised by the other person.
      (Its a mind trip, I know)

      --
      I'm always right, except when i'm not.
    146. Re:Why do people listen to her? by OneAhead · · Score: 1

      Sorry, submitted to fast. I would like to add that Nature is one of the most selective journals, and that they do expect their referees to set the bar very high, not only in the sense of "assuring accuracy", but also making sure that the research is of such high impact that someone outside the field would want to know about it. This is not the case for the vast majority of peer-reviewed scientific journals.

      On a tangent, there's even a movement away from asking referees to judge impact because it's such a subjective process, and because funding agencies will eventually (hopefully soon) start to realize that journal impact factors are of low relevance compared to citations of individual articles.

    147. Re:Why do people listen to her? by flyingsquid · · Score: 1
      The bitter irony is that she could turn out to be right in a general sense- that the medical establishment are the ones causing the sudden surge in autism. There's a new study just out today that suggests that autism is linked to antidepressant use, with autism rates tripling in boys exposed to antidepressants during the first trimester:

      http://www.cbsnews.com/news/antidepressant-use-in-pregnancy-linked-to-autism-risk-in-boys/

      It's published in the New England Journal of Medicine and given the previous, fraudulent work concerning autism and vaccines, I am guessing that the editors and reviewers took a very, very careful look at the evidence before accepting this paper for publication. As always, correlation does not equal causation, however it provides a good hint of where to look. It would hardly be surprising to find that powerful drugs that alter neurotransmitter levels and expression of growth factors in the brain affect the brain of a developing fetus. Furthermore, the sudden epidemic of autism seems to take off at about the same time doctors start prescribing these drugs to everyone and their dog. If this turns out to be true... we're looking at billions of dollars in liability for the drug companies and the credibility of the psychiatric industry left in shreds.

    148. Re:Why do people listen to her? by gander666 · · Score: 1

      Well put. Wish I had mod points.

      --
      Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress ... but I repeat myself. - Mark T
    149. Re:Why do people listen to her? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      Society is all about the population deciding what rights people do and do not have.

      Society does not decide what rights people have, only whether those rights are recognized.

      So when does the right of a parent to terminate a life of an embryo/fetus/child end?

      In the US, mothers have legal authority to terminate a pregnancy up to 90 days after conception, for any reason. Depending on the state, some restrictions may apply after the first 90 days. Whether this is a "right" or is "moral" is something that people disagree about.

      You are right that it would be immoral for you as an individual to make the rules but it is not imoral for society to create rules.

      In your opinion. Morality is not something that "society" decides, but rather something that each person decides for themselves. Societies/governments decide what is legal, not what is moral.

    150. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah. Sent my son to the floor. Great times. His younger sister got it spread out over four separate visits and she was fine.

      There is ZERO science around way my son was a flopper. There is ZERO science on why my daughter isn't. I wasn't going to not get her vaccinate but I had every reason to wary. I tried something different which itself carried no harm and it worked out dandy. Was it my decision? Hell if I know, but I'd do it again.

      Somewhere between believing a single vaccine will melt your baby's brain and trying to shove as many vaccines into a child as fast as possible, heretics be damned, is a happy place. Either end of the spectrum needs to stop being judgmental cunts.

    151. Re:Why do people listen to her? by markass530 · · Score: 1

      My third son went from talking and acting normal to non-verbal for years around the time of his 2 years vaccines. Now, it's likely coincidence.

      Likely?

    152. Re:Why do people listen to her? by jbburks · · Score: 1

      Aren't they genetic twins?

    153. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      And when she says vaccine makers just need to make safer vaccines, how would she be able to tell?

    154. Re:Why do people listen to her? by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

      "In the US, mothers have legal authority to terminate a pregnancy up to 90 days after conception, for any reason. Depending on the state, some restrictions may apply after the first 90 days. Whether this is a "right" or is "moral" is something that people disagree about."
      That is not an answer but an evasion. If what is right or moral is flexible and you are okay with that then would you have a problem with that times being set to 0? or 180 days? As a member of a democratic society it is up to each member to try and set those laws so that they are moral, right, or at least best for society. If every person decides what is moral or right then it becomes meaningless. Every person is moral and right because nobody does what they feel is not moral, right or at least justified.
      And everyone may be judged as immoral by any individual which opens up a lot of other issues. .

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    155. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I refused to do all the vaccinations at the same time for my kids as their pediatrician demanded. Why not space them out a little? Give the immune system time to work on one type of vaccination at a time. Why overload it with too much to fight and potentially more adjuvants???? (I saw someone go into a full gran mal seizure while getting vaccinated one time with too many sticks at once)

      The doctor fought me tooth and nail! Why does he have so much invested in my kid getting all the shots at once? I will come back. I don't care if I have to spend more time with another office visit and co-pay.

      So he offers to give my kid a shot that has several combined into one shot with less adjuvant. Don't worry, this one is better! They were pushing us and pushing to sign the informed consent release form. I said, "Ok, but just give me a second to check this particular vaccine out". My mistake was not watching my wife. She signed their tablet app and gave consent, before I could even get the google search results back on my smartphone, my kid was already vaccinated. I then got the results back and the vaccine they gave had just been recalled!

      Turns out the ProQuad that she got had TEN TIMES the amount of chicken pox in it than it should. Oops!

      Tell me again why I should trust them?

      This same doctor told me I was an idiot when I discussed the vaccine research that was being done around the Influenza-A virus targeting the M1 protein. Wouldn't it be nice if the M1 vaccine worked? Instead it increased mortality rates for some paradoxical reason. I explained the M1 protein hasn't mutated in the virus since the spanish flu outbreak and is a chance to have a universal vaccine. He told me there "Was no such thing as the M1 protein, and I shouldn't believe everything I read on the internet..."

      My father has a PhD in genetics (I grew up in the lab). My grandfather was a surgeon and chief of staff of several hospitals. I am an engineer and studied Physics/EE. I am not a moron. I have a feeling though that doctors today are "tools of the system", and not really doctors or scientists anymore.

    156. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When an AC's post can have 1 word, "Boobs," and it (rightfully) gets a Score:5, Insightful, you know something is seriously fucked up.

    157. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My kid got the ProQuad vaccination. The doctor practically pushed it on us.
      I couldn't even get the google results back fast enough before they had administered it.

      It was recalled and doctor made a mistake administering it. It had TEN TIMES the dosage of chickenpox in the vaccine.

      We didn't have a fever/seizure issue and she seems fine though.
      This doesn't breed confidence though does it?

      I am all for "sensible" vaccinations.

    158. Re:Why do people listen to her? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      As a member of a democratic society it is up to each member to try and set those laws so that they are moral, right, or at least best for society.

      Absolute hogwash. Just because something is immoral does not imply that it should be illegal. I personally believe that abortion, gambling, drinking, prostitution, etc. are all immoral. But I don't believe that any of them should be illegal. I have no right, and certainly no obligation, to impose my beliefs onto other people.

      Anyway, this is a stupid thread, veering way off-topic, so I am done with it.

    159. Re:Why do people listen to her? by rjstanford · · Score: 1

      Did it the age manifestation of apraxia just happen to occur the day after the vaccinations? Maybe...but implying a correlation when the only change outside of the eat/sleep/poop routine was those shots is not exactly hard to do.

      In fairness, at that point he'd only been alive for 180 days. For the sake of argument, let's assume that this hit randomly and see if we can rule it out.

      For the subset of kids who suffer the same issues as your son, even assuming they could hit at any time during those first six months, the normal CDC schedule of vaccines at birth, 1, 2, 4 and 6 months means that there's a 2.7% chance of the effect hitting on the day of a vaccine. You mention that the affect was the day after the vaccine, so if we could only the same-day and next-day chances, that's covering 5.4% of the child's life.

      Did it the age manifestation of apraxia just happen to occur the day after the vaccinations? Maybe...but implying a correlation when the only change outside of the eat/sleep/poop routine was those shots is not exactly hard to do.

      Those are actually pretty good odds, considering that we rarely hear specific timing about kids affected outside of a normal vaccine schedule. I'm very sorry that your child was affected, and as a parent of two myself thoughts like that scare me as well, but I'm not seeing an evidence of causation here.

      --
      You're special forces then? That's great! I just love your olympics!
    160. Re:Why do people listen to her? by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

      ahh. The evasion of responsibility. If you take no stand you can not be blamed.
      You say that abortion should be legal but what limits do you feel should be placed on it? Ten days? 260 days? Where should the line be? I assume you vote so you will vote for laws or law makes that will set those limits so you are still taking a stand or do you just not vote?
       

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    161. Re:Why do people listen to her? by NoKaOi · · Score: 1

      The problem is herd immunity.

      Is that the only problem? What about the children of the deluded anti-vaxx parents? If parents stupidly expose their children to risk of death (say, encouraging them to play in traffic on the freeway) that's usually considered some form of criminal child abuse. Please explain why this should be any different.

    162. Re:Why do people listen to her? by geekoid · · Score: 1

      no. Darwin will knock at their kids door, and other peoples doors.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    163. Re:Why do people listen to her? by geekoid · · Score: 1

      A) It was published; which is the first step in peer review
      B) Once published it enter the second step of peer review, where is was utterly destroyed.

      So, no. Not like global warming paper sat all.
      Those where published and then verified by 1000's of experts.
      Idiot.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    164. Re:Why do people listen to her? by geekoid · · Score: 2

      For publishing.
      Once it was out in the open, it was destroyed.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    165. Re:Why do people listen to her? by geekoid · · Score: 1

      Ignorance may not be genetically inherited, but there can be selection for it.
      The less educated someone is, the more likely they are to have many children; who will most likely also be ignorant.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    166. Re:Why do people listen to her? by sl149q · · Score: 1

      Science Friday did an excellent interview back in 2008 with a Paul Offet and a concerned parent type.

      She went down the list of objections, he kept giving reasonable replies.

      She asked at one point "how many studies by the pharmaceutical industry or CDC have been done on vaccine loading". The reply "high hundreds to low thousands".

      Her response "I don't believe that."

      Basically NOTHING you can say will convince these people. In the end they simply do not want to believe and will continue to put forth their own arguments.

      http://www.sciencefriday.com/s...

      The whole interview is fascinating, but above exchange is towards the end starting about 15:00.

    167. Re:Why do people listen to her? by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      What's well reasoned and defensible about it? It isn't just that there is no scientific proof of a link between vaccination and autism; the subject has been studied in detail and no link has been found. If there is some sort of correlation, it's really, really weak.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    168. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You realize that simply being born your child was exposed to *many* more pathogens than are included in *any* vaccine right? And on a daily basis that kid will be exposed to hundreds! 3 *whole* vaccines is a f'ing bump in the road by comparison.

    169. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Kalriath · · Score: 2

      You have first-hand experience of having an autistic child. You do not have first-hand experience of vaccines causing autism, because there is no scientific evidence proving that this is possible, and there is literally an entire planet of evidence that it is not.

      Hence it is, and remains, irrelevant that you have an autistic child - unfortunate though that may be.

      --
      For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
    170. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Kalriath · · Score: 1

      Or it's a recessive gene, which does not have a 100% inheritance rate.

      --
      For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
    171. Re:Why do people listen to her? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      Or it's a recessive gene, which does not have a 100% inheritance rate.

      No. They are identical twins. They have exactly the same genes.

    172. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Caesar+Tjalbo · · Score: 1

      Is it because of her advanced medical degree? Her first hand knowledge of the pharmaceutical industry?

      Her artful use of the asterisk.

      --
      "I'm not much interested in interoperability. I want substitutability. I want to be able to throw your software out."
    173. Re:Why do people listen to her? by davester666 · · Score: 1

      One has a little more silicon intelligence than the other.

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    174. Re:Why do people listen to her? by arth1 · · Score: 1

      Ignorance may not be genetically inherited, but there can be selection for it.
      The less educated someone is, the more likely they are to have many children; who will most likely also be ignorant.

      But up until recently, those children would have a greatly reduced chance of reaching adulthood. But due to things like vaccination programs, safe playgrounds and school healthcare, we skew the statistics in favor of the less fit, who now survive at a much higher rate.
      Personally, I don't think this risk reduction is a good thing. It may be for individuals, but not for society, long term. If there's no genetic disadvantage to being stupid, stupidity will flourish.

    175. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We are demanding safe vaccines. We want to reduce the schedule and reduce the toxins.

    176. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Belial6 · · Score: 1

      Including Chicken pox reduces the strength of your argument. Scaring from chicken pox is less of an issue than it is for acne. There is no evidence that getting the vaccine as a child will prevent shingles later on in life. In fact, contrary to what the medical industry was claiming a decade ago, the chicken pox vaccine has proven to not offer life long protection, so not only is it unlikely to prevent shingles, it is unlikely to prevent chicken pox itself later in life. Chicken pox in adults is 10x more dangerous for adults than it is for children. Then we have the herd immunity issue. The vaccinations are reducing our herd immunity against shingles.

      The actual data for sources like the CDC show that we should be letting our kids get chicken pox, and if they don't get it by 14 or 15, THEN we give them the vaccine to prevent adult cases of chicken pox. A follow up vaccination sometime in adulthood and old age would seem appropriate to prevent shingles as well.

      This is why I say that those who claim to be arguing for vaccination are in reality doing the opposite. They lump chicken pox in with things like mumps and polio. Heck, you implied that chicken pox is in the same category as ebola. This does not help convince anyone to get vaccinations for polio, mumps or measles.

      For comparison, home cooked meals are more than 3x as likely to kill you than an entire population of people who have not gotten the chicken pox vaccine.

    177. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Belial6 · · Score: 1

      I would say that it is exactly the opposite. When the anti-anti-vaxxers start getting caught lying about what their super villian has said or done, it makes them look like liers who's position doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Articles like this one are for more influential at convincing people that they should not vaccinate than Jenny McCarthy ever was.

      "Jenny McCarthy is a whore." is not a statment that makes people believe that science is on your side conserning vaccines.

    178. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Belial6 · · Score: 1

      I'll give you one. The chicken pox vaccine. It shouldn't be given to children. It should be used on adults who have did not gain immunity by catching the disease. The numbers on the chicken pox show that adults are 10x more likely to die from chicken pox than children. The numbers on the vaccine show that it does not offer life long immunity. So, we are very likely pushing the disease away from a safe time to get it to one that is 10x more dangerous.

      On top of that, even when you count the adults, you are more than 3x more likely to die from a home cooked meal than you are from chicken pox. There continue to be far more preventable deaths do to residential kitchens than there ever have been for chicken pox. More lives would be saved if the efforts put into chicken pox vaccination were redirected to end the legality of kitchens in residential homes.

    179. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Belial6 · · Score: 1

      More of this kind of thinking needs to happen if we want to get everyone vaccinated with the important vaccines. The anti-anti-vax crowed does more harm to their own cause than Jenny McCarthy ever could. The anti-anti-vax crowd also needs to stop putting mild childhood diseases like chicken pox in the same category as polio. It is our right dishonest and reduces the strength of their argument concerning the more severe diseases.

    180. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Belial6 · · Score: 1

      Seriously, getting six shots instead of one isn't going to kill a kid.

    181. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you are wrong. why are you trying to associate all those who are concerned about vaccine safety with the retracted wakefield study? i suppose it's just a coincidence that corporate media is singing the same song.

      it's not like the medical industry has a history of hiding unfavorable results or anything like that. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/dr-mike-hart/8-reasons-to-get-8-hours-_b_3641973.html

      and it's not like the scientists and doctors haven't made a real mess of things with antibiotics either. http://io9.com/cdc-study-warns-untreatable-gonorrhea-could-spread-like-1543978487

    182. Re:Why do people listen to her? by MillerHighLife21 · · Score: 1

      The one that jumps out at you is aluminum. A number of my wife's families have had tests done when they've reported these types of changes and in every case (not almost...every case) where testing was done both the mother and the child had very high aluminum levels. My best guess is that this can make the child more susceptible to additional aluminum in his system, which is used as a preservative and activator in just about every vaccine. Your body will naturally regulate it out of your system and we bombard our systems with aluminum every day (deodorant, aluminum food packaging, etc) via the adrenal gland.

      Personally I think there are a large combination of factors contributing that could lead to someone being more sensitive to aluminum injected directly. Adrenal fatigue makes it harder to regulate these levels and as a number of pregnant mothers are working farther and farther into their pregnancy while still getting up multiple times throughout the night. I wonder if that's a contributing factor. Additionally, a computer scientist at MIT has used data analysis to link glysophate (the active ingredient in RoundUp) which can actually contribute to preventing aluminum from being removed from the body. Most children with autism have digestive issues of some sort and glysophate has also been indicated as a potential contributing factor for the rise in IBS/Celiac/gluten intolerance that we're seeing today. Many children with autism see behavioral improvements from moving to a gluten free, casein free diet too.

      Clearly, this is all just speculation but it definitely warrants further study. The other thing that is extremely complicated is the studies themselves. There's a physician in Indiana who specializes in Autism that has identified over 340,000 different variations of it based on symptom patterns. He's trying to narrow it down to about 4,600 but the spectrum makes it exceedingly difficult to organize studies just because of the complexity of getting similar control groups together. Most people don't realize that part.

      --
      "Don't teach a man to fish, feed yourself. He's a grown man. Fishing's not that hard." - Ron Swanson
    183. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      The problem is herd immunity.

      If those people are within our "herd" and one of their kids gets infected with ebola-marburg-plague-mumps-pox, then they become a disease transmission vector to the rest of the herd.

      And in that case, everyone who comes in contact with them becomes exposed to it and those who have not yet been immunized against ebola-marburg-plague-mumps-pox, run the risk of getting infected.

      Now, if that was polio, you get crippled and paralyzed.

      Agree 100 percent azav. I'm going to launce int a rant here soon, I just want yo to know it isn't directed at you.

      Let's add whooping cough to that mix. About the time of McCartyism 2's height, I contracted Whooping cough as an adult. I have no proof of course, but I suspect that it was a herd immunity issue. Back when we were not batshit crazy and stupid, and relied on scientist for our science and not people who are famous for taking their clothes off and nothing else, we didn't need recurring pertussis vaccines. Now we do because foolish and stupid assholes listen to McCarthyism 2.

      Folks, you do not want your child to contract whooping cough under any circumstances. The initial "cold" stage comes and goes pretty quickly, but the coughing fits - a little longer. Oh, and the fun begins.....

      The couhh starts oddly enough at the bottom of a breathing cycle. You try to catch a breath, but it's a weird whooping sort of spasm. As you struggle to breathe, the world starts to go brown, red and squiggly. Several times I thought I bought the farm. fortunately, about the time I was blacking out, the spasms relaxed. Not all are as "lucky".

      But allow McCarthyism to give you your marching orders, anti vaxxers, You'll be just as responsible as she is if your child dies from an easily preventable illness. In a world where Jenny McCarthy is respected and admired, and where researchers and scientists are reviled, you'll eventually reap the rewards of your stupidity.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    184. Re:Why do people listen to her? by jerryz51 · · Score: 1

      Great questions. McCarthy's attempt to rewrite her past is purely amazing. As David Brooks of the NYTimes would say, she is living in epistemic closure, a severe information cocoon. To the max and then some. People like her hate science, hate inconvenient truth. They just want to be patted on the head, lied to and told that their worldview, as deluded as it is, is just fine. Ain't biased assimilation great. Just get rid of the facts you do not like.

      Most of the studies which the anti-vaccination crowd quote are hideous, gross, and false. They are pseudo-studies from pseudo-scientists who want to discredit vaccinations for whatever personal reasons. Hey, if you don't like vaccinations, that is great. Just don't lie about it. And don't put the rest of the population at risk.

      Jenny, if you want to "stand in line for the f--king measles", that can be arranged. Hey, polio or Ebola can be arranged, too. :D

      Oh well, as the Austin Lounge Lizards sang, Jenny and her kind swim in "the shallow end of the gene pool." Ugh!

    185. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seems you lot have been easily brainwashed by Big Pharma and their rent a stooge scientists.
      Vaccines are a fraud and in november the us congress's oversight and hearing comittee will hold a hearing on the US national vaccine injury compensation act which bars vaccine injured people from suing vaccine manufactures.

      if vaccines are so safe why cant the public sue them? easy because those who make vaccines run the government and the education department and the hospitals and the science journals, its the wolf guarding the chicken hen they big pharma pay for the studies pay for the government pay for the medical school they control the knowledge that youre allowed to get on vaccine safety.

      Anyway disease was rapidly on the way down BEFORE vaccines.

      Here is the proof:-

      https://childhealthsafety.wordpress.com/graphs/

      Any questions?

    186. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      https://childhealthsafety.wordpress.com/graphs/

    187. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Vaccines are a fraud and in november the us congress's oversight and hearing comittee will hold a hearing on the US national vaccine injury compensation act which bars vaccine injured people from suing vaccine manufactures.

      if vaccines are so safe why cant the public sue them? easy because those who make vaccines run the government and the education department and the hospitals and the science journals, its the wolf guarding the chicken hen they big pharma pay for the studies pay for the government pay for the medical school they control the knowledge that youre allowed to get on vaccine safety.

      https://childhealthsafety.wordpress.com/graphs/

    188. Re:Why do people listen to her? by rjstanford · · Score: 1

      Keep in mind that there's been far less testing on the "fluid base that is safe," and the "flavoring that is safe" (after all, most things haven't been tested inhaled in vapor form) compared to the staggering amount of testing that's been done on vaccines that are safe, that JM believes is nowhere near enough even though they have the added side-effect over e-cigs of protecting millions of people from disease.

      That's where the contradiction comes from.

      --
      You're special forces then? That's great! I just love your olympics!
    189. Re:Why do people listen to her? by stoatwblr · · Score: 1

      Most journals wouldn't allow the kind of claptrap Wakefield foisted on the world without preliminary reviews.

      The Lancet failed miserably at the first hurdle.

      I am still surprised that Wakefield hasn't faced criminal charges (or been sued into oblivion) for the damage he's caused and with any luck someone will take on Jenny McCarthy (endangering public health?)

    190. Re:Why do people listen to her? by stoatwblr · · Score: 1

      Any disease which can badly affect 5% of th epopulation and cripple 1% of those is worth vaccinating against.

      The death rate from Measles is 1 in 9000 and serious complication rate (which range from blindness to brain damage to "confined to an iron lung for the rest of your life") about 1 in 5000.

      I'll take the frigging vcaccine and the 1 in 3millon chance of a reaction, TYVM (Actually, though no choice of my own, I didn't get vaccinated - and have had measles (both types) [local outbreaks whilst I was too young to be vaccinated], mumps, varicella+shingles [no vaccine available at the time for both] and a couple of other nasties. Trust me, you DO NOT WANT 'EM)

      It's no great surprise that the vast majority of antivaxxers havn't suffered the diseases in question, because _their_ parents were sensible enough to vaccinate them.

      Sensible schools _require_ vaccination certificates for children and exclude those who don't have 'em.

    191. Re:Why do people listen to her? by stoatwblr · · Score: 1

      Why would the homecooked meal be more likely to kill the OP than it is for unvaccinated people?

    192. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Forget Andrew Wakefield. It's a red herring. Anyone can read this and follow the links to the sources (except where unscrupulous people have removed them). It's quite clear.

      Vaccination of MMR causes autism

      I expect the normal shouting, insults and moronic tantrums, but hey, I suspect there authors probably got their MMR shots... go figure.

    193. Re:Why do people listen to her? by stoatwblr · · Score: 1

      You might think that the worst effect of chicken pox is "a few scars, like acne", however:

      Complications of chicken pox run at 1 in 100 and include:

      1: Death (yes really!)
      2: pneumonia, meningitis, encephalitis ( inflammation of the brain), inflammation of the heart and toxic shock
      3: Cateracts (the virus can scar there too)
      4: Limb growth problems.
      5: permanent brain damage

      Lest you think these are theoretical: A childhood friend of mine is legally blind thanks to chickenpox when she was 7 years old and the problems are more complex than cataracts.

      So yes, it IS worth vaccinating against.

      FWIW when I got chicken pox as a kid, there were 6 spots. 25 years later when shingles erupted across the left side of my face, medics were quite worried I'd lose an eye (I was lucky, but vision is slightly impaired).

    194. Re:Why do people listen to her? by stoatwblr · · Score: 1

      He was saying it in the 19th century.

      "Survival of the fittest" was misused back in the day to justify mistreatment of workers, etc.

    195. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're totally nuts. Of course, you have not experience with this, you probably don't have children and have no idea what you're talking about.

      I've had all of these except polio and haven't suffered one of your science-fiction-movies-style effects. And the same goes for each of the people that had these diseases at the same time as when we all had it. Now I've got life long immunity and the shot babies don't. To bad some have autism and some have died.

      But, like someone said elsewhere, Darwin rules will ensure your type don't survive....

    196. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're wrong and scientific american (is that an oximoron) is ignoring the facts

      https://childhealthsafety.wordpress.com/2010/06/30/vaccination-causes-autism-%e2%80%93-say-us-government-merck%e2%80%99s-director-of%c2%a0vaccines/

    197. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Really? Quite the opposite: https://childhealthsafety.wordpress.com/2010/06/30/vaccination-causes-autism-%e2%80%93-say-us-government-merck%e2%80%99s-director-of%c2%a0vaccines/

    198. Re:Why do people listen to her? by stoatwblr · · Score: 1

      There's no reason most vaccines can't be combined in the same syringe.

      Even if not: I can clearly remember getting shots at 4 years old. It hurt less than being pinched.

      I had to do a bunch of vaccinations last year for travel. They hurt less than that.

      OTOH Flu shots *throb* for days.

      As far as autism goes, the withdrawing always seems to happen between 2 and 3, regardless of any given country's vaccine schedules. Correlation doesn't imply causality.

    199. Re:Why do people listen to her? by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      Oh I see, your source of information is a blog. Forgive me if I believe the CDC and the WHO. Also your source doesn't understand medicine very well because even they said:

      "We have compensated cases in which children exhibited an encephalopathy, or general brain disease."

      Encephalopathy is not Autism nor linked to Autism. In a very desperate attempt to make any link, the author of the blog is basically making shit up.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    200. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Kalriath · · Score: 1
      --
      For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
    201. Re:Why do people listen to her? by wolja · · Score: 1

      I agree. People who get their medical advice, especially for their kids, from celebrities are destined to have Darwin knock at their door sooner or later.

      Unfortunately it appears there is evolutionary advantage in monomania cause the percentage of dumbarses as a percentage of population ain't declining

      --
      Wolja Future Tombstone: Shit happened then I died
    202. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Belial6 · · Score: 1

      You are lying and that is why so many people don't trust their doctors concerning vaccines. 1 in 100 people do not have the problems you list. My guess is that 1 in 100 people end up with a divot somewhere on their bodies and you are telling the standard lie through statistics by counting every person who has the slightest scare as someone who has a "complication", and then listing complications as "Death" and "brain damage", implicitly claiming that 1 in 100 people who catch chicken pox will die or get brain damage.

      Any talk of shingles is another outright deception. 1) Childhood vaccination for chickenpox is no way established nor even implied by data to protect against adult cases of shingles. Heck, they have not even established that adult cases of chickenpox are not going to increase due to childhood vaccination. So far the data implies their will eventually be an increase. 2) Adult vaccination of people who have had chickenpox has shown a decrease in cases of shingles. 3) While I won't dispute that you may have had a problem, anything beyond discomfort is extremely rare with shingles. At least up until recently, a doctors visit due to shingles resultied in being told to go home, and that while unsightly, it was not dangerous in any way. Shingles only became "dangerous" after the chicken pox vaccine started being offered to adults as a shingles vaccine.

    203. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Belial6 · · Score: 1

      Because more people burn themselves and others to death cooking home cooked meals than the chicken pox kill when the entire population is unvaccinated. Home cooked meals are a 100% preventable death. Even more so than chicken pox, as even in the best case scenerio, the chicken pox vaccine is not 100% effective. People who throw a hissy fit over skipping a chicken pox vaccine, and then proceed to live in homes with kitchens range from ignorant to hypocrates.

    204. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Reread this section "Heritability and socioeconomic status" from your link. It seems far from a clear cut situation. Likely there is some percent of environment and some percent of heritage involved in overall IQ. Which is more important is still being researched and debated.

    205. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Travis+Mansbridge · · Score: 1

      I suspect there authors probably got their MMR shots...

      Where?

    206. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can understand how you would make the assumption about the coincidence in timing. I would think so too, if I didn't have a son with autism who had 2 regressions immediately after (as in the next day) the 2nd and 3rd set of vaccinations, the latter of which he didn't say A SINGLE WORD for 5 months before there was any sign of recovery. Just before that he had been making progress after the previous regression, but before the 2nd set of shots he was actually doing things that non-autistic children do, such as making up a word to say he's hungry.

      At the time I had no idea what autism was, and it wasn't until I went back and watched my numerous home videos and looked up the dates of the shots (which were timed right after coming back from lengthly family vacations) that I realized that what I had been reading from all the anecdotical stories and evidence from parents of children with autism had actually happened in our case as well.

      I'm sorry but there is too much smoke to this fire. The pharmaceutical industry likes to simplify this issue as you are either with us or against us (George Bush style) but the truth is the truly anti-vaccine crowd is tiny compared to the crowd that just wants safer vaccines with less preservatives and heavy metals and a safer vaccine schedule (like we had when we were children).

    207. Re:Why do people listen to her? by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 1

      Is it because of her advanced medical degree? Her first hand knowledge of the pharmaceutical industry?

      That was my immediate reaction as well. I saw some snippet of her on TV once and she seemed to be the canonical blond airhead. What next, people clustering to Professor Pamela Anderson to hear about global warming being a scam?

    208. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Right, well consider this. It happened to my son the very next day after his 2nd and 3rd set of shots. After the latter, he didn't talk for 5 months. After the 2nd, we just noticed general regression.

      There are a lot of similar stories, this why people suspect vaccines play a role, as I do. We don't call for no vaccines, but someone should figure out the link and try to fix it.

    209. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I concur with this in that our son after testing shows high levels of aluminum. Also after putting him on a gluten/casein free diet we noticed large improvements, immediately starting with his sleep.

    210. Re:Why do people listen to her? by Truth_Quark · · Score: 1

      Essentially I believe that it could be harmful for young babies/toddlers to have too many vaccines administered at the same time - 3 vaccines during the same office visit, for example.

      This source notes that:
      1) Autism is not an immune-mediated disease. Unlike autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, there is no evidence of immune activation or inflammatory lesions in the CNS of people with autism [38]. In fact, current data suggest that genetic variation in neuronal circuitry that affects synaptic development might in part account for autistic behavior [39]. Thus, speculation that an exaggerated or inappropriate immune response to vaccina-tion precipitates autism is at variance with current scientific data that address the pathogenesis of autism.
      and
      2) Vaccines do not overwhelm the immune system. Although the infant immune system is relatively naive, it is immediately capable of generating a vast array of protective responses; even conservative estimates predict the capacity to respond to thousands of vaccines simultaneously [30]. Consistent with this theoretical exercise, combinations of vaccines induce immune responses comparable to those given individually[31].

    211. Re:Why do people listen to her? by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      I can understand how you would make the assumption about the coincidence in timing. I would think so too, if I didn't have a son with autism who had 2 regressions immediately after (as in the next day) the 2nd and 3rd set of vaccinations, the latter of which he didn't say A SINGLE WORD for 5 months before there was any sign of recovery. Just before that he had been making progress after the previous regression, but before the 2nd set of shots he was actually doing things that non-autistic children do, such as making up a word to say he's hungry.

      Coincidence != causality. While you want to believe that somehow a vaccine was the difference: ALL science so far suggests that the problem is probably genetic and has nothing to do with vaccines. Research has shown that the rate of Autism was shown to be the same whether or not a child was given the vaccine. While you fervently want to believe that something (like the vaccine) is to blame, the reality is that we simply don't know yet. You want to live in that delusion, that's up to you. Meanwhile, the science continues in trying to find the real culprit. And the science so far has not ruled out that mental regression is completely possible with Autism being possibly epigenetic in nature.

      At the time I had no idea what autism was, and it wasn't until I went back and watched my numerous home videos and looked up the dates of the shots (which were timed right after coming back from lengthly family vacations) that I realized that what I had been reading from all the anecdotical stories and evidence from parents of children with autism had actually happened in our case as well.

      You want to scour your records for answers, go ahead. But that's the torture you create for yourself. Let me be clear with you on this: It wasn't your fault. There's nothing else you could have done. Giving your child vaccines to protect him from diseases was the best thing you could have done. We don't know what causes Autism, but a decade of research says it wasn't any of the vaccines or the schedule or the chemicals in the vaccines that did it. Let's keep looking for the real culprit instead of wasting time on dead ends.

      I'm sorry but there is too much smoke to this fire. The pharmaceutical industry likes to simplify this issue as you are either with us or against us (George Bush style) but the truth is the truly anti-vaccine crowd is tiny compared to the crowd that just wants safer vaccines with less preservatives and heavy metals and a safer vaccine schedule (like we had when we were children).

      I'm not sure how the pharmaceutical industry plays in to this. The pharmaceutical industry generally does not care about vaccines. People may need the same vaccine maybe 3 times in their life. Does the industry make profit off vaccines? Yes, but the industry would rather sell you a pill you need everyday for the rest of your life for a great deal more profit. The people who are pushing for vaccines are bodies like the CDC, the WHO, etc whose goals are to better overall health for everyone. And they have decades of science on their side. So if you feel their way is not correct, present counter evidence. Unfortunately for kooks like McCarthy, she has basically no evidence to the contrary. What she has are her assertions which still remain unsupported.

      This denialism comes up time and time again. Creationists say the same thing about that evolution that it is taught unopposed in science classes. That's because the evidence in science supports evolution not creationism. Evidence supports a round Earth more than 6,000 years old.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  2. McCarthy the Playmate? by ExecutorElassus · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Don't get me wrong, I have no issues with people celebrating human sexuality or whatever, but isn't it a bit ... overindulgent to be treating a former Playboy Playmate as an authority on much of anything, or really caring at all what she says? I get that debunking anti-vaxxers is a good cause and all, but why are we bothering with this anti-vaxxer?

    1. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Because she's loud and obnoxious, and ignoring her doesn't make her go away.

    2. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by flintmecha · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It doesn't matter if she used to be a Playboy model, or if she used to build skyscrapers, or if she used to be a circus performer: the only thing that's relevant is that she's not and never has been a medical professional. She's just as wrong as any other anti-vaxxer, the fact that she posed naked for a magazine doesn't make her more wrong and doesn't specifically have any bearing on what she knows or doesn't know.

    3. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because she is unfortunately being listened to.

      I agree with you, but if the world was logical it wouldn't be listening to her.

      No to vaccines, YES to boob jobs, YES to disgraced / outed Drs. GO Team Jenny/Stagliano/Wakefield.

    4. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by arth1 · · Score: 1, Funny

      It doesn't matter if she used to be a Playboy model, or if she used to build skyscrapers, or if she used to be a circus performer: the only thing that's relevant is that she's not and never has been a medical professional. She's just as wrong as any other anti-vaxxer

      And that all "anti-vaxxers" are wrong is your professional medical experience talking, or are you holding her to standards you don't hold yourself too?

    5. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by Dcnjoe60 · · Score: 1

      It doesn't matter if she used to be a Playboy model, or if she used to build skyscrapers, or if she used to be a circus performer: the only thing that's relevant is that she's not and never has been a medical professional. She's just as wrong as any other anti-vaxxer

      And that all "anti-vaxxers" are wrong is your professional medical experience talking, or are you holding her to standards you don't hold yourself too?

      You don't have to have professional medical experience to accept what medical professionals say about the safety of vaccines any more than you have to have profession cosmology experience to accept what professional cosmologists say about the Big Bang.

    6. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It doesn't matter if she used to be a Playboy model, or if she used to build skyscrapers, or if she used to be a circus performer: the only thing that's relevant is that she's not and never has been a medical professional. She's just as wrong as any other anti-vaxxer

      And that all "anti-vaxxers" are wrong is your professional medical experience talking, or are you holding her to standards you don't hold yourself too?

      arth1 isn't making claims about medical procedures. Jenny McCarthy is.

      It doesn't take an NBA player to know someone just chucked an airball from 6 feet.

    7. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by Jason+Levine · · Score: 4, Insightful

      And, sadly, because too many people seem to listen to her. Call me crazy, but I get my medical advice from medical doctors, not someone whose claim to fame was removing her clothes. I just wish more people were "crazy" like that.

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    8. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The burden of proof is on the claimant.

    9. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It pretty much disqualifies her, just like a tattoo or a lower lip piercing pretty much bans you from jobs where people expect someone who has no obvious history of questionable life choices. In all likelihood, a momentary appearance of intelligence is only a temporary deviation from the base line character. Prejudices exist because they work.

    10. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by fey000 · · Score: 1

      It doesn't matter if she used to be a Playboy model, or if she used to build skyscrapers, or if she used to be a circus performer: the only thing that's relevant is that she's not and never has been a medical professional. She's just as wrong as any other anti-vaxxer

      And that all "anti-vaxxers" are wrong is your professional medical experience talking, or are you holding her to standards you don't hold yourself too?

      If you can tell me how one anti-vaxxer can be wrong while another is not when they hold the same opinion, I would like to be your apprentice.

    11. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      OK this is my professional medical experience talking (I'm a paediatrician): all "anti-vaxxers" are wrong, misinformed, in error from false premise through to wrong conclusion. Satisfied?

    12. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      If we all bow down and worship the medical professionals for their opinions on all things medical, we are fools.

      I have heard, from a recently minted M.D., the opinion that "it doesn't matter if breast cancer screening causes breast cancer, because once we detect it, we can treat it." I, lacking a medical degree, am obviously not smart enough to fathom this reasoning, how we should go around breaking people because we think we know how to fix them later?

    13. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by BlackPignouf · · Score: 1

      Because if boobs were brains, she'd have three Nobel medecine prizes.

    14. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by kimvette · · Score: 2

      Prove that statement, please. ;)

      --
      The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
    15. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by lonOtter · · Score: 1

      It pretty much disqualifies her

      No, it doesn't. No amount of petty nonsense like that would disqualify someone.

      --
      [End Of Line]
    16. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by arth1 · · Score: 1

      If you can tell me how one anti-vaxxer can be wrong while another is not when they hold the same opinion, I would like to be your apprentice.

      It's the reason for the opinion that matters.

      If someone says vaccinations are bad because a small number of vaccinations leads to complications, or bad because vaccines could be better, I'd say the reasoning is flawed.

      If someone says vaccinations are bad because representatives of an imaginary deity says so, I'd say the reasoning isn't just flawed, but completely lacking.

      However, I have a very hard time dismissing the argument that the belief that "all deaths are evil" should be dismissed from the equation as much as any other faith, and that evolution would work faster and lead to an improved species in the long run if we allowed culling of the herd and didn't seek to increase life spans, and that the enormous sums of money spent on medical research and treatments would have more impact for humanity if spent on other sciences.

    17. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've never heard that, but it seems pretty incomplete. First - breast cancer scanning has been going on a while and there
      hasn't been a great worsening in breast cancer. You also need to put numbers behind those statements -

      If the screening procedure causes cancer in 1 in 1,000,000 cases, but detects (and also treatment/cure)
      of 1 in 10,000 cases. then I think it's worth doing.

      obviously if it causes more than it detects (or even less if a substantial fraction/ratio exists) then you should't do it.

      Please cite any relevant studies that shows any significant causal linkage with screening for breast cancer.

    18. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by horza · · Score: 0

      No, you just need to be gullible.

      Doctors have been taking kick-backs for prescribing drugs for years. They have a long historical record of gettings things wrong. Previously using the wrong drugs and killing a bunch of people was not too serious, a number were probably going to die anyway. However something you are giving to an entire generation of healthy children you had better be pretty damn sure there aren't going to be side-effects down the line.

      Phillip.

    19. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by Dragonslicer · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I have heard, from a recently minted M.D., the opinion that "it doesn't matter if breast cancer screening causes breast cancer, because once we detect it, we can treat it." I, lacking a medical degree, am obviously not smart enough to fathom this reasoning, how we should go around breaking people because we think we know how to fix them later?

      Are you trying to say that screening for breast cancer is the only possible cause of breast cancer? Even if screening increases the number of cases by 1% (to use an arbitrary percentage), but reduces the death rate by 75% (to use another arbitrary percentage), that's still a net win.

      It doesn't take a medical professional to understand simple math.

    20. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Suit yourself. I'd just like to note that Jenny McCarthy is a data point supporting the prejudice that nude models shouldn't open their mouths for talking.

    21. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hmm.

      There should be a Nude Nature magazine, where the authors in Nature have to pose in Nude Nature.

    22. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by CanHasDIY · · Score: 2

      You don't have to have professional medical experience to accept what medical professionals say...

      No, you just need to be gullible.

      Doctors have been taking kick-backs for prescribing drugs for years. They have a long historical record of gettings things wrong. Previously using the wrong drugs and killing a bunch of people was not too serious, a number were probably going to die anyway. However something you are giving to an entire generation of healthy children you had better be pretty damn sure there aren't going to be side-effects down the line.

      As much as I hate to admit it - you're right.

      Food for thought: "preventable medical harm" kills or incapacitates more Americans every year (210,000 to 400,000) than homicides (11,000 - 16,000) and auto accidents (30,000 - 35,000) combined.

      That makes medical errors one of the top 3 causes of death in America.

      Definitely something to keep in mind the next time a medical "professional" starts talking down to you because you questioned their "wisdom."

      --
      An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
    23. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by NatasRevol · · Score: 1

      Also, that's a big "if" (screening causes cancer). I'm guessing the MD was trying to make a point about stupid anti-medical opinions.

      Which tails very nicely into this conversation.

      --
      There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
    24. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by lonOtter · · Score: 1

      Dismissing someone because of irrelevancies is intellectually lazy and stupid, even if statistics are on your side. Either debunk their arguments or don't bother.

      --
      [End Of Line]
    25. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by BigZee · · Score: 1

      I think she might have had a brain transplant at some point.

    26. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Like so much on the internet, and in casual philosophical discussions in person, this isn't an evidence based discussion.

      I believe we were talking in hypothetical numbers, and his stated position was that it didn't matter if 1/10 screenings caused cancer, because the cure rate was so much better than 90%, given early detection. I tried back with "what about those who get scanned, get cancer, and don't get rescanned to detect it", his position "that's their fault for not keeping up with it"

      Great, if this is really what they teach in med school, I think we need "black box warnings" on our doctors' offices "Trusting this man's opinion may lead to complications which cause you to spend far more of your life and insurance benefit in this office than you would if you just stayed the hell away."

    27. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      When a medical 'professional' starts talking down to me I usually explain to them I'm a doctor as well and they can cut the bullshit. I usually shuts them up and I get a more intelligent discussion. I just never mention that my ph.d is in physics....

    28. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by interkin3tic · · Score: 1
    29. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by grumpyman · · Score: 1

      Whoa... it is THAT Jenny McCarthy!? So basically, there are moms and dads in US that listen to a ex-porn star for parenting and medical advice?

    30. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Lazy? Yes. Stupid? No. As I said before, prejudices exist because they work. Lazy is good. It allows people to spend their time and energy on things that aren't as easy to decide as "should I listen to the pinup girl?" Posing nude for a magazine is a choice. That choice is not irrelevant. It tells me something about a person's character. I have every right to dismiss her for that and it would be foolish to ignore a correlation as strong as that.

    31. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by darkmeridian · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The problem is that she's the face of the issue. She is not going on TV saying, "I'm Jenny the Playboy Playmate." She's saying, "I'm Jenny the mother who just knows that vaccines aren't what doctors say they are all cracked up to be." That makes her more pernicious than a crackpot who publishes a report saying that thimerosol causes autism. Basically, she's the Bill Nye the Science Guy of the anti-vaccination crowd.

      --
      A NYC lawyer blogs. http://www.chuangblog.com/
    32. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by lonOtter · · Score: 1

      As I said before, prejudices exist because they work.

      Prejudices exist because unintelligent people are too lazy to actually refute their opponent's arguments without resorting to logical fallacies.

      That choice is not irrelevant

      The fact that you think this way is not irrelevant to the validity of your arguments. It tells me something about your character. Therefore, all of your arguments are completely incorrect.

      I have every right to dismiss her for that and it would be foolish to ignore a correlation as strong as that.

      I'm not aware of any correlation, and I never said you don't have that right; just that it's retarded.

      --
      [End Of Line]
    33. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And like her boobs those prizes would be fake.

    34. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by Bill_the_Engineer · · Score: 1

      The appearance of her being singled out may simply be a result of her publicist trying to distance her from the recent outbreak of measles in New York City which generates articles on the internet (like this one on Slashdot) that creates an opportunity for her critics to voice their disdain.

      This is a prime example of living by and dying from the sword.

      --
      These comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my employer or colleagues...
    35. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Call me crazy, but I get my medical advice from medical doctors, not someone whose claim to fame was removing her clothes.

      Ad Hominem. Becoming famous from removing their clothes does not make one's medical opinion invalid.
      Not having any medical training does, and that's why nobody should be listening to Ms McCarthy on the subject of vaccination, not the fact that she has in the past successfully removed her clothes in public.

      If a hot doctor wants to remove her clothes that's fine by me, I'll still listen to her in her field of study. Conversely, if McCarthy wants to talk about removing clothes, I'll listen to her (or would, if I were interested in such endeavours).

    36. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by Tharkkun · · Score: 1

      Because she's loud and obnoxious, and ignoring her doesn't make her go away.

      She's like Michelle Bachmann. Full of Cancer preaching about fixing other diseases.

    37. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by MrLogic17 · · Score: 1

      Because of the deaths she's directly & indirectly caused. All because she needed a reason to explain away her child's mis-diagnosis of autism.

      ttp://jennymccarthybodycount.com

    38. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by j-beda · · Score: 1

      I have heard, from a recently minted M.D., the opinion that "it doesn't matter if breast cancer screening causes breast cancer, because once we detect it, we can treat it." I, lacking a medical degree, am obviously not smart enough to fathom this reasoning, how we should go around breaking people because we think we know how to fix them later?

      Are you trying to say that screening for breast cancer is the only possible cause of breast cancer? Even if screening increases the number of cases by 1% (to use an arbitrary percentage), but reduces the death rate by 75% (to use another arbitrary percentage), that's still a net win.

      It doesn't take a medical professional to understand simple math.

      Unfortunately, the math and the concepts involved in screening decisions is not that simple. There are a number of situations where early or widespread screening can result in greater loss of life, and even more where the costs do not justify the expense. Currently there are debates worldwide over the "best" methods of screening for colon cancer as well as breast cancer because of this. Some factors that come into play for the breast cancer screening is what fraction of the detected cancers would prove to be fatal if untreated? What fraction of those undergoing treatment die due to the treatment (surgery, infection, anesthesia, etc. all have death rates). What is the false positive rate? Going beyond the simple death counting rate - how many "lives saved" should be balanced against the costs (money, time, fear, etc) that the screening produces?

      The results or decisions to widely screen depend on: how common the problem being screened for is; how effective the screening is; what the false positive rate is; what the effectiveness of the treatment is (for both those with and without the condition); what the risks of treatment are (for both those with and without the condition); how dangerous the condition is untreated; how long it takes for the condition to progress; what the demographics of the group potentially being screened are; and a myriad of other factors.

      As we should all know: Math is Hard!

    39. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you think that a pinup girl's opinion on a medical topic like vaccination deserves a response, because her life choices don't disqualify her from rational discourse, then go ahead and refute her arguments. Call it arrogance, call it stupidity, I don't care: If she thought that undressing for Heff was a good idea, I'm not interested in her "good ideas" about anything.

    40. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by lonOtter · · Score: 1

      If you think that a pinup girl's opinion on a medical topic like vaccination deserves a response

      It deserves a response from *someone* because some people actually believe her. She should be refuted, and openly.

      If she thought that undressing for Heff was a good idea, I'm not interested in her "good ideas" about anything.

      She is factually incorrect, but not because she undresses for people. The science is simply not on her side, and refuting her dumb arguments as much as possible by pointing this out is better than using ad hominems.

      --
      [End Of Line]
    41. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      What is the benefit of evolution moving faster? What do you consider an "improved species"? Why should it matter if my immunity to certain diseases is inborn (perhaps at the cost of other things) or supplied externally?

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    42. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by Horatio1337 · · Score: 1

      Because she's loud and obnoxious, and ignoring her doesn't make her go away.

      Ah yes, the famed Sarah Palin axiom.

    43. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by Dcnjoe60 · · Score: 1

      No, you just need to be gullible.

      Doctors have been taking kick-backs for prescribing drugs for years. They have a long historical record of gettings things wrong. Previously using the wrong drugs and killing a bunch of people was not too serious, a number were probably going to die anyway. However something you are giving to an entire generation of healthy children you had better be pretty damn sure there aren't going to be side-effects down the line.

      Phillip.

      I would have to politely disagree. The so called kick backs are to prescribe this drug over that drug (such as one statin over another). Yes it happens all the time. It also happens at the auto dealer, Walmart and the grocery store. That's how marketing works these days.

      However, that doesn't mean if a patient has high cholesterol that the doctor is doing anything wrong, if a statin is warranted, then so be it. With regards to doctors getting things wrong. Yes, they do. They also get things right. A lot of what they get wrong these days would have been lethal a generation or two ago. After all, while medicine is based on science, the practice of it is an art.

      All medications, by the way, have side effects, even the common aspirin. What needs to be determined is whether the risk of side effects outweigh the risk of not taking the medicine. Take the polio vaccine, even if 1/10 of 1% of the kids who received it had a complication, should that mean the other 99.9% should forgo it and risk polio (which the 1/10 of 1% would have risked, too)?

      It's all about probabilities and statistics and a medical professional is better suited to helping a patient decide on a course of action than a former playboy bunny. The reality is that we are very, very good with medicine these days. A few generations ago, when the prognosis was far worse than it would be today, nobody would have questioned a vaccine, even if 10% of the people had bad side effects. Just look at how polio or influenza devastated families and cities. No, this whole issue is because people just take medicine and medical procedures for granted today. Medicine, as much as it has a long way to go, has become that good.

      So you have no doubts, though. Regardless of the medicine, or vaccine or medical procedure, there will always be side effects. Your worry should be whether or not the risk of the side effects outweigh the risk of the treatment. Put differently, just because the fertility rate among couples having unprotected sex is around 20% doesn't mean one should forgo protection. Why? Because the risk if you are in that 20% is quite large. Likewise, with the fraction of a fraction of a percent with vaccines. Complications can occur, but the risk of not being vaccinated is much worse.

      Everything has side effects. Plain and simple.

    44. Re:McCarthy the Playmate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And, sadly, because too many people seem to listen to her.

      I've never read her stuff nor seen her on a TV. However, I don't watch much TV and even less "daytime" TV.

      My only exposure to her is people LIKE YOU complaining about what she said on TV. So you are right, "too many people seem to listen to her." In particular, you.

  3. Brace yourselves. by BVis · · Score: 1, Funny

    Anti-vax zealots are coming.

    --
    Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
    1. Re:Brace yourselves. by arth1 · · Score: 0

      Anti-vax zealots are coming.

      I think you mean anti-wax zealots.
      HTH, HAND.

    2. Re:Brace yourselves. by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      Looking around, there are plenty of zealots on all sides of this issue.

    3. Re:Brace yourselves. by interkin3tic · · Score: 1

      You mean trolls. Real anti-vaxers aren't engaging in debate on or offline anymore than real 9/11 truthers, birthers, racists or homophobes are. Antivaxers write off the internet as in on the conspiracy after they get slapped down once. It feeds into their narrative and manages to convince them more that they're right and being persecuted. They continue to spread their gospel to people who haven't already made up their mind on the subject. To their credit, we're not exactly open-minded about it, talking about it here would be a waste of time for them. Against their credit, there's reason for that.

    4. Re:Brace yourselves. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, can you blame them? Vaxes are total overkill for plenty of problems that PDP-11s can handle just fine. The pro-Vaxers just want your money.

  4. Bloody Idiot by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Speaking as someone who contracted measles before I was inoculated and suffered mild brain damage from the same I can only say this woman is a fucking idiot. Personally I was lucky just to survive! When measles go bad they KILL!!!

    --

    Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

    1. Re:Bloody Idiot by Jason+Levine · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And speaking as the parent of someone who is autistic (and who knows many other parents of kids with autism and also as someone who is likely autistic as well albeit undiagnosed): Even if they proved tomorrow that vaccines cause autism (and that's a very BIG if), I'd still line up for the measles shot. A child with measles might die or have permanent brain damage. A child with autism is still alive - they just have trouble dealing with the neurotypical world and might need more assistance than an NT kid does.

      To paraphrase Penn and Teller: Even if vaccines caused autism - WHICH THEY DON'T - not vaccinating in order to avoid autism would still be stupid.

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    2. Re:Bloody Idiot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Autism" is the new thing. If you want to be trendy you are connected to it in some way.
      I guess it is like how being "lactose intolerant" or eating only "glutten free foods" was a year or so ago.

      How long have we been vaccinating kids for? How long have we known about "autism"? Why are so many people being diagnosed with it now (many self-diagnosed).

      You said yourself, you know many other parents of kids with autism but how about your own age range. Were you not vaccinated the same way your kids were?

      Little Johnny or Sally doesn't behave well, Autism.
      Doesn't do well in school, Autism.

      They tried that crap on my own kid who didnt behave well in school. Instead, I tried more discipline and a stricter policy and now he's a "Straight A" student.

    3. Re:Bloody Idiot by Bigbutt · · Score: 2

      We need an 'Anonymous Idiot' user for some folks apparently.

      Post the links to proof or STFU.

      Google search showed 81 people killed by vaccines in a year but hundreds of thousands are killed by Malaria in a year. Polio killed thousands of people a year. The Spanish Flu killed about 30,000,000 people.

      Herd Immunity: When the English and Spanish came to 'The New World', the native populations were wiped out by Small Pox laden blankets.

      Honestly, just STFU.

      [John]

      --
      Shit better not happen!
    4. Re:Bloody Idiot by wisnoskij · · Score: 1

      But most don't... Walking across the street can cause death or brain injury, but like measles that is a very small risk.

      I think the medical community would agree, if the measles vaccine caused a high rate of autism, it would be far worse than .001% of people who contacted measles suffering permanent damage. They simply would not allow you to make that damaging decision and would label it child abuse.

      Hell, at least some studies into autism would have us believe that actually more people would die in scenario one (from autism related deaths [which have been measured as ten times the national average]) than in scenario two.

      --
      Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
    5. Re:Bloody Idiot by Jason+Levine · · Score: 4, Insightful

      We tried the "more discipline" thing and here's the weird thing about autistic kids, you can't just "threaten/punish the autism out." More discipline didn't work and was, in fact, making the situation worse. So we got a child psychologist to evaluate our son. She spent three hours in his classroom (observing him but pretending to observe the entire class so he wouldn't act any differently). Then, another day, he went to her office and she talked with him for three hours. She produced a detailed report on our son that diagnosed him as having Asperger's Syndrome/High Functioning Autism. We put supports in place to help him and, surprise surprise, they worked. Whereas before he would have daily hour-long meltdowns in school, he is now having them much less frequently and with much less severity.

      My own (admittedly) self-diagnosis came later as we were reading up on Autism to try to better understand our son. I realized that all of these books were describing my own life. I could get a diagnosis, but that would spend money we don't have and wouldn't help either me or my son. So I'm content to remain "undiagnosed" for now.

      As far as why are so many being diagnosed now? It's because of better detection, plain and simple. In the past, many with autism were written off as being "shy" or "weird" or (worse) "retarded." (NOTE: Don't use that last word around a parent of a child with autism. I'm only including it as a reference of what was used in the past.) Furthermore, theories of what causes autism have changed. In the past, mothers were blamed. The so-called "refrigerator mom" theory said that moms who weren't loving enough made their kids autistic. This likely kept many from getting a diagnosis as it would be "proof" that they weren't motherly enough. Furthermore, many autistic individuals were simply hidden away and not talked about or referred to as "Crazy Uncle Joe."

      Nowadays, better diagnosis, more understanding, and available therapies can help people with autism to function in a neurotypical world. Sadly, we still need to deal with people who, in their ignorance of the true nature of autism, think we should just "be given more discipline" or that we'll "grow out of it" or that we're just "excusing bad behavior."

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    6. Re:Bloody Idiot by GoCrazy · · Score: 1

      Interesting comment. However, I think it's detrimental to entertain "if" situations about her inane accusations, because it creates a hypothetical where she's right.

      Let's just keep it at: There is no correlation or medical proof vaccines cause autism, and if you're willing to sacrifice your children because Jenny McCarthy told you so then good riddance to your blood line.

      --
      No beer and no TV make Homer something something
    7. Re:Bloody Idiot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We need an 'Anonymous Idiot' user for some folks apparently.

      Post the links to proof or STFU.

      Google search showed 81 people killed by vaccines in a year but hundreds of thousands are killed by Malaria in a year. Polio killed thousands of people a year. The Spanish Flu killed about 30,000,000 people.

      Herd Immunity: When the English and Spanish came to 'The New World', the native populations were wiped out by Small Pox laden blankets.

      Honestly, just STFU.

      [John]

      That's OK.

      The native populations gave the Europeans syphilis in return.

    8. Re:Bloody Idiot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      who will fucking hate you, well done idiot.

      Not all autism cases are bad enough to need help, milder cases do manage, the present statementing in the UK is now done on basis of need,

      I.e they might have autism but manage OK and are not disadvantaged by it then they do not get statemented.

      if it is affecting there well being and development, then they require help.

      it's not just black and fucking white you dick head.

    9. Re:Bloody Idiot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And, speaking as a parent of two children on the spectrum, you probably haven't dealt with Autism at the level of being basically non-verbal at age 12, not toilet trained until age 7, and "having trouble dealing with the neurotypical world and needing more assistance" translating into your children being physically and mentally abused by the public school system, and shut out of all private schools within 50 miles of your home.

      Autism leads to elopement behavior, in my case (there was no "Autism" diagnosis in the 1970s), I ran away because I was borderline suicidal at age 8 from the abuse I was getting from my peers. Sat on by a boy twice my weight to hold me down so others could hold my arm down in a fire ant pile (sustained roughly 100 bites before I broke away), laughed at by school administrators who said "aren't you just being a crybaby?" and more or less blown off by parents who thought everything would just work itself out. I won't recall here the years of events that piled up in this fashion, but it seemed never-ending and hopeless. And I had "normal" communication skills.

      So, from my perspective, the odds on measles outcomes look pretty damn good. Some kids with Autism die when they run away, and more kids are wishing they would die when they don't.

    10. Re:Bloody Idiot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Parent to son with professionally diagnosed infantile autism, here. We seem to have identical experiences in this regard. Self-diagnosing is always risky, but reading Temple Grandin's books has provided a damn good explanation for all the things that seem to have gone wrong in my childhood and close family.

      Autism is often hereditary and blaming it on vaccines doesn't help. Maybe the rigidity of McCarthy's belief system is an indicator of why her son has similar issues.

    11. Re:Bloody Idiot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Perhaps... Tell me, do we know yet what causes autism?

      Since we don't yet have more than a lukewarm hint of a clue of what might cause autism, how can we say with all certainty that we know what doesn't cause the disease?

      I am from the era where there were no vaccines for measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox,... and the vaccine for polio was just introduced. Of the diseases mentioned, I, my brothers, and everyone I knew had all of the above "childhood" diseases, except for polio, and yet polio is the only one that scares me even now. Kids a couple of years older than me got polio at alarming rates.... Our parents were afraid of summer, public pools, dances, movie theaters, anywhere where children congregated in mass, as that was how/when polio was transmitted. Those that had minor cases of polio are now having the disease reemerge. Those that got full blown polio were usually condemned to spend the rest of their short lives in an iron lung.

      Everybody got those diseases (measles, mumps chickenpox...) back then, and they were by-in-large just annoying rites of passage from childhood into adulthood. The bad outcomes were so few as to be completely unknown to the general population. Everyone knew someone who had contracted polio. We even had a president that lived his adult life with leg braces, paralyzed by polio.

      Oh, yea, and I almost forgot, we all were given St. Josephs baby aspirin when we contracted our diseases, and yet Reyes Syndrome was also completely unknown to the general population...

      Modern medicine has found wonderful cures for diseases that have high risks of terrible outcomes... such as polio... But in the process of finding preventive cures for diseases that have much lower probabilities of bad outcome, it is treading into the realm where the risk of bad outcome from the disease is about the same as the risk of bad outcome from the cure.

      I am highly in favor of vaccines for diseases like polio, but my life experiences don't predispose me to be quite so confident that the others are necessary.

      Show me the cause of autism, and I will lose all suspicion that it might be caused by man's interference with nature. Until then, I have my suspicions.

    12. Re:Bloody Idiot by PhilHibbs · · Score: 1

      I watched that Penn and Teller piece with the glass wall, and although it's entertaining, it's statistically misleading, which is unforgiveable in that context.

      They knocked over a single pin and said that that was representative of any potential link with autism. They then went on to throw balls to represent all the different diseases that vaccines protect against. But the "cost" of all vaccines was only counted once. The "benefit" of vaccine protection was counted dozens of times.

      The implication is that that one pin being knocked over is the only thing that can happen for all of the vaccines against the diseases that they mentioned. Maybe that is statistically representative, I'd like to know. I am pro-vaccine, but I'm also pro-telling-it-straight, which they did not.

    13. Re:Bloody Idiot by cusco · · Score: 4, Informative

      Actually the death rate from measles is 0.1% (US) to 10% (undernourished populations). The risk of complications is much higher than those figures.

      --
      "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
    14. Re:Bloody Idiot by Jason+Levine · · Score: 2

      True. (Penn and Teller's original statement was much more effective than my paraphrasing.)

      My only quibble would be that - were it just the anti-vaxxers' kids' health at stake, I might be able to be convinced that this is a "parental choice" issue. It would still be a tough sell, of course, but it would be within the realm of possibility. The problem is that when an anti-vaxxer doesn't get their kid vaccinated, they are also putting other people at risk - people who can't get the vaccine because of age (babies) or actual medical problems (allergies, immune system issues). These people rely on herd immunity and anti-vaxxers are weakening that to the point of collapse.

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    15. Re:Bloody Idiot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We also need to be careful as to what we label as 'normal' and 'abnormal' aka autism. While I probably don't have anything on the autism spectrum, I've known a lot of incredible intelligent people who are highly functioning, but probably meet the criteria for autism (to some degree). As our society becomes more and more data and information driven and we push for higher and higher levels of reading and mathematical comprehension, autism is likely to continue to increase, simply because we favor the development of it in selection. This has nothing to do with vaccination!

    16. Re:Bloody Idiot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Speaking as someone who contracted measles before I was inoculated and suffered mild brain damage from the same I can only say this woman is a fucking idiot."

      Youve got brain damage and youre calling someone ~else~ an idiot? Youre brain damaged you fucking loon.

    17. Re:Bloody Idiot by Gr8Apes · · Score: 1

      As far as why are so many being diagnosed now? It's because of better detection, plain and simple. In the past, many with autism were written off as being "shy" or "weird" or (worse) "retarded." (NOTE: Don't use that last word around a parent of a child with autism. I'm only including it as a reference of what was used in the past.) Furthermore, theories of what causes autism have changed. In the past, mothers were blamed. The so-called "refrigerator mom" theory said that moms who weren't loving enough made their kids autistic.

      Yes, more are being diagnosed now because it has a) become acceptable to be autistic and b) we have a more encompassing definition of what symptoms are to be called autism, but we still have little clue to the causation. In short, we still have little clue with ASD what it really is and what it's root causes are. Until we do, we're merely acting like the late 1800s physicians and throwing all people with a set of symptoms into a single ASD bucket.

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
    18. Re:Bloody Idiot by dave420 · · Score: 1

      The number of autism diagnoses is increasing, not necessarily the number of autistic people. Please not the difference. This is what happens when diagnosis improves. We've seen the same happen before when all sorts of diseases and conditions are discovered. By your logic AIDS doesn't exist, as before the 1980s no-one was diagnosed with it. See how ridiculous you sound? Probably not.

    19. Re:Bloody Idiot by Jason+Levine · · Score: 1

      I definitely agree that we need to know more about what causes autism. The problem with the anti-vax crowd is that they are trying to force researchers to focus on vaccines (to some degree of success) which takes resources away from finding the real cause.

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    20. Re:Bloody Idiot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Original AC here.

      Been there, done that. The teachers use to complain about his bad behavior so we sent him to a psychologist (same as you).

      The psychologist asked the teachers to fill out a behavior card every day so they could adjust his medication levels.
      Funny, as the same teachers who complained about the ADD/ADHD/Autism didn't want to fill out the card and be part of the solution.

      We eventually took him off the medication ("reformulated" Ritalin to keep the patent alive) and as he aged he "out grew" his bad behavior.

      By the way I'm not saying your child doesn't have Autism, just it seems to be heavily overused. You would be hard pressed to read the paper and not read about how "and the child was autistic" was thrown in. Any time there are behavior, ADD/ADHD type issues they "autism" label comes out.

      Can you say that my one-time really bad behaving son who is now off Ritalin, off child psychologists and a straight A student needed an "autistic" label?

    21. Re:Bloody Idiot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Generally I ignore ppl who resort to "swearing" as it is somewhat useless but here goes.

      Are you asking a question?
      You wrote "Who will...." which implies a question, but i am unable to find one in your sentence.

      I wrote "They tried that crap on my own kid who didnt behave well in school. Instead, I tried more discipline and a stricter policy and now he's a "Straight A" student"

      Doesn't that imply that I agree some cases are serious and others are not? Do you disagree that it is overused? Any time you read about some bad behavior they try to tie it to "Autism".

      Ever look at a chart of autism cases diagnosed per year over the last few years?

      Name calling, the last resort to trying to win an argument with an anonymous coward?

    22. Re:Bloody Idiot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So everyone who buys "gluten free" food suffers from Coeliac disease?
      The instances of Coeliac disease is fairly rare, but the instances of people buying "glueten free" foods is not.

      People want it, and a market creates it even if we (humans) have been eating Gluten for a probably a millennia.

      Autism and "Asperger syndrome" were known for a long time, but haven't been "used" until a recent explosion.

      Calm down, have some kabbalah water and learn to write without resorting to name calling.

    23. Re:Bloody Idiot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually the death rate from measles is 0.1% (US) to 10% (undernourished populations). The risk of complications is much higher than those figures.

      your numbers mean nothing without sources!

    24. Re:Bloody Idiot by Gr8Apes · · Score: 1

      I definitely agree that we need to know more about what causes autism. The problem with the anti-vax crowd is that they are trying to force researchers to focus on vaccines (to some degree of success) which takes resources away from finding the real cause.

      The anti-vax crowd should be segregated from society as a whole, and then exposed to everything they don't want to be vaccinated against "naturally" as there's still polio, measles, mumps, etc out there. Those that survive and are disease free may then rejoin society. I don't think too many would want to take that route.

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
    25. Re:Bloody Idiot by Yaztromo · · Score: 1

      How long have we been vaccinating kids for? How long have we known about "autism"?

      History of Autism

      "Autism" as it is currently used was defined in 1938. The first vaccines were developed in the late 1700s, however, the first of the components of what are now the MMR vaccine were introduced in 1963 with the first measles vaccine (Timeline of Vaccines)

      .

      They tried that crap on my own kid who didnt behave well in school. Instead, I tried more discipline and a stricter policy and now he's a "Straight A" student.

      Really, so how many times a day should I beat my autistic daughter who is completely unable to speak because of her condition? Do you recommend using paddles, straps, or electrocution? Maybe I should just lock her in a closet and feed her a bucket of fish heads once a week? Please Doctor Anonymous, share your wisdom!

      Yaz

    26. Re:Bloody Idiot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      His "who will...." wasn't a question, he meant:
      "more discipline and a stricter policy and now [your kid] will fucking hate you."

    27. Re:Bloody Idiot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      alive & autistic > too dead to care.

    28. Re:Bloody Idiot by GoCrazy · · Score: 1

      it is treading into the realm where the risk of bad outcome from the disease is about the same as the risk of bad outcome from the cure.

      I was listening to an interview with Andrew Wakefield about his discredited study, and he referenced other studies that replicated his research that came to the same conclusion. I set out to find them, but only found studies such as this and this that found no direct causal links between the MMR vaccine and mental illness nor, as a population study, evidence that there was an increase in autism diagonosis after the introduction of the MMR vaccine to the general population in 1971 or an increase of diagonosis after 18 months of age, when the vaccine is administered. I then found a website that cites 28 studies that defend Wakefield's research. However, each one only talks about the underdevelopment of immune systems in children with down syndrome and the dangers of this preexisting condition.

      As it turns out, Wakefield was offered a chance to reconduct his research, but he denied it. Every dead end I've reached leads me to believe he made this up. And it's sad the influence that this type of fraud has on people. I understand that you're suspicious; if I were an adult before this study was discredited I would be too. But the burden of proof is on anti-vaxxers and they have none besides residual suspicion from this discredited study.

      Vaccines make it so that having the measles is no longer a rite of passage. That alone outweighs the "bad outcome" of unfounded suspicion.

      --
      No beer and no TV make Homer something something
    29. Re:Bloody Idiot by micahraleigh · · Score: 1

      You have yet to learn how to be comfortable with your own opinion. Example:

      >> in fact, making the situation worse

      Better/worse is a matter of opinion. Not fact.

    30. Re:Bloody Idiot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Speaking as someone who contracted measles before I was inoculated and suffered mild brain damage from the same I can only say this woman is a fucking idiot. Personally I was lucky just to survive! When measles go bad they KILL!!!

      Wait a minute; you're saying that brain damaged people can post on Slashdot?

  5. We have this incredible habit. by rmdingler · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Habitually, we elevate the opinion of someone unqualified because they are a household name for, well, being famous.

    Mademoiselle McCarthy has as much right as the next parent to be wrong about something, but her point of view should have no more weight attached to it.

    This occurs in politics too, as both sides of the US Congressional aisle have been guilty of courting Hollywood. Seemingly, the entertainment class is more likely to be unbalanced than well informed, and yet, here we are.

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

    1. Re:We have this incredible habit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We are habitual, however no one is questioning the parents with autistic children. Can they be wrong stating the obviouse?
      Also, are all playmates stupid? It's not surprising what a habit it is to judge another.
      The one doctor must be right. Tards...

    2. Re:We have this incredible habit. by rvw · · Score: 1

      Habitually, we elevate the opinion of someone unqualified because they are a household name for, well, being famous.

      Mademoiselle McCarthy has as much right as the next parent to be wrong about something, but her point of view should have no more weight attached to it.

      This occurs in politics too, as both sides of the US Congressional aisle have been guilty of courting Hollywood. Seemingly, the entertainment class is more likely to be unbalanced than well informed, and yet, here we are.

      It's not about logic and facts. It's about identity. We all want to be Jenny McCarthy or her to be our girlfriend.

      The medium is the message!

    3. Re:We have this incredible habit. by bradgoodman · · Score: 4, Funny
      Where do I sign the "opt-out" form for being a part of the "we" in your statement?

      Personally, I follow Dr. McCarthy's advise due to her expertise and credentials, alone.

    4. Re:We have this incredible habit. by cdrudge · · Score: 1

      We all want to be Jenny McCarthy or her to be our girlfriend.

      Speak for yourself. I don't want to be her, nor do I want her to be my girlfriend (or wife or mistress or any other relationship for that matter.)

    5. Re:We have this incredible habit. by squiggleslash · · Score: 1

      It's not about logic and facts. It's about identity. We all want to be Jenny McCarthy or her to be our girlfriend.

      Personally I find stupidity a turn-off.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    6. Re:We have this incredible habit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To quote a previous poster, "Where do I sign the "opt-out" form for being a part of the "we" in your statement?"

      Seriously I need brain bleach to avoid the thought of touching that whore.

  6. Re:Autism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just keep telling yourself that, sperglord.

  7. Its about appearance by sjbe · · Score: 1

    I assume her limited acting engagements got even smaller when film studios realized how badly most people didn't like her because of her anti-vaccine views, putting everyone at risk because she is a moron

    Frankly most people aren't even aware of her views on vaccines and frankly the studios could not care less about such things for the most part. She gets hired for acting gigs largely on the strength of her physical appearance. Nobody is going to mistake her acting ability with that of Meryl Streep. As brutal as it is to say, an aging playmate/model has a short shelf life in Hollywood. It's hard for even very talented actresses to get work in their 40s. It's much harder when their ability to get acting gigs was based on their looks in the first place.

  8. Re:Autism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Even if they were the majority, their inability to lie and to detect someone else is lying would put them at a huge evolutionary disadvantage.

  9. This is an ancient one... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't remember exactly when the move started; but 'mainstream' anti-vaxers switched to the "green our vaccines"/"reduce the toxins"/"too many too soon" line some years ago to help distinguish themselves from the fringe 'Vaccines sully the bodily purity and weaken the vital essences with Aborted Fetus cells and zionist NWO population control schemes!!!' anti-vaxers.

    Shockingly, this move has not led them to embrace any of the vaccines that have been reformulated by popular demand to reduce or eliminate whatever originally had them worried, nor has it led to any apparent interest in working with the toxicology people to determine what level of 'greenness'/'reduced toxins' is acceptable. Nor has there been a rush of interest to vaccinate according to some sort of reduced-pace schedule(though some individual doctors have various ones that they prefer).

    Obviously, it would be hugely unethical and pointlessly cruel to advocate the use of vaccines whose risks outweigh their benefits (and, since vaccination for a selection of potentially-serious childhood diseases, as well as less common but more serious diseases, if we have the vaccine available and you are in a suitable risk group, is so enormously common, this is an area of medicine where studying safety both before and after approval is money well spent); but, despite their rhetorical shift, there appears to be no evidence that the 'We don't hate vaccines, we just want safe ones!' groups are actually at all interested in even setting goalposts that vaccines would have to meet to be accepted, much less reviewing evidence as to whether or not existing vaccines do meet those standards.

    Honestly, I liked them better before their shift. There is a certain intellectual honesty to embracing a position that others see as lunacy and then fighting like a rabid weasel against all evidence. Not a...healthy...kind of intellectual honesty; but a kind of intellectual honesty. Mealy-mouthed disingenuous bullshit, though, lacks that virtue, and aggressively so. Even more cynically, it uses the cause of actual epidemiology, toxicology, and medical monitoring, safety standards, approval protocols, and other (vital) elements of keeping medicine honest and more useful than it is harmful as camouflage for a load of anti-scientific nonsense.

    If they were willing to actually come out with some some sort of target (even if it seems pointlessly low according to current data), they'd just be the cautious wing of an actually scientific exercise in epidemiology and toxicology. As it is, no goals are defined, no data accepted, no improvement is ever good enough. It's pure smokescreen.

    1. Re:This is an ancient one... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      > Obviously, it would be hugely unethical and pointlessly cruel to advocate the use of vaccines whose risks outweigh their benefits

      It also fosters distrust in vaccines when they are deliberately replaced with birth control by national governments.

                                  http://www.salon.com/2013/01/2...

      There are compelling reasons that the attempt to wipe out the last reservoirs of polio among human populations failed. The people scheduled due to be vaccinated were concerned that the vaccine would sterilize them, and it turns out they had _reason_ to be concerned when it turned out the Israelis had done this to Ethiopian Jewish immigrants without their consent or even knowledge. And by the time the people's concerns about vaccine purity and safety could be assuaged, it had expired and was useless.

      So thank you very much, Israel, for screwing up the attempt to eradicate polio from the planet. Jenny McCarthy would be proud of you! from protecting those poor children from autism, too!

    2. Re:This is an ancient one... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Honestly, I liked them better before their shift. There is a certain intellectual honesty to embracing a position that others see as lunacy and then fighting like a rabid weasel against all evidence. Not a...healthy...kind of intellectual honesty; but a kind of intellectual honesty."

      I hear you, this is the same reason I hate the UK's rising far right in parties like UKIP. They pretend they're all good, and not bigoted then of course spout bigoted views. I'd have far more respect for them if they had confidence in their own views to just come out and say "Yep, we're far right, we absolutely hate people just because they're different to us", at least that would mean they're not liars, at least that would mean they have the courage to stand by what they believe in. As it stands they just lie and don't have the guts to stand up for their beliefs in public, they know they hold a minority viewpoint so they try and weasel their way into power via the back door so that they can enforce it on people that way.

      It's the subversiveness of it, the hatred of democracy by them that bothers me, they just want to get their own way not by voicing and arguing for what they believe in, but by lying and pretending they support something more popular to get power so that they can then do what they really believe that was unpopular in the first place.

    3. Re:This is an ancient one... by Jahta · · Score: 1

      Obviously, it would be hugely unethical and pointlessly cruel to advocate the use of vaccines whose risks outweigh their benefits (and, since vaccination for a selection of potentially-serious childhood diseases, as well as less common but more serious diseases, if we have the vaccine available and you are in a suitable risk group, is so enormously common, this is an area of medicine where studying safety both before and after approval is money well spent); but, despite their rhetorical shift, there appears to be no evidence that the 'We don't hate vaccines, we just want safe ones!' groups are actually at all interested in even setting goalposts that vaccines would have to meet to be accepted, much less reviewing evidence as to whether or not existing vaccines do meet those standards.

      The sad reality is that the "we just want safe vaccines" claim is a complete red herring. There is no credible evidence that the vaccines are unsafe. There is abundant evidence that not being vaccinated is highly unsafe; not just to you but also to others you might infect. Serious diseases that had been eradicated in the western world have come back, with disastrous consequences (including death) for people who have become infected.

      I'm no fan of big-pharma but to claim that this is their fault is ridiculous. The responsibility lies with the anti-vaccine zealots, who persist in ignoring all the evidence in front of them.

    4. Re:This is an ancient one... by Jason+Levine · · Score: 2

      I saw the "toxins" shift as more of a response to the rest of their claims being debunked left and right. Every time they claimed something specific (e.g. "mercury in vaccines causes autism!!!"), they would be proven wrong quickly and repeatedly. With the "toxins" claim, they are vague enough that they can't be disproved and yet "toxins" is scary enough of a word to convince some people not to vaccinate. After all, who wants to expose their kids to [scary voice] TOXINS!!! [/scary voice]

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    5. Re:This is an ancient one... by the+gnat · · Score: 2

      There is no credible evidence that the vaccines are unsafe.

      Minor pedantic quibble: some vaccines are unsafe for a very small subset of the population, mainly people with compromised immune systems or severe allergies to components of the vaccines. I'm pretty sure doctors check for this before sticking the needle in. These people are one of the reasons why herd immunity is so important, because the only thing protecting them from certain diseases is the fact that the rest of the population can't act as carriers. Most of us won't be harmed if one of Jenny McCarthy's kids coughs on us, because we've had the shots - but the unlucky few who really can't get vaccinated are screwed.

    6. Re:This is an ancient one... by Jahta · · Score: 1

      There is no credible evidence that the vaccines are unsafe.

      Minor pedantic quibble: some vaccines are unsafe for a very small subset of the population, mainly people with compromised immune systems or severe allergies to components of the vaccines. I'm pretty sure doctors check for this before sticking the needle in. These people are one of the reasons why herd immunity is so important, because the only thing protecting them from certain diseases is the fact that the rest of the population can't act as carriers. Most of us won't be harmed if one of Jenny McCarthy's kids coughs on us, because we've had the shots - but the unlucky few who really can't get vaccinated are screwed.

      Fair point. There's always the possibility of allergic reaction with any medication. What I had meant to say was that there was no credible evidence of a causal link between vaccination and, for example, conditions like autism as the anti-vaccine people claim.

    7. Re:This is an ancient one... by sjbe · · Score: 1

      Minor pedantic quibble: some vaccines are unsafe for a very small subset of the population, mainly people with compromised immune systems or severe allergies to components of the vaccines

      Minor pedantic quibble: ALL vaccines are unsafe for some subset of the population. No drug is 100% safe for all people.

  10. Re:Autism by mfh · · Score: 1

    So you're suggesting that evolution relies upon dishonesty? You're not wrong... but at some point we hit a wall where continued dishonesty creates a threat that puts our species at risk (which is where we are today). To survive as a species we have to uphold honesty as a defacto requirement or we'll simply be culled from history like the dinosaurs.

    --
    The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
  11. Re:Yeah, maybe not now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    She gets booked for her tits, not her views.

  12. Best outcome possible... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, she is trying to rewrite history but the idiots who follow her will still believe that she is right and was right all along. If she attempted to admit being wrong about vaccines then most of her followers would ether stop believing her or decide that the pro-vaccine people threaten her.

  13. They do have a point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    For years they told us that it was safe to use mercury in vaccines. No problem, we were told. Then relatively recently they removed mercury in vaccines. Personally I think reducing toxins in things we ingest is a good idea, but I am 100% in favor of vaccinations.

    Her (new?) position seems to be make vaccines more safe. I'm not sure that is possible to do, or even if current vaccines contain toxins, but it is a laudable goal.

    1. Re:They do have a point by 91degrees · · Score: 5, Informative

      They stopped using Thimerosol because of public pressure; not because of any scientific reason. The mercury level in a dose of a vaccine is less than the amount you might get from eating a tuna steak.

    2. Re:They do have a point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The scary kind of mercury that was in vaccines was there in the exact same sense that the scary kind of chlorine is in table salt.
      My understanding for *why* ethylmercury is no longer used as a preservative is that it's ten parts 'new, more effective preservatives were found' and one part 'surrender to the scaremongers'.
      The argument 'make vaccines more safe' is nonsensical. I mean, is anybody actually arguing the opposite? Is there a group of people pushing to add iocane powder to vaccines? If they have concerns about specific components in vaccines, then the antivaxxers might actually have a valid point. Instead, it's always vague generalities about toxins that we need to beware, which really boils down to "Vaccines are scary!"

    3. Re:They do have a point by the+gnat · · Score: 4, Informative

      The mercury level in a dose of a vaccine is less than the amount you might get from eating a tuna steak.

      It's also in a different form - fish contain methylmercury, which is extremely toxic, while thimerosol is metabolized to ethylmercury, which isn't something you want to have a lot of in your system, but isn't as awful.

    4. Re:They do have a point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They should replace Thimerosol which contains the atom mercury with something that only contains good atoms such as HCN for example. Hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen are good atoms so there's no risk.

    5. Re:They do have a point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://labmed.ascpjournals.org/content/33/9/708.full.pdf

      http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19357975

      and many more.

      No one can say without reasonable doubt but careless commenters on the Internet.

    6. Re:They do have a point by Alsee · · Score: 1

      <Jenny McCarthy>
      My child didn't eat a tuna steak 5 minutes before he was diagnosed with autism!
      </Jenny McCarthy>

      -

      --
      - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
  14. Dear Jenny, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Shut your entitled pie-hole and do some research.

  15. Re:Yeah, maybe not now by Jason+Levine · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Rewriting history is nothing new for people in the anti-vax movement. At first, it was just the MMR which caused autism. (Wakefield's original study - since discredited and proven wrong many, many times.) Then, it was the mercury in vaccines. Then, it was the sheer number of vaccines. Then, it was "toxins" in the vaccines. As each claim was proven wrong, the anti-vax folks moved on to a new claim and declared that scientists had to now prove this new one wrong or they would be "proven" correct. (Never mind that science doesn't work this way. You don't get to make a claim with no evidence and then declare that you are right until people prove you wrong.)

    Moving the goalposts is business as usual for the anti-vax crowd so why shouldn't McCarthy try to rewrite history?

    --
    My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
  16. Fear of autism not that high on survey. by will_die · · Score: 2, Interesting

    There was a recent survey among people who do not vacinate their kids and fear of autism was not high.
    Top reasons given were:
    Would prefer more organic items in the vaccine; or prefer a more natural method of having the kid catch the disease and natural immunization.
    That they were in a good area so the kids would not catch anything.
    Feat of what "big pharma" is doing, how they are misleading people, and cannot be trusted.

    1. Re:Fear of autism not that high on survey. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So, the survey showed that the people who don't vaccinate their kids are just stupid?

    2. Re:Fear of autism not that high on survey. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Yeah, those are still stupid reasons.

      Many people would prefer a vaccine against HIV, no matter what's inside it, but preferences don't make homeopathy a viable source of medicine.

      And they really shouldn't be thinking about these diseases as if they were chicken pox. Many vaccinations are against life-long diseases. Having a kid naturally catch polio means that kid will always have polio. You don't recover from it a week later and become magically immune.

    3. Re:Fear of autism not that high on survey. by Copid · · Score: 2

      Would prefer more organic items in the vaccine; or prefer a more natural method of having the kid catch the disease and natural immunization.

      They need to do what the beauty products industry has done so well: Now with natural coconut extract!

      --
      An interesting anagram of "BANACH TARSKI" is "BANACH TARSKI BANACH TARSKI"
  17. Re:Bloody Idiot-YOU!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    no, YOU are the idiot! YOU are responsible for old diseases coming back to haunt us! NOW SHUT UP!

  18. The vessel matters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The fact of the matter is Ms McCarthy has undue influence in society and she's using it to forward a particularly dangerous point of view which others are following.

    The measles can kill. The flu can kill. Polio can be severely debilitating.

    And no vaccine has ever conclusively been proven to be associated with autism.

    1. Re:The vessel matters by arth1 · · Score: 0

      The measles can kill. The flu can kill. Polio can be severely debilitating.

      Yes, but that does not lead to "... therefore, we should vaccinate".

      If taking faith out of the equation, namely the belief that "all deaths are bad", the picture becomes less clear.

      Is culling of the herd necessarily a bad thing for humanity in the long perspective?
      Is there a plus for humanity to increasing lifespans, or will that slow down evolution?
      Would humanity be better off if we put half of the money that goes to medical science and practice into other sciences?

    2. Re:The vessel matters by PhilHibbs · · Score: 1

      If taking faith out of the equation, namely the belief that "all deaths are bad", the picture becomes less clear.

      Is culling of the herd necessarily a bad thing for humanity in the long perspective?

      Faith is not necessary in order to hold all human life to be precious. As an agnositc-almost-atheist (in that you cannot prove a negative) I am actually rather offended at the suggestion.

    3. Re:The vessel matters by Dragonslicer · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Is culling of the herd necessarily a bad thing for humanity in the long perspective?

      You first.

    4. Re:The vessel matters by arth1 · · Score: 1

      Faith is not necessary in order to hold all human life to be precious. As an agnositc-almost-atheist (in that you cannot prove a negative) I am actually rather offended at the suggestion.

      What's your logical foundation for your belief that all human life is precious?
      It is pure faith, ingrained in you by societal pressure, and that's precisely why you're offended. If it was based on logic, why would you feel offended?
      I don't feel offended if people tell me that Bernoulli forces is all that holds a plane up in the air - I think they're wrong, and can argue it. But offended? No, that requires trampling on a belief.

      Atheists can have faith too. They just don't have faith in deities. But they are usually quite burdened with cultural beliefs that have little rational reasoning behind them, but are taken on faith. Like taboos, and indeed the belief that death is evil.

    5. Re:The vessel matters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The measles can kill. The flu can kill. Polio can be severely debilitating.

      Yes, but that does not lead to "... therefore, we should vaccinate".

      On what planet?

      Let's see:

      1. Diseases such as measles and flu can and do kill.
      2. Such diseases are communicable.
      3. Communicable diseases spread through non-immune populations, causing epidemics and pandemics.
      4. Measles and flu epidemics and pandemics have historically killed tens of millions of people, if not more.
      5. With larger and denser populations today, combined with much more prevalent fast long distance travel, it's reasonable to conclude that a pandemic today could kill hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

      Vaccination prevents all that.

      HOW ON GOD'S GOOD EARTH CAN YOU BE SO DOWNRIGHT FUCKING STUPID TO BE ABLE TO CLAIM that does not lead to "... therefore, we should vaccinate".?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

      WHAT COLOR IS THE SKY ON YOUR PLANET? CUZ IT AIN'T BLUE, YOU FUCKING MORON.

      If taking faith out of the equation, namely the belief that "all deaths are bad", the picture becomes less clear.

      Is culling of the herd necessarily a bad thing for humanity in the long perspective?
      Is there a plus for humanity to increasing lifespans, or will that slow down evolution?
      Would humanity be better off if we put half of the money that goes to medical science and practice into other sciences?

      So you're planning on offing yourself immediately to help "humanity in the long perspective"? Do you plan on shortening your life span so as not to "slow down evolution"?

      I'm guessing not.

    6. Re:The vessel matters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The measles can kill. The flu can kill. Polio can be severely debilitating.

      Yes, but that does not lead to "... therefore, we should vaccinate".

      Go take a look at pictures of little kids with polio, then come back and tell the rest of us that we should not vaccinate against it.

    7. Re:The vessel matters by arth1 · · Score: 1

      Is culling of the herd necessarily a bad thing for humanity in the long perspective?

      You first.

      Culling != suicide.
      I've survived the cullings so far. I survived measles, influenza, climbing trees and navigating traffic. In a while, I'll be old and more of an encumberance than asset to the herd, and I'll be picked off. That's fine with me.

    8. Re:The vessel matters by arth1 · · Score: 0

      Go take a look at pictures of little kids with polio, then come back and tell the rest of us that we should not vaccinate against it.

      When did "think of the children!" become a valid argument on /.?

    9. Re:The vessel matters by Jason+Levine · · Score: 1

      What's your logical foundation for your belief that all human life is precious?

      Suppose we decide that all human life isn't precious. (Not based on religious beliefs, but based on simple human decency.) Are some human lives more valuable than others? According to your logic, we should just let people get measles and if they die they die. What if they have a certain knowledge or talent that many people find useful? Perhaps they are a beloved author or a celebrated scientist who keeps making great discoveries. Maybe the person is a master at getting warring regions to sign even-handed peace treaties or helps the needy. Whatever they do, let's suppose their contributions to society are very important. Do we save them?

      If not, we've lost some huge contributions to society. If so, we're headed down a path where people dictate which people are more important (and thus will be saved) and which people aren't (and thus will die). That's a scary path to go down.

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    10. Re:The vessel matters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Go take a look at pictures of little kids with polio, then come back and tell the rest of us that we should not vaccinate against it.

      When did "think of the children!" become a valid argument on /.?

      Probably about when "Is culling of the herd necessarily a bad thing for humanity in the long perspective" became an argument for allowing diseases to run rampant.

      I note that you have pointedly NOT replied to the post going step-by-step from "[t]he flu can kill" to " therefore, we should vaccinate".

      Hurts to be so blatantly wrong, doesn't it?

    11. Re:The vessel matters by arth1 · · Score: 1

      Suppose we decide that all human life isn't precious. (Not based on religious beliefs, but based on simple human decency.) Are some human lives more valuable than others? According to your logic, we should just let people get measles and if they die they die. What if they have a certain knowledge or talent that many people find useful? Perhaps they are a beloved author or a celebrated scientist who keeps making great discoveries. Maybe the person is a master at getting warring regions to sign even-handed peace treaties or helps the needy. Whatever they do, let's suppose their contributions to society are very important. Do we save them?

      If not, we've lost some huge contributions to society. If so, we're headed down a path where people dictate which people are more important (and thus will be saved) and which people aren't (and thus will die). That's a scary path to go down.

      But that's exactly the path we're on now, where we dictate that those with money or socialized medicine are more important and thus will be saved. If we ban vaccinations, we don't dictate who are more important. It's not our decision anymore then.

      Yes, I say, let people die. We lose some geniuses, but we also lose some bible thumpers. On average, we lose more of those who are less able. That's how culling works.

    12. Re:The vessel matters by arth1 · · Score: 1

      I note that you have pointedly NOT replied to the post going step-by-step from "[t]he flu can kill" to " therefore, we should vaccinate".

      It was answered to a post by a non-AC.
      In short, it's not an acceptable chain because it relies on the unsubstantiated belief that death is inherently bad. I cannot accept that on face value. Back it up with something that doesn't beg the question.

    13. Re:The vessel matters by Copid · · Score: 1

      On average, we lose more of those who are less able.

      But, as you note, who is to say whether that's a good thing or not?

      --
      An interesting anagram of "BANACH TARSKI" is "BANACH TARSKI BANACH TARSKI"
    14. Re:The vessel matters by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      On average, we lose more of those who are less able.

      If the ability you refer to is the ability to survive exposure to certain illnesses without vaccination, why is it worth developing? We've got that covered with the vaccines.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    15. Re:The vessel matters by arth1 · · Score: 1

      On average, we lose more of those who are less able.

      If the ability you refer to is the ability to survive exposure to certain illnesses without vaccination, why is it worth developing? We've got that covered with the vaccines.

      No, what I refer to is that predators and illnesses tend to reap the weakest, increasing the average health of the herd. Inoculation protects the weak as much as the strong, leading to a herd that's on average less healthy than herds subject to predation.

    16. Re:The vessel matters by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      So the average lion prefers to eat people with weak immune systems? I'm not getting this.

      Now, suppose we stopped inoculations, and people started dying of these preventable diseases in large numbers. Would this make the species healthier, or just resistant against threats we've already got handled? Would this select for strong immune systems, and possibly kill people after reproduction age with autoimmune disorders?

      If you want me to go along with killing large numbers of children that we could save, you're going to have to have something more specific than "increasing the average health of the herd".

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    17. Re:The vessel matters by arth1 · · Score: 1

      So the average lion prefers to eat people with weak immune systems? I'm not getting this.

      You cannot see how a virus or bacteria can be considered a predator? Or if you really meant to ask about lions, of course they pick off the weak. It's less work. This leaves the herd's average health better after the predation.

      Now, suppose we stopped inoculations, and people started dying of these preventable diseases in large numbers. Would this make the species healthier, or just resistant against threats we've already got handled?

      Both. Healthier individuals would have a greater chance of survival, and thus a greater chance of passing on their genes. People born with congenital heart failure, asthma or a variety of other conditions would have a higher risk of dying, and less chance of passing on their genes.

      There's a by-country correlation between longevity before and after the Spanish Flu. In countries that got hit, longevity increased. Weaker individuals got culled more than healthier ones, and the net result after a generation is a healthier population.
      Now, we're seeing the opposite. The number of people with defects (like, but in no way limited to, asthma) is going up. We put great effort into keeping the weak alive and able to reproduce. With a very predictable result: the defects flourish when there's no evolutionary disadvantage to having them.

      If you want me to go along with killing large numbers of children that we could save, you're going to have to have something more specific than "increasing the average health of the herd".

      How about the overall human health being at a higher level, so when a new marburg/ebola type virus catch us out of the blue, we have a higher chance of survival?

      How about when the temperature and humidity raises across the globe, and many of us are too weak to survive it?

      Or any number of unforeseen things that may happen, in which a healthier population has less risk of extinction?

      Compassion for the weak and exceptionally strong parental instincts might have been a good survival trait in the past, given our long reproductive cycle. But that's no longer a concern. We're not just a few packs on the African plains struggling to survive despite 9 month pregnancies and 12+ years before becoming reproductive. Every life counted back then.
      We're now billions of people, and propping up the weak is now detrimental to us as a species. A few tens of thousand deaths a year is now a negligible price to pay for humanity as a whole, to reduce the creep towards the average human being less healthy.

    18. Re:The vessel matters by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      As a species, we're going to survive any new series of pandemics, or other global disaster that doesn't just wipe out the planet. We've got genetic diversity and a lot of neat tools, including rational thought. We're not at risk of extinction given a standard extinction event. In such an event, what's going to determine survival is not basic health, but wealth. What we would be selecting for in event of plague is availability of good medical care in a major crisis. What we would be selecting for in a climatic disaster is structurally sound houses, the ability to move somewhere else, resources to counter the effects (like air conditioning), stuff like that.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  19. Autism risk is not a myth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Autism warning is right on the fuckin label for Tripedia.

    Mercury is a known neurotoxin and is proven to kill brain neurons. Keep that shit away from me and my kids. I can't believe we are still debating this today.

    FDA Approved Vaccine with Autism and SIDS Listed as Adverse Events, Vaccine Safety Website Removes Information
    http://vactruth.com/2012/09/18/fda-vaccine-autism-sids/

    1. Re:Autism risk is not a myth by nawcom · · Score: 2

      "Mercury is a known neurotoxin and is proven to kill brain neurons."


      Mercury is a known element that naturally is part of the human body. Look at the FDA thimerosal content of vaccines currently mandated and add them all up (far over what a single person gets from vaccines) - it totals to 239.2 micrograms of mercury. How much mercury is in a newborn of average weight? 303 micrograms. How much mercury is in an average adult? 6 milligrams. Quit spreading this bullshit. Eat some tuna lately? you took in some mercury and you're doing just fine. Yes, there is an unsafe amount, but the fact that remains is the amount in vaccines is minuscule to what the human body manages.

  20. Common Trope by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    This is a common trope of the anti-vaxxers -- continuously claim they want safe vaccines, without ever defining in a quantitative way what "safe" is; just the implication that none of the current vaccines are it.

    1. Re:Common Trope by BonThomme · · Score: 1

      sort of like "family values"

  21. Was never about evidence or logic by sjbe · · Score: 2

    Shockingly, this move has not led them to embrace any of the vaccines that have been reformulated by popular demand to reduce or eliminate whatever originally had them worried, nor has it led to any apparent interest in working with the toxicology people to determine what level of 'greenness'/'reduced toxins' is acceptable

    That's because their objections to vaccines were never based in logic or evidence. Mostly its a combination of conspiracy theory and scientific illiteracy with a bit of confirmation bias and save-the-children thrown in the mix. The same people that would think vaccines cause autism despite there being huge amounts of evidence showing no link whatsoever are the same sort of people who are gullible enough to think homeopathy and other so-called "alternative medicine" is something other than quackery.

  22. NIMBY: Roosting Chickens by cmholm · · Score: 1

    Vaccines are not documented to cause autism. The viruses Jenny doesn't care to vaccinate for are documented to seriously fuck your shit up. We're not talking riding out Chickenpox and the yearly flu. It appears either she or a PR flack have done the math and elected to shoot for some damage control.

    --
    Luke, help me take this mask off ... Just for once, let me butterfly kiss you with my own eyes.
  23. She is correct by paiute · · Score: 2

    She is not against vaccines. She just wants safe vaccines. The fact that no vaccine will ever meet her definition of 'safe' is your problem, not hers.

    --
    If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
    1. Re:She is correct by will_die · · Score: 1

      Actually she has mentioned some vaccine method that were safe.
      Poeple against her have come out and said those vaccine distribution methods were safer however they cost most and would make distribution harder.

    2. Re:She is correct by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Which is why the internet is such a good note taker...

      http://www.buzzfeed.com/ellievhall/11-things-that-jenny-mccarthy-has-said-about-vaccines

      Maybe you should revisit. Sure, she has said to make them safer, but she has broadly said/insinuated that vaccines are the worse option of the two.

  24. Demanding "safe" vaccines by Jason+Levine · · Score: 4, Insightful

    McCarthy is being highly deceitful when she says the only wants "safe" vaccines. What she means by safe is: 100% effective with no side effects and no unexpected reactions in anyone. No medicine ever attains that level of "safe." Not even the aspirin you take for a headache. No, vaccines aren't 100% safe, but they are about 99.999% safe. They are certainly much safer than getting the diseases they prevent. If she wants to wait until something is 100% safe before using it, she would have to avoid all modern medicine. That includes the botox that McCarthy loves getting injected with. (Vaccine toxins are bad but botulinum toxin fights wrinkles so it's good!)

    --
    My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    1. Re:Demanding "safe" vaccines by darkmeridian · · Score: 1

      It's not even that she wants vaccines that are proven to be 100% safe with no side-effects. She wants vaccines that she thinks is 100% safe with no side-effects. There is already significant medical evidence that vaccines are worth the cost-benefit analysis but she just thinks that doctors and big pharma are horrible folk who just want to rip her off.

      --
      A NYC lawyer blogs. http://www.chuangblog.com/
    2. Re:Demanding "safe" vaccines by Tharkkun · · Score: 1

      It's not even that she wants vaccines that are proven to be 100% safe with no side-effects. She wants vaccines that she thinks is 100% safe with no side-effects. There is already significant medical evidence that vaccines are worth the cost-benefit analysis but she just thinks that doctors and big pharma are horrible folk who just want to rip her off.

      Well Doctors and big Pharmaceutical companies do want to rip people off. But that doesn't change how vaccines work.

    3. Re:Demanding "safe" vaccines by oraclejon · · Score: 1

      This article neatly describes why there are "unsafe" ingredients in vaccines:

      Skeptoid.com: Vaccine ingredients

  25. Re:Autism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No, evolution relies on surviving until reproductive age and giving birth to viable offspring. Some amount of lying certainly helps in this two tasks.
    Using deceit for the former is not uncommon everywhere in the animail world, and with our complex mating rituals it helps with the latter too.

    "You're beautiful!" gives you higher chances to reproduce than "Your dress sense is lacking and your ass is too fat".

  26. Appeal to authority is not good enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I have kids, who are both fully vaccinated. However, you can't simply appeal to authority. The medical community is often wrong. Consensus has often been wrong. Historically and recently. The pharmaceutical industry has sold some utter crap to people. It routinely does bad things in the name profit.

    You should not trust or distrust the medical or pharmaceutical industry blindly or frivolously. Of all Ms. McCarthy's flaws inherent distrust of the medical industry is not one of them in my opinion.

    1. Re:Appeal to authority is not good enough by jythie · · Score: 1

      Thing is her distrust goes well beyond a reasonable suspicion. Yeah, the industry makes mistakes and has issues, but she goes to the other extreme and distrusts everything to the point of irrationality.

    2. Re:Appeal to authority is not good enough by horza · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Indeed. Today we are given vaccine shots against typhoid. Before the general medical consensus was to ingest mercury as a cure. Interesting article here. Of course there was the medical backlash and studies to show no links between mercury and poisoning. All wrong. I had mercury fillings in my teeth when I was younger, which I was then told was poisonous and had to be drilled out and replaced. Very pleasant.

      McCarthy has a good point. We can't keep pumping our kids full of these old vaccines without doing regular studies, and using some of the profits to ensure safer versions. Personally I will selectively vaccinate my kids up to a certain age, depending on risk factor, then they can choose themselves. I had both mumps and measles, it was hardly a big deal. If the kids are old enough it's probably even better they get it naturally and get over it than take the vaccine.

      Phillip.

    3. Re:Appeal to authority is not good enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      True, authority figures are not always right and I think you shouldn't be trusting anyone blindly. But everyone knows this already, I think.

      Given the track record of the medical community, and given that they're the best we have, I'd say trusting them is more intelligent than not doing so. Disregarding what they say just because they've been wrong a few times in the past, or because they could be wrong, is not only irrational, but it endangers lives.

    4. Re:Appeal to authority is not good enough by mark_reh · · Score: 5, Informative

      " I had mercury fillings in my teeth when I was younger, which I was then told was poisonous and had to be drilled out and replaced. Very pleasant."

      Whoever told you that was misinformed or lying (maybe they wanted to profit by drilling them out and replacing them). Your fillings weren't "mercury". Your fillings were mercury/silver amalgam. An amalgam is an alloy that forms when mercury reacts chemically with silver. An alloy is a stable chemical compound. It does not spontaneously decompose into its constituents. If it did, your fillings would have dissolved and disappeared long ago.

      Yes, when amalgam fillings are first placed you are exposed to some mercury vapor. That is why the ADA recommends that amalgam fillings should not be placed in small kids or pregnant women.

      Amalgam is a very durable, long lasting restorative material that has been in use for over 100 years. Amalgam restorations normally last much longer than alternative materials such as tooth colored composites which require frequent maintenance/replacement. Did they tell you about that before they drilled out all your "mercury" fillings?

      For the ADA position see latest info summarized here: http://www.ada.org/sections/pr...
      The summary on page 2 says:
      "In the six years since the LSRO report was published the identified research gaps have
      not been completely addressed. However a number of studies have added to the
      growing body of literature on the topic of amalgam safety. The findings of the studies
      published between January 1, 2004 and June 15, 2010 showed no consistent evidence
      of harm associated with dental amalgam fillings, including for infants and children. There
      is some evidence that mercury excretion may be affected by gender. There was no
      evidence demonstrating that some individuals are genetically susceptible to harmful
      effects from exposure to the low doses of mercury associated with dental amalgam
      fillings. Overall, studies continue to support the position that dental amalgam is a safe
      restorative option for both children and adults. When responding to safety concerns it is
      important to make the distinction between known and hypothetical risks. "

    5. Re:Appeal to authority is not good enough by ceoyoyo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yes. You should appeal to scientific evidence. Which is entirely on the side of vaccines. While the precise benefit of things like the flu vaccine in non-vulnerable populations isn't always entirely clear, the risks and benefits of standard childhood vaccines are well studied and well known.

      No, you shouldn't trust random doctors, whether they're on Oprah or not. And you certainly shouldn't trust random Playboy bunnies, whether they're on Oprah or not.

      McCarthy's most important flaws are that she feels the need to give medical advice to millions of people based on absolutely nothing but her own prejudices, which she clings to in the face of overwhelming evidence.

    6. Re:Appeal to authority is not good enough by hypergreatthing · · Score: 2

      Just follow a European schedule.
      It's effective and works. They just wait a little bit longer before a child gets immunized.

    7. Re:Appeal to authority is not good enough by compro01 · · Score: 3, Informative

      "A European schedule"?

      You are aware that Europe contains a great many countries, right?

      And that some countries (e.g. Belgium, Bulgaria) in Europe run faster schedules (vaccinations at 2, 3, and 4 months) than the USA does (which does vaccinations at 2, 4, and 6 months).

      Here's a handy summary of Europe's vaccine schedules. Compare it to the USA's schedule.

      --
      upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
    8. Re:Appeal to authority is not good enough by Alsee · · Score: 2

      I know nothing about the merits (or lack of merits) of a "European schedule" vs any other schedule, but reading your post all I can think is...

      People are screaming that flowers attract fairies and fairies are eating children's brains, to which you reply:
      "Just plant European bushes outside the schools. European flowers don't attract fairies."

      -

      --
      - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
    9. Re:Appeal to authority is not good enough by ArhcAngel · · Score: 0

      Thing is her distrust goes well beyond a reasonable suspicion. Yeah, the industry makes mistakes and has issues, but she goes to the other extreme and distrusts everything to the point of irrationality.

      Are you sure?

      --
      "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
    10. Re:Appeal to authority is not good enough by zildgulf · · Score: 1

      You the phrases "appeal to authority", I do not think it means what you think it means. I think "appeal to authority" is usually an appeal to your superiors, such as political or business leaders, who have no special knowledge in this field, as opposed to referring to proven experts that are outside of vested interests, like the CDC, whose one job is to prevent outbreaks of preventable diseases with the best tools they can get. I do not believe anyone's ignorance, including mine, equals someone else's knowledge.

    11. Re:Appeal to authority is not good enough by mark_reh · · Score: 4, Informative

      I don't understand what you and JM mean by "safer" versions of the vaccines. What data do you have to support the supposed lack of safety of the vaccines?

      If you had measles and mumps and it was no big deal, you were lucky. There are many who are not so lucky. You are making the same mistake JM does- equating a single data point- your personal experience- to a generalized experience. Science/public health doesn't work that way.

      I suggest you look up the potential problems caused by measles, mumps, and the other diseases we vaccinate against before you make statements about how it is better for people to get the diseases than to be vaccinated. These will get you started:
      http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vp...
      http://www.cdc.gov/mumps/about...
      http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vp...

      Ignorance is a choice. Smart people recognize their ignorance and attempt to rectify it. Stupid people choose to remain ignorant. Which are you?

    12. Re:Appeal to authority is not good enough by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Yes, when amalgam fillings are first placed you are exposed to some mercury vapor.

      Yes, but when you die, some of the mercury is always missing. Where did it go? Did it just vanish into the aether? Or was it released from your tooth with hot beverages? I love a hot cup of coffee with extra mercury in the morning, every morning, for the rest of my life. With my 11 silver fillings.

      Amalgam is a very durable

      It's not. It always loses mercury.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    13. Re:Appeal to authority is not good enough by PsychoSlashDot · · Score: 1

      Yes, when amalgam fillings are first placed you are exposed to some mercury vapor.

      Yes, but when you die, some of the mercury is always missing. Where did it go? Did it just vanish into the aether? Or was it released from your tooth with hot beverages? I love a hot cup of coffee with extra mercury in the morning, every morning, for the rest of my life. With my 11 silver fillings.

      Amalgam is a very durable

      It's not. It always loses mercury.

      Just because that's an interesting assertion, I'd be interested in the required citation.

      --
      "Oh no... he found the .sig setting."
    14. Re:Appeal to authority is not good enough by Algae_94 · · Score: 1

      Oh, go eat a can of Tuna.

    15. Re:Appeal to authority is not good enough by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Just because that's an interesting assertion, I'd be interested in the required citation.

      You can begin your introduction to the back and forth here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D... :)

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    16. Re:Appeal to authority is not good enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > An alloy is a stable chemical compound. It does not spontaneously decompose into its constituents. If it did, your fillings would have dissolved and disappeared long ago.

      Amalgam may be stable, but nothing in the definition of an alloy says it won't decompose or leach out over time. Giving one example, fuel cell catalysts made of alloys (such as PtRu) degrade over time as the Ruthenium leaches out. Look at artifacts from the bronze age - bronze is an alloy and it degrades as well.

    17. Re:Appeal to authority is not good enough by rjstanford · · Score: 1

      I had both mumps and measles, it was hardly a big deal. If the kids are old enough it's probably even better they get it naturally and get over it than take the vaccine.

      Since the well-known plural of anecdote is data, I'll offer up that I had measles when I was 17 (I had been vaccinated, but I was also suffering from CMV mono at the time which weakens your immune system something fierce - vaccinations are probably why none of my friends caught it from me though). Put me in the hospital for close on two weeks, of which I remember about a day. Its no laughing matter.

      --
      You're special forces then? That's great! I just love your olympics!
    18. Re:Appeal to authority is not good enough by bzipitidoo · · Score: 0

      It's hard to guess what to fear the most, with all the conflicting information and the certainty that organizations have concealed and buried information, and blocked studies. Cigarettes have been known to help smokers keep their weight down, and some become obese after quitting. We know nicotine is addictive, and we know the entire tobacco industry lied to congress about it. We know they embraced propaganda and lies as a mere tool for furthering their business, and they show no concern about their reputation, acting as if they really believe they are behaving ethically. The worst part is that the public has grudgingly allowed this behavior out of a sense of indifference and powerlessness.

      Other industries have sat up and taken notice. They have embraced ther own programs of willful ignorance and disinformation. Big Oil and Coal sought to discredit facts about Global Warming. Wall Street has done its utmost to stop markets from being policed, and is still doing it even after the disastrous downturns known as the Dot Com Crash and the Great Recession. The Telecoms Industry is still pining for the glory days of Ma Bell, trying to take control of the Internet in the same way that Ma Bell used to control the telephone network, hoping to wreck network neutrality rules. Big Media, Big Pharma, and the likes of Monsanto and Microsoft are in bed together over intellectual property laws, spreading as much confusion as possible over the issue, with perhaps "copying = stealing" being the most notorious lie.

      History is not much comfort. Big Tobacco didn't invent anything new with their "doubt is our product" disinformation and propaganda campaign, they merely improved and adapted to new communcation channels. In the past we've had notorious incidents such as the Radium Girls. People used not to even know what radioactivity was, then didn't understand for years how toxic and dangerous radiation is. We know much better know, but we still dabble in nuclear power in neglectful and unsafe ways. It's not that nuclear power can't be used safely, it's that it won't be. Can people be trusted to run a nuclear power plant responsibly? Not to cut corners, build inadequately, skimp on safety, defer maintenance, delay inspections? In the wake of Fukushima, it seems the answer may be "no". Asbestos was another recklessly used substance. Then there are the pesticides and herbicides DDT and Agent Orange and the chemical known as dioxin and their damaging effects, as told in Silent Spring.

      Those are only the biggest, most well-known lies. Bisphenol A has finally been subjected to the glaring light of negative publicity, but there are many others, phthalates for one. Bisphenol S may not be much safer, being more stable under heat and light, but still too good at mimicking estrogen once loose. How about lead in faucets? We've known that lead is toxic for years, but incredibly, we're still using it to deliver not just any water, but drinking water! They've rationalized the use of lead as safe because it is alloyed with other metals, and claimed not to leach out. The industry has cozened regulators into accepting tests that are far too forgiving and unrealistic. What few honest studies there are about the matter that haven't been squashed and suppressed suggest that they are wrong, and lead does leach out, and in enough quantity to cause health problems. Mercury in dental fillings also leaches out. At least we've stopped the use of leaded gasoline.

      Jenny McCarthy is a muckraker, but it is the background of lies and deceit that empowered her.

      --
      Intellectual Property is a monopolistic, selfish, and defective concept. It is "tyranny over the mind of man"
    19. Re:Appeal to authority is not good enough by RatherBeAnonymous · · Score: 1

      Well, there is also this page about the known possible side effects of various vaccines http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/va.... The MMRV vaccine is known to cause permanent brain damage in very rare cases. Critics of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecom... claim that it serves to conceal information about the real risks of vaccinations, and disincentivises vaccine manufacturers from developing vaccines without severe side effects or from developing tests to identify kids at risk of the more severe side effects.

      That being said, my daughter is vaccinated because the rates of serious side effects are so low that it only make sense.

    20. Re:Appeal to authority is not good enough by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Thing is, where can I get better information? The US vaccination schedule was set by the CDC, meaning that quite a few doctors (who know a lot more than I do about medicine) who considered more factors than I can decided this was the best overall scheme. It may be near-optimal. It may not be. However, it is almost certainly better than listening to Jenny or going by my gut feeling.

      I'm not blindly trusting, but if you've got a better idea I'm waiting to hear it.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    21. Re:Appeal to authority is not good enough by TubeSteak · · Score: 1

      "A European schedule"?

      I think it's also worth mentioning that a lot of the outbreaks we have in the USA start with someone who recently returned from Europe.

      Europe's problems are twofold.
      1. A decade of declining MMR vaccinations thanks to the Wakefield craze.
      2. Travelers/immigrants from Africa and Asia carrying infections.

      --
      [Fuck Beta]
      o0t!
    22. Re:Appeal to authority is not good enough by Belial6 · · Score: 1

      The problem I have with the debate is that if if 100% of vaccines are 100% safe, the pro-vaccine people are constantly arguing against getting vaccines. Just look at the links in the summary. They misrepresent and outright lie about what McCarthy says. They will quote her, and then repeat that she said something she didn't. They will try to change the subject, and they accuser her of moving the goal posts. They are constantly using ad hominem attacks. Basically they are using all of the tactics that a person who is lying would use to support their position.

      Heck even the huge Wakefield thing was handled like someone who was trying to cover up bad behavior. Wakefield declares a link between Autism and MMR. He recommends getting the three shots seperatly. What is the pro-vaccine response? To tell people they are stupid murderers and that asking for three seperate shots is a crime against humanity. So, how many people just didn't vaccinate their kids because the pro-vaccine movement told people that they can't get the shots seperately?

      If you want to blame someone for a reduction in vaccinations, far more of the blame should be set at the feet of the AAP, CDC, pedeatricians and all of the people on sites like this that constantly take a subject that they are mostly right about, and implicitly tell the public that they are lying.

      It is like my wife coming home and finding a womans jacket that does not belong to her. If I just tell her, "Yeah, Ann came by today and we went to lunch.", there is no problem. If I tell her that no one has been to the house, there is a problem. Lying, perticularly in blatently obvious ways, only weakens your position.

    23. Re:Appeal to authority is not good enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1 in 1000 (0.1%) people with measles suffer serious injury. 1 in 3000 people (0.033%) who receive the MMR vaccine will suffer serious injury (seizure caused by fever.) http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/vis/vis-statements/mmr.html#risks

      calling someone who survived measles "lucky" is the kind of stupid shit you are accusing the anti-vaxers of. i see a lot of people extolling the virtues science. i don't see much actual science.

    24. Re:Appeal to authority is not good enough by Alsee · · Score: 1

      if 100% of vaccines are 100% safe

      There is no if. There is no 100%.
      "If" is anti-vaxism.
      "100%" is antivaxism.

      Real world data from a multitude of studies by a multitude of independent professionals show that vaccines are something like a hundred or a thousand times safer than any random food item.
      There is no "if" there. There is no "100%" there. Vaccines are safer than food.

      ad hominem attacks

      Ad hominem means "against the person". More specifically, an ad hominem attack is an argument that someone's statement is false, or should be ignored, because the person is bad.

      When the argument is "don't listen to her, she's a nasty ugly bitch", that's ad hominem.

      When the argument is "she's repeating stuff that was shown to be fraudulent research, and her claims have been exhaustively proven false, therefore she is wrong" is not ad hominem.

      Proving her wrong, and then concluding she's a bad person because she's wrong, is not ad hominem.

      Getting angry at her after she is proven wrong is not ad hominem.

      Throwing gratuitous insults at her, after she is proven wrong, calling her an ugly bitch or whatever, after she is proven wrong, is not ad hominem. Gratuitous insults certainly add nothing to a debate, BUT THERE'S NO DEBATE HERE. On one side you have data and science and evidence, and on the other side you have an irrational social movement - fear based on a fraud all flying around a rumor mill of conspiracy theories and ignorance. "Don't take your child for their routine medical checkup, I heard the doctor is a pedophile! Don't take your child to any doctor for a routine medical checkup, you don't want to risk that doctor is part of the vast secret pedophile-ring that I hear is running the American Medical Association".

      Heck even the huge Wakefield thing was handled like someone who was trying to cover up bad behavior.

      Your description of events is rather inaccurate.

      Wakefield was being directly paid to do his "research" by a lawyer looking to file a lawsuit against vaccine manufacturers.
      Wakefield drew up a business plan, with figures for how many tens of millions of dollars a year could be brought in by marketing a competing vaccine
      Wakefield established a contract with the medical school where he was working, requiring them to conceal the source of his funding, prohibiting them from disclosing his involvement with a pharmaceutical company.
      Walkfeild established a contract with that pharmaceutical company requiring his involvement to be kept secret - secret specifically until he would be able to cash out on stock options.
      Wakefield preformed "research" which, on later investigation, was found to be entirely fraudulent.
      In order to publish his research the Journal REQUIRED the disclosure of things like the source of his funding and relevant business plans or involvement with pharmaceutical companies. In order to get his fraudulent study published in the Journal he fraudulently denied the existence of any financial conflicts of interest.
      Countless legitimate scientists, a ton of valuable medical research money and research resources, were all WASTED trying to replicate the fraudulent Wakefield paper. It resulted in massive confirmation that the original claims were fictional and that vaccines were extremely safe. And then the specific investigation revealing exactly how Wakefield's original work was fraudulent.

      And if things had ended there, all of this would be a pretty insignificant non-story. But things didn't end there.

      We got a melting-pot that took on a life of it's own. We got the news media hyping an insignificant "research study" based on an insignificant patient sample, a paper which had not yet been confirmed (and which would turn out to be fraudulent). And in the melting pot we got parents of autistic children DESPERATE for any explanation why their kids have autism. And in the melting pot we got the kooks whom no one usu

      --
      - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
    25. Re:Appeal to authority is not good enough by Belial6 · · Score: 1

      That is a very good post at showing exactly how people who think they are pro-vaccine spend a lot of effort convincing people not to vaccinate. Ignoring data, rationalizing ad hominem, telling people that getting all of their vaccines but in a different order isn't ok because they must mindlessless follow the set script 100%. Hypocritically declaring that when your villian does reasearch for money, it is a sign of corruption, while ignoring the fact that the majority of all drug research is done for money. Ignoring what is said and pulling words randomely from sentences to try and refute them by giving them exactly the opposite meaning than the context of the original statement in strawman arguments.

      Supporting your case only through easily refuted arguements does more harm than good. Like I said. People like you do far more harm than good. If you want to know why people who don't vaccinate their children take the route they do, you should look in a mirror, because it is people like you that are convincing them.

  27. Re:Bloody Idiot-YOU!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    no, YOU are the idiot! YOU are responsible for old diseases coming back to haunt us! NOW SHUT UP!

    STFU! Sheep like you who are pro-vaccine are for spreading cancer and aids, get a clue you statist fascist fuck!

  28. Re:Yeah, maybe not now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    She's not trying to rewrite history. If you read it, she's saying pretty much exactly what we've always know her to say. There's nothing wrong with vaccines in theory. She just want's ones that are safe, instead of the current ones (which are, you know, safe). It's just like how the Republicans want to repeal Obamacare, but when asked what they'll replace it with, they can't name one key thing they'd do differently than Obamacare. They don't want Obamacare...they just want some alternate option that does exactly what Obamacare does.

  29. Population Control? by Jaysyn · · Score: 1
    --
    There is a war going on for your mind.
    1. Re:Population Control? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And here is the same link that will work even tomorrow:
      http://overcompensating.com/oc/index.php?comic=1495

      (-1 is the newest comic)

  30. I find it interesting... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    that all the "on" and "on" and "on"s .. are blog posts with supposed quotes.

    It seems to me from *THIS* article that people have been painting her as something she's not.

    This article and everyone who has vilify a woman for years is a perfect example of what is dark and ill in people. You can't have a discussion without modding up "But she wouldn't shut her cock holster"

    You people make me sick. It's a shame there's no vaccine to protect society against you.

    And she's right about one thing. When corporations are the ones who create our medications and they are barely regulated, our medicine isn't safe. And we're giving this stuff to our children on the corporation's say so. The corps love the McCarthy story because it focuses everyone on one person and one false claim that was recanted and it keeps people from looking at the bigger picture. Instead of activism to make sure our vaccines are safe to use, you're all baaaaa-ing after a woman like the little sheep you are.

    1. Re:I find it interesting... by oneandoneis2 · · Score: 1

      ..,pharma compnaies are "barely regulated"?

      You really do have no idea what you're talking about, do you?

      --
      So.. it has come to this
    2. Re:I find it interesting... by rebelwarlock · · Score: 1

      Luckily, everyone used up their mod points upvoting the cock holster remark, so no one was left to downvote your idiocy into oblivion when you posted as AC, then logged back in and upvoted your own dumbass opinion.

  31. Autism risk is very much a myth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Here is another part of the label for Tripedia (specifically after the listing of autism): "Because these events are reported voluntarily from a population of uncertain size, it is not always possible to reliably estimate their frequencies or to establish a causal relationship to components of Tripedia vaccine."
    If Mercury in vaccines is a large concern of yours, have a look at this list of common vaccines with and without mercury from our friends at the FDA: http://www.fda.gov/biologicsbl...

  32. Re:Autism by mfh · · Score: 1

    You're falling prey to the foolish notion that someone couldn't devise a strategy around this deficiency. One exists to effectively remove dishonesty from the equation.

    We're in the age of dating profiles. A successful nerdy high functioning autistic can mate and bear children easily enough. The fact the autistic doesn't have to contend with hundreds of women eagerly waiting for his sexual attention merely offers up more time to do whatever great things the universe has in store.

    --
    The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
  33. Governments by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Will all the crap the World governments have done so far, nobody should trust them about things like vaccines. For all we know they want to control the world population by killing off 90% of the people. Hell, maybe AIDS is exactly that, who knows.

    The humane thing to do would be to make 90% of us sterile, including a voluntary option.

  34. That's bullshit. by khasim · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think she is wrong to connect vaccines to autism.

    That is her whole point. She claimed that vaccines cause autism. If you don't want to risk giving your children autism then do not vaccinate them.

    But attacking her personally is not necessary or relevant.

    Pointing out that she has NO medical training is NOT "attacking her personally".

    She is making specific medical claims. She is doing so without any evidence.

    Her general position that she is not against vaccines in general but only against un-safe vaccines is a valid position.

    Bullshit!

    If that is so then you should be able to show which vaccines she claims are "safe". AND what her MEDICAL evidence is for those being "safe" versus the "un-safe" vaccines.

    The only issue is: Are existing vaccines safe and could they be made safer?

    That is MORE bullshit.

    The issue is whether "existing vaccines" cause autism or not.

    So far, there is NO medical evidence to support her claims.

    1. Re:That's bullshit. by RoboJ1M · · Score: 1

      hear, hear.

    2. Re:That's bullshit. by peon_a-z,A-Z,0-9$_+! · · Score: 1

      Good points.

      This type of rhetoric is unfortunately common across much of society where people without the proper education often have voices louder than those that do, and espouse nonsense.

      Replace "vaccines" with "nuclear energy" and autism with a relevant fear such as "cancer" or something else and you have a very similar dialogue and situation.

    3. Re:That's bullshit. by zildgulf · · Score: 1

      I agree, that is horse hockey. She shows that her knowledge of basic Chemistry is that of a 4th grader. Sodium Chloride, when broken down chemically creates poisonous Chlorine gas. Pure Mercury is very poisonous, far more poisonous than most Mercuric compounds, which most, if not all, vaccines have removed.

    4. Re:That's bullshit. by pitchpipe · · Score: 2

      But attacking her personally is not necessary or relevant.

      Pointing out that she has NO medical training is NOT "attacking her personally".

      Actually, "attacking her personally" with words I think at this point is warranted. She is putting a lot of people at risk of death through her public advocacy. I'll be surprised if at some point someone who's child died due believing her bullshit doesn't decide to attack her personally with actual violence. I know I wouldn't want a grieving parent blaming me for the death of their child.

      --
      Look where all this talking got us, baby.
    5. Re:That's bullshit. by rwhamann · · Score: 1

      Fuck words - put her on trial for negligent manslaughter.

      --
      seg fault
    6. Re:That's bullshit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In fact there is direct evidence that it doesn't. After they removed the mercury preservative, autism cases actually went up.

    7. Re:That's bullshit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you trolling, or just an idiot? Spewing with venomous hate speech a plus, by the way, hope you're that pleasant in real life.

      To all the slashdoters out there who faithfully claim the ALL vaccines are safe, I pray that each and every one of your children develop some vaccine related problem from injecting your children with that toxic soup.

      Name one vaccine that's not safe.

      The majority slashdot group think is that vaccines are safe as mothers milk, because it's science.

      Well, millions of people get them every year, if there were a problem we'd know about it awfully quickly.

      Insert consipiracy theory rant about drug companies here....

      No point responding to that, it's unfounded paranoia.

      You body has no natural way of purging mercury from itself. And let's make this more interesting that the shots that are given to children are the same dose that are given to adults.

      Do you have any idea what you're talking about? For starters, read up on how much mercury is in these shots, and what type of mercury iit is. Now compare it to how much and what kind you get from eating seafood.

      And of course, let's just ignore the spike in autism in the general population
      since the vaccines program went into full swing.

      My god you're uninformed. Autism has been better diagnosed over the past 20 years, and now includes a wider array of spectrum disorders. Autism has not spiked, the diagnosis of autism has simply improved dramaticallly. Furthermore, there's an actual incentive to receive the diagnosis, because there are resources available to help you once you get diagnosed.

      Let me ask everyone here one last thing. Do you believe that autism justs "BING", turns on one day? Because that seems to be the case with parents who's children develop autism after getting a vaccine shot for them. The day before the shot their children are normal, and the day after the shot, they're changed forever...

      Wow, you're completely bonkers and obviously done literally no reading on the topic anywhere. First, the autism link has been disproven. Completely. The guy promoting is wasn't just wrong, he committed deliberate fraud. Second, the "day before the shot they're normal and the day after they have autism" is completely, 100% false. Never happened, not once. Autism doesn't just go "bing", whether on its own or because of shots. You don't even understand the concept under discussion, let alone are you capable of rational discourse on the subject. The symptoms happen to become more obvious over time because developmental/mental disorder, you have to be at a certain level of development to even be capable of showing the systems. If an 18-month old isn't supposed to be able to talk, how the fuck are you going to diagnose a speech communication disorder in them at that age?

    8. Re:That's bullshit. by Belial6 · · Score: 1

      You are not alone in that thinking. Unfortunatly, that makes you a mouthpiece for the anti-vaccination movement. Congradulations, you are what you hate.

  35. False dichotomy by jdavidb · · Score: 1, Troll

    To sum up, this is an attempt to remove all the nuance from someone's position and put them on either one side or the other of a false dichotomy.

    1. Re:False dichotomy by 517714 · · Score: 1

      "It shouldn't be polio versus autism," is the false dichotomy. Hers. There is no nuance in such a position.

      --
      The US government have made it clear that we have no inalienable rights; any we do not defend vigorously will be taken.
  36. Golly, what a surprise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    JM and her gang are tired of seeing the shit hit the fan over her dangerous, public insanity, so they're lying and trying to avoid the consequences.

    Want to see another example of this? Watch what the climate change deniers are doing. They constantly change arguments, and are on course to blame scientists for not making a sufficiently compelling case for action. They'll resort to the latter argument when things start to get really bad, e.g. 10 million climate refugees stream from Bangladesh around/over the wall India erected on their border.

  37. Found one! by khasim · · Score: 1

    Looking around, there are plenty of zealots on all sides of this issue.

    Yes, and by "zealots" you mean people who understand basic science.

    Because the anti-vaccination people have not been able to provide any evidence to support their claims.

    But the medical scientists have been able to.

    1. Re:Found one! by CanHasDIY · · Score: 2

      Looking around, there are plenty of zealots on all sides of this issue.

      Yes, and by "zealots" you mean people who understand basic science.

      No, I'm pretty sure the use of zealots here refers to those who are so fanatically devoted to their position that they'll inevitably drive people away from the truth, due to their overbearing assholishness.

      FWIW, it is possible to be right without being a dick about it.

      --
      An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
    2. Re:Found one! by khasim · · Score: 1

      No, I'm pretty sure the use of zealots here refers to those who are so fanatically devoted to their position that they'll inevitably drive people away from the truth, due to their overbearing assholishness.

      You mean like people who keep pointing out the evidence for evolution when Creationists insist that humans were riding dinosaurs 6,000 years ago?

      If the basis for your understanding of the world is who is nicer to you then you have a problem.

      Jenny McCarthy can talk all she wants about how "mommies" have a special understanding of medicine and science that equals or surpasses that of people who have spent years studying it. And there are a lot of people who will believe her. Because they want to FEEL special.

      But an epidemic of measles does not care about their FEELINGS.

    3. Re:Found one! by Alsee · · Score: 1

      No, I'm pretty sure the use of zealots here refers to those who are so fanatically devoted to their position that they'll inevitably drive people away from the truth, due to their overbearing assholishness.

      Calling people "overbearing assholes" makes you a total dick.

      FWIW, it is possible to be right without being a dick about it.

      ::whistles innocently and wanders away::

      -

      --
      - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
    4. Re:Found one! by CanHasDIY · · Score: 2

      No, I'm pretty sure the use of zealots here refers to those who are so fanatically devoted to their position that they'll inevitably drive people away from the truth, due to their overbearing assholishness.

      You mean like people who keep pointing out the evidence for evolution when Creationists insist that humans were riding dinosaurs 6,000 years ago?

      No, I mean like people who "point out" the evidence for evolution by looking at Creationists and saying things like, "goddamn but you're a moron! How is it that you're allowed to breed? Someone should put you down for the good of society!"

      But see, that's because I actually bothered to know the definition of the term "zealot," and I'm intelligent enough to make the distinction between one of them, and someone who is actually trying to educate people out of ignorance, rather than condemn them for it.

      Make all the excuses for anti-social behavior that you want, but the fact is if you're being an asshole to someone for being wrong, you're only serving to make the problem worse, not better. Jenny McCarthy isn't stopping you from getting your kids vaccinated, and being a dick to her and her kind for holding a certain viewpoint is only going to make them grasp it even harder. Reason is the only weapon that's useful against irrationality, which is why I'm calmly explaining my viewpoint rather than getting pissed because you disagree with me.

      --
      An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
    5. Re:Found one! by CanHasDIY · · Score: 1

      No, I'm pretty sure the use of zealots here refers to those who are so fanatically devoted to their position that they'll inevitably drive people away from the truth, due to their overbearing assholishness.

      Calling people "overbearing assholes" makes you a total dick.

      How else would you characterize zealotry, if not the act of being an overbearing asshole? I suppose I could have said "unbending adherence to a specific viewpoint they've convinced themselves is right, regardless of whether or not it actually is," but, er, well, I hadn't thought of that until just now. Mea culpa (something else you'll never hear a zealot say).

      FWIW, it is possible to be right without being a dick about it.

      ::whistles innocently and wanders away::

      -

      Well, at least you accept that I'm right. I count that as a win, sardonic tone notwithstanding.

      --
      An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
    6. Re:Found one! by khasim · · Score: 1

      No, I mean like people who "point out" the evidence for evolution by looking at Creationists and saying things like, "goddamn but you're a moron! How is it that you're allowed to breed? Someone should put you down for the good of society!"

      Well that's good. Maybe you should take all your hypothetical straw man friends on a party cruise.

      Make all the excuses for anti-social behavior that you want, but the fact is if you're being an asshole to someone for being wrong, you're only serving to make the problem worse, not better.

      You might want to look up some of the outbreaks of diseases that have happened recently.

      Oh, you won't, will you. Because actual damage to actual people doesn't fit your hypothetical straw man.

      Anyone who refuses to get their children vaccinated BECAUSE I SAID THAT JENNY MCCARTHY DOES NOT UNDERSTAND BASIC SCIENCE is not going to change because I don't state that.

      That is what a "zealot" is about.

      Jenny McCarthy isn't stopping you from getting your kids vaccinated, and being a dick to her and her kind for holding a certain viewpoint is only going to make them grasp it even harder.

      Look up "herd immunity". They're increasing the risk by NOT getting the vaccinations.

      Which is why there are outbreaks of diseases such as measles now.

      Facts. Not feelings. Measles will not care about your feelings.

    7. Re:Found one! by CanHasDIY · · Score: 1

      No, I mean like people who "point out" the evidence for evolution by looking at Creationists and saying things like, "goddamn but you're a moron! How is it that you're allowed to breed? Someone should put you down for the good of society!"

      Well that's good. Maybe you should take all your hypothetical straw man friends on a party cruise.

      Had I known I was trying to have an adult discussion with an 8-year-old mentality, I may have expressed myself otherwise. My mistake for assuming that I was talking to someone who understands what the words he uses means. Words like "straw man."

      For example, introducing Creationism in a discussion about vaccines would be what is known as "arguing a strawman." Not sure what responding to said fallacious argument would qualify as. Bad form?

      FWIW, I'm not the hypocrite who's putting up strawmen and accusing others of doing the same thing when they make the apparent mistake of responding.

      Make all the excuses for anti-social behavior that you want, but the fact is if you're being an asshole to someone for being wrong, you're only serving to make the problem worse, not better.

      You might want to look up some of the outbreaks of diseases that have happened recently.

      Oh, you won't, will you. Because actual damage to actual people doesn't fit your hypothetical straw man.

      Anyone who refuses to get their children vaccinated BECAUSE I SAID THAT JENNY MCCARTHY DOES NOT UNDERSTAND BASIC SCIENCE is not going to change because I don't state that.

      That is what a "zealot" is about.

      You don't get to just make up your own definitions of words, and "zealot" already has a definition.

      BTW, tossing accusations around instead of making salient points that support your argument isn't going to change any minds. Well, not to support your point of view, anyway, although you might be successful in driving people away from your premise. For example, you keep saying that "Jenny McCarthy doesn't understand basic science," but have thus far failed to define just what that phrase is supposed to mean, nor have you provided any examples that would support this claim. Pretty gosh-darn unscientific, if you ask me.

      I think they call that one "irony."

      Anyway, if you can't argue your point without attacking the other person, you either don't have a valid point to make, or you don't know how to properly express yourself. Either way, that's your problem, not mine.

      Jenny McCarthy isn't stopping you from getting your kids vaccinated, and being a dick to her and her kind for holding a certain viewpoint is only going to make them grasp it even harder.

      Look up "herd immunity". They're increasing the risk by NOT getting the vaccinations.

      Herd immunity has precisely dick to do with how you present your argument. You're just moving the goalposts so you don't have to address my argument.

      Which is why there are outbreaks of diseases such as measles now.

      Facts. Not feelings. Measles will not care about your feelings.

      Then present some facts, instead of wasting time and energy attacking other people for not necessarily agreeing with the "facts" you have thus far failed to present.

      Side note - the more upset you get, the more you attack me or anyone else for not falling in lock-step with your point of view, the more you prove my claims regarding zealotry right.

      --
      An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
    8. Re:Found one! by khasim · · Score: 1

      My mistake for assuming that I was talking to someone who understands what the words he uses means. Words like "straw man."

      That would be your hypothetical straw man friends whom you claimed were calling Jenny McCarthy a "moron".

      What I said was that she (and the anti-vaccine people like her) do not have any evidence to support their claims.

      FWIW, I'm not the hypocrite who's putting up strawmen and accusing others of doing the same thing when they make the apparent mistake of responding.

      Yes you are. And you are "tone trolling".

      Like I keep saying, measles does not care about your feelings.

      Herd immunity has precisely dick to do with how you present your argument.

      And, again, measles does not care about your feelings.

      And now there are outbreaks of measles because of the anti-vaccination people. Real people. Real diseases. Real damage. None of your hypothetical straw men needed.

    9. Re:Found one! by cheater512 · · Score: 1

      Nah being a dick about it makes it more fun.
      Especially when the opposition is people like Jenny McCarthy. Its either make fun of them or cry yourself to sleep at night.

    10. Re:Found one! by CanHasDIY · · Score: 1

      My mistake for assuming that I was talking to someone who understands what the words he uses means. Words like "straw man."

      That would be your hypothetical straw man friends whom you claimed were calling Jenny McCarthy a "moron".

      That's pretty bad when you not only can't remember what you yourself posted, but can't be bothered to go read the post again before responding. Since you're not going to bother scrolling back up the page to see what I mean, I'll go ahead and say it - that comment was in response to your strawman about Creationists.

      If you're not going to bother paying attention to the conversation, perhaps you'd be better off if you stopped responding. That hole you're diggin' ain't gettin' any shallower.

      What I said was that she (and the anti-vaccine people like her) do not have any evidence to support their claims.

      Had you left it at that, I wouldn't have responded; but you didn't, you had to throw in an ad hominem for no particular reason.

      Again, since I doubt you're going to take the 3 seconds to go re-read your original post, I'll copy & paste it here:

      Yes, and by "zealots" you mean people who understand basic science.

      ... Which you said in response to someone pointing out that there are zealots on both sides of the issue.

      Question: have you yet bothered to go look up the definition of the term, "zealot?" Or are you maintaining that your personal definition is the "correct" one?

      FWIW, I'm not the hypocrite who's putting up strawmen and accusing others of doing the same thing when they make the apparent mistake of responding.

      Yes you are.

      Sayeth the zealot. What strawman, specifically, did I put up? You'd be wise to avoid referring to my response to your Creationists strawman.

      And you are "tone trolling".

      Pointing out that you're acting like a petulant child who isn't getting his way isn't tone trolling. I've both asked you to present the facts which back your beliefs (which you have not presented), and suggested that you would better posit your argument using reason as opposed to irrationality and emotion. That you read this as "tone trolling" says more about you than it does about me, bud.

      Like I keep saying, measles does not care about your feelings.

      Herd immunity has precisely dick to do with how you present your argument.

      And, again, measles does not care about your feelings.

      And now there are outbreaks of measles because of the anti-vaccination people. Real people. Real diseases. Real damage. None of your hypothetical straw men needed.

      Look, Brah, I don't care what you think about feelings, or damage, or strawmen, or whatever. All I care about is whether or not you can present facts that support your contention, and whether or not you're capable of positing said contention without exhibiting behavior that is indicative of zealotry. Thus far, you've failed to do either of these things, so pardon me if I'm not real keen on accepting your poorly thought out, emotionally charged viewpoint.

      Now, if you want to present facts and discuss them like adults, I'm all ears. But as for this tit-for-tat farce of an "argument," I think I've said all that needs to be said. If you're still not getting it, that's your hang up.

      --
      An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
    11. Re:Found one! by CanHasDIY · · Score: 1

      Nah being a dick about it makes it more fun.

      Fair enough (to each his own, I always say). Just don't cry like a bitch when someone calls you a zealot, if you're going to exhibit that sort of behavior.

      Especially when the opposition is people like Jenny McCarthy. Its either make fun of them or cry yourself to sleep at night.

      I prefer option 3 - not giving a fuck what some dumbass celebrity thinks. That tends to work out well for me in all arenas.

      --
      An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
    12. Re:Found one! by khasim · · Score: 1

      Since you're not going to bother scrolling back up the page to see what I mean, I'll go ahead and say it - that comment was in response to your strawman about Creationists.

      That statement was from you but you attempted to imply that it was from me.

      That is a straw man.

      Pointing out that Jenny McCarthy and Creationists BOTH ignore scientific evidence is not a straw man.

      You were the one who started talking about "morons". Let me quote you and provide a link:

      No, I mean like people who "point out" the evidence for evolution by looking at Creationists and saying things like, "goddamn but you're a moron! How is it that you're allowed to breed? Someone should put you down for the good of society!"

      http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=5028117&threshold=1&commentsort=0&mode=thread&cid=46749487

      That is your comment and that is you making a straw man about "moron" claims.

      Look, Brah, I don't care what you think about feelings, or damage, or strawmen, or whatever.

      Except that you do and that has been your entire argument. I need to be nicer about pointing out that some people ignore all the scientific evidence that contradicts them. Then you go off on a straw man.

      Measles does not care about feelings.

    13. Re:Found one! by Alsee · · Score: 1

      The tone was intended to be playfully humorous. I called you a "dick" for the sole purpose of invoking the "right and a dick" thing in a self-referential manner. "Whistling innocently" was my best effort to hang a guilty-of-mischief hat on it.

      C'est la vie, c'est la internet.

      -

      --
      - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
    14. Re:Found one! by CanHasDIY · · Score: 1

      Since you're not going to bother scrolling back up the page to see what I mean, I'll go ahead and say it - that comment was in response to your strawman about Creationists.

      That statement was from you but you attempted to imply that it was from me.

      That is a straw man.

      by khasim (1285) Alter Relationship on Monday April 14, 2014 @05:30PM (#46749083)

      You mean like people who keep pointing out the evidence for evolution when Creationists insist that humans were riding dinosaurs 6,000 years ago?

      Creationism isn't the topic of this thread, so what would you call the introduction of an unrelated topic, if not a strawman?

      Besides, you're not really pretending you didn't say that, are you? I mean, since you, I, and everyone else on the planet can scroll up this page and see where you said precisely what you're denying you said, that action would not speak well of your character - the only people I've ever met who would deny a fact that staring them in the face are pathological liars.

      For the record, here is my actual argument:

      khasim: Yes, and by "zealots" you mean people who understand basic science.

      CanHasDIY: No, I'm pretty sure the use of zealots here refers to those who are so fanatically devoted to their position that they'll inevitably drive people away from the truth, due to their overbearing assholishness.

      If you want to posit an argument that OP meant what you claim he meant, as opposed to meaning what the term "zealot" actually means, feel free to continue to discuss, but I'm done letting you derail me with your non sequiturs and assumptions.

      --
      An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
    15. Re:Found one! by khasim · · Score: 1

      Creationism isn't the topic of this thread, so what would you call the introduction of an unrelated topic, if not a strawman?

      Learn what straw man means. It does not mean anything you do not like.

      Besides, you're not really pretending you didn't say that, are you?

      I've quoted the portion where you brought up "moron". I've linked to your quote where you brought up "moron".

      No "pretending" needed. You said it. Then you objected to it. That's a straw man.

      For the record, here is my actual argument:

      For the record, I posted a direct quote from you and the link to that quote.

      Here is your quote, again:

      No, I mean like people who "point out" the evidence for evolution by looking at Creationists and saying things like, "goddamn but you're a moron! How is it that you're allowed to breed? Someone should put you down for the good of society!"

      You brought up "moron" and then you objected to it.

      That is a straw man.

  38. All I will remember her saying is by Culture20 · · Score: 2
    All I will remember her saying is "I am anti-vaccine" http://news.slashdot.org/story...

    Over time, "negation tags" fall out of memory: "Saddam didn't plan 9/11" becomes "Saddam planned 9/11."

    Her only option is to state unequivocally that she's pro-vaccine and say it a lot.

    1. Re:All I will remember her saying is by drinkypoo · · Score: 0

      Her only option is to state unequivocally that she's pro-vaccine and say it a lot.

      Well, this is what the rabidly pro-vaxxers wanted her only option to be, so I guess mission accomplished?

      For the record, I am pro-vaccination enough that I have had all of mine. I don't have children, so I'm not required to decide whether I think the normal schedule is safe. I'm against the use of thimerosal because no one can figure out for sure whether it breaks down into harmless products or not — there are papers which suggest both possible outcomes. It has been used for giving flu shots to elementary students since we were assured it wouldn't be used in the USA; I guess because they weren't mandatory, and parents were simply frightened into thinking they were necessary, it was still legal. Vaccines sold to other countries sometimes include it. There are alternatives, and it is used only in multiple-injection vials in any case. Those vials save a few nickels... But they are much cheaper for the organization buying them.

      It should not be a wonder that people do not trust Big Pharma, which has demonstrated its lack of trustworthiness time and again.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  39. penicillin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I am allergic to penicillin, so by her standards, I demmand a ban on penicillin.

    1. Re:penicillin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      While we're at it... Can I demand I ban on chemotherapy? I hear it's quite dangerous.

  40. You can get autism from measles. by Ihlosi · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Meningitis and encephalitis are known complications of measles, and either can lead to permanent brain damage. Depending on the location and severity of this damage, the symptoms can be indistinguishable from "true" autism (which is mostly genetic).

    1. Re:You can get autism from measles. by rahvin112 · · Score: 2

      the symptoms can be indistinguishable from "true" autism (which is mostly genetic).

      Please don't spread misinformation. The cause of, or relationship of Autism spectrum disorder to genetics is unknown at this time. The real research on the cause of Autism which started several years ago is just starting to come in. We won't know even speculatively what the relationship of autism with anything is until some point in the future and depending on the complexity of the relationship with genetics it could be far longer.

      The two most recent autism studies which I'm aware of have shown a link between increased autism rates and traffic induced smog which is definitely not genetic. I must caution those of you that like to play jump to conclusions that these are simply preliminary studies and unless confirmed by secondary followup studies should be treated as little more than slightly substantiated rumor at this point.

      Keep in mind these studies take a couple years to setup and acquire funding and typically have 5+ years of data collection/processing. It could be as much as two decades before we know what the cause of Autism is. My personal bet is on a chemical that began being used heavily in industry in the 70/80's.

    2. Re:You can get autism from measles. by Kaenneth · · Score: 1

      Maybe it's whatever they use to replace Lead in Unleaded gasoline...

    3. Re:You can get autism from measles. by rahvin112 · · Score: 1

      I've wondered that as well. Though I'd certainly rather have autism than the murder and violence they've tied to environmental lead. The steep drop in violence since the 70's isn't a coincidence.

    4. Re:You can get autism from measles. by Ihlosi · · Score: 1
      My personal bet is on a chemical that began being used heavily in industry in the 70/80's.

      My personal bet is that the reproduction rate in industrialized countries dropped, but it did not drop uniformly. It dropped more sharply for people with fewer genetic risk factors for autism (which means they're less likely to be affected themselves) and less sharply for people with those risk factors.

      The "increasing rate of autism" is actually an illusion caused by mostly two things:

      1) Much finer detection methods (people diagnosed with autism today wouldn't have gotten the same diagnosis 30 years ago - "Autism? Huh, he can talk just fine.")

      2) The nonuniform fertility rate drop mentioned above. Neurotypical people are just too busy to have kids, or don't want to burden themselves with kids, or whatever. Even a slight shift in the ratio will send the ratio of autistic kids to neurotypical kids through the roof, completely without any mystery chemical or completely new causes of autism.

      I regularly scan pubmed for publications on the topic, and the case for genetic risk factor being a major, if not the major cause of autism is just overwhelmingly solid.

  41. Re:Yeah, maybe not now by cdrudge · · Score: 1

    I assume her limited acting engagements got even smaller when film studios realized how badly most people didn't like her because of her anti-vaccine views,

    When IMDB lists your "Known for" as a visit on The View in 1997, two Playboy videos, and Scary Movie 3, I wouldn't characterize it as "limited acting engagements". I'd say non-existent acting engagements.

  42. But the insert says it does cause autism... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://www.fda.gov/downloads/BiologicsBloodVaccines/Vaccines/ApprovedProducts/UCM101580.pdf

    "Adverse events reported during post-approval use of Tripedia vaccine include idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, SIDS,
    anaphylactic reaction, cellulitis, autism ..."

  43. Eh. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is it better to have a slightly increased risk of dying from various infectious illnesses, or to provide money to big pharma?

    Personally, I find the modern world hellish, and can't stand the fact that it's so hard to escape from it. I'd easily trade decades as I'm living now for a few years of more free existence.

  44. Autist master race reporting in by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Fuck this bitch. Our numbers will grow and she can't stop us, we are the future.

  45. Not a "Parental Choice" issue by LaughingVulcan · · Score: 2

    Or rather, to vaccinate or not is a decision lying at the intersection of parental rights vs. right of the general public to live in a world as disease-free as possible. It matters not why the parent doesn't feel vaccination is a proper course of action for the child. Ultimately, by force what matters is the right of the people to determine what sort of society we want to be living in.

  46. Re:What American advocates rarely/never mention... by CastrTroy · · Score: 1

    Actually, Tylenol has it's own set of problems. It can be quite harmful to the liver. Within the recommended dosage, it's quite safe, but the difference between the recommended maximum dosage and dangerous of lethal dose is quite small.

    --

    Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
  47. SImple question to all the anti-medicine greens by tigersha · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    I have a simple question to all the anti-tech, anti-medicine, natural-healing, doctors-are-evil, the pharma-companies-are-screwing-us-over, homeopathic, pro-farmers-market, anti-soy, i-hate-genetic-engineering, chemical-additives-are-evil green whackjobs.

    If everything the medical industry has been doing has been wrong, why has human life expectancy consistently gone up? We live longer than we used to. If we are being poisoned, radiated, pumped full of toxins, eating cancer-creating genetic frankenfoods and generally being screwed over why the hell ARE WE LIVING LONGER? It is not that hard, really!

    Don't get me wrong, I like my veggies fresh just like anyone else and run my own plot of lad and product much of what I eat. But my motive is not techno-phobia. The greens are full of bullshit.

    --
    The dangers of excessive individualism are nothing compared to the oppressiveness of excessive collectivism
    1. Re:SImple question to all the anti-medicine greens by Theaetetus · · Score: 1

      I have a simple question to all the anti-tech, anti-medicine, natural-healing, doctors-are-evil, the pharma-companies-are-screwing-us-over, homeopathic, pro-farmers-market, anti-soy, i-hate-genetic-engineering, chemical-additives-are-evil green whackjobs.

      Then why are you asking it on Slashdot? Isn't this really just shouting to an echo chamber, and not really attempting to get a response?

    2. Re:SImple question to all the anti-medicine greens by Sloppy · · Score: 3, Funny

      If everything the medical industry has been doing has been wrong, why has human life expectancy consistently gone up?

      That's an illusion. You only think life expectancy has gone up, because you look at evidence. But suppose we ignore dubious things such as evidence, measurements, math done on those measurements, inferring general rules and then testing them, as well as all our everyday experiences where reality seems to be functioning according to understandable rules. Then what reason is left, for believing that life expectancy has been going up? None, that's what.

      Balancing out that nothingness, there's my feelings and intuition and paranoia and whatever dogma I've been exposed to. And those things tell me medicine is bad. Ergo, it sure looks like life expectancy is going down.

      HTH.

      --
      As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
    3. Re:SImple question to all the anti-medicine greens by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Well, my homez, it's not black and white. Some things are great for improving life expectancy, e.g. sanitation. Other things are a waste of time, or improve longevity without improving quality of life, e.g. a lot of end of life care.

      Tech makes life unbearably surveilled, monotonous and sedentary, allowing people to create empathy-free bubbles for themselves. A lot of medicine is excellent, but a lot is an unnecessary waste of money. Most healing /does/ in fact occur without any human intervention, or at best with placebo - hence homeopathy. A lot of doctors are evil cunts, but so are all humans. The pharma companies are undoubtedly screwing us over, although they occasionally produce good things with the small amount of their budget they spend directly on commercialising academic research and putting into production. Farmers markets are obviously more sustainable than carting food half way across the world from a village where the people are malnourished because most of the shit is exported. Soy's okay. Genetic engineering isn't necessarily a problem, although it's under-regulated so you get some serious fuck-ups as evolution ends up strongly selecting for disease-resistant pests, and patent law creates artificial restrictions on the products of GM. All additives are chemical.

      HTH.

    4. Re:SImple question to all the anti-medicine greens by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      why the hell ARE WE LIVING LONGER?

      Tell that to all the god-fearing people in the bible. They lived 900 years and I bet they didn't get vaccinated! (jk ofc...)

  48. Re:Autism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If there were another smart animal on this planet, as smart as we are and more cooperative and less likely to lie to each other AND being speciist, ie not trusting human beings, then they would have an evolutionary advantage as a species over us. There isn't.

  49. By law, doctors only have to give parents the vacc by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Here is one such insert:

    http://www.fda.gov/downloads/BiologicsBloodVaccines/Vaccines/ApprovedProducts/UCM101580.pdf

    "Adverse events reported during post-approval use of Tripedia vaccine include idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, SIDS,
    anaphylactic reaction, cellulitis, autism ..."

  50. You have a funny choice of medical concerns... by denzacar · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You will willingly buy into unsubstantiated claims about dental fillings and ingesting mercury even suffer pain and monetary cost because of it (and possibly even harming your health) - but you will not vaccinate your children on an off chance that "something" might be wrong with the vaccines.

    You do realize, your actions there are guided by pure ignorance and fear, right? Much like Jenny's.

    You might want to have a chat with her. I had her number somewhere... Found it on the wall once.
    It goes something like 86753... Dammit I'll have to look it up.

    --
    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
    1. Re:You have a funny choice of medical concerns... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you might want to actually read that wikipedia page on Dental_amalgam_controversy.

  51. Sorry to burst your conspiracy theory... by denzacar · · Score: 1

    ...but ALL PEOPLE love conspiracy theories.

    It's probably the same mechanism that once had us concluding that "Gods be angry. Quick! Burn someone to appease them." whenever we heard thunder in the distance.
    I.e. Coming up with giant important explanations to what we perceive as giant important events.

    --
    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
    1. Re:Sorry to burst your conspiracy theory... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, but that takes away from the sophomoric belief that you feel you look more insightful or enlightened if you can shit on American culture.

  52. "I'm not anti-vax.... by DewDude · · Score: 1

    and my boobs are totally real!"

  53. Yep. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm a vax zealot.

    I'm absolutely convinced that any moron threatening herd immunity because of an unlicensed porn star should be put to the sword. Idiocy is no excuse for wanting to bring back polio.

    1. Re:Yep. by j-beda · · Score: 1

      I'm a vax zealot.

      I'm absolutely convinced that any moron threatening herd immunity because of an unlicensed porn star should be put to the sword. Idiocy is no excuse for wanting to bring back polio.

      Who licenses porn stars? :-)

  54. Re:What American advocates rarely/never mention... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You get that when they study new vaccines, it's not done in a vacuum, right? A kid enrolled in a vaccine study will have all his other vaccines already, so every new vaccine that gets tested IS being tested in conjunction with all the other scheduled vaccines.

    Furthermore, if the rest of the developed world has a much less intensive vaccination schedule (citation requested), and if vaccinations cause harm, then you ought to see LESS harm in other parts of the world. Can you show me some evidence that the vaccine schedules used elsewhere in the world produce better outcomes? Because (spoiler alert) no such result has ever been detected.

  55. Re:Yeah, maybe not now by CanHasDIY · · Score: 1

    I assume her limited acting engagements got even smaller when film studios realized how badly most people didn't like her because of her anti-vaccine views,

    When IMDB lists your "Known for" as a visit on The View in 1997, two Playboy videos, and Scary Movie 3, I wouldn't characterize it as "limited acting engagements". I'd say non-existent acting engagements.

    Really? No Baseketball reference?

    I thought that was her best role ever. By a longshot.

    --
    An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
  56. Re:What American advocates rarely/never mention... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You might have more credibility if you actually knew how to spell pertussis (I assume that's what you meant). As for your schedule concern, as each vaccine is added, it is tested in large-scale (tens of thousands) clinical trials in children who are already getting the previous vaccine series. Remember, a newborn is being exposed to and gaining immunity to hundreds of new organisms every month for the first few months of life. Being sure that we include a few dozen of the most dangerous ones in this process doesn't seem likely to be problematic and has been demonstrated not to be.

  57. Hit piece by Theaetetus · · Score: 1

    McCarthy is being highly deceitful when she says the only wants "safe" vaccines. What she means by safe is: 100% effective with no side effects and no unexpected reactions in anyone. No medicine ever attains that level of "safe." Not even the aspirin you take for a headache. No, vaccines aren't 100% safe, but they are about 99.999% safe. They are certainly much safer than getting the diseases they prevent. If she wants to wait until something is 100% safe before using it, she would have to avoid all modern medicine. That includes the botox that McCarthy loves getting injected with. (Vaccine toxins are bad but botulinum toxin fights wrinkles so it's good!)

    Except that's not what she means. From her op-ed:

    For my child, I asked for a schedule that would allow one shot per visit instead of the multiple shots they were and still are giving infants.

    If, as you say, she refused vaccines until they were 100% effective with no side effects and no unexpected reactions, then she wouldn't be vaccinating her child at all. Instead, she is vaccinating him, just at a slower rate. She even quotes another blogger, saying:

    You either fall in line with 40-plus vaccines your doctor recommends on his or her schedule or you’re a wack-job ‘anti-vaxxer.’ Heaven forbid you think the gray zone is an intelligent place to reside and you express doubt or fear or maybe want to spread the vaccines out a bit on this tiny person you’ve brought into the world.

    Now, that may not comport with the science, nor is it what the AMA or APA advise, but it's a far cry from being "anti-vax" or lumping her in with people who are opposed to all forms of medicine and use "prayer" instead. Consider this parallel - there are plenty of people who are anti-GMO food, even though there are no scientifically proven adverse effects from it. But we don't brand them "anti-food".

    No, this whole thing is a hit piece, trying to lump her in with the real anti-vax loonies, and in doing so, it does a disservice to people like her who don't understand the science behind vaccinations, and nonetheless want what's best for her kids. This is not a religious fight with people who will never change their minds, but rather an argument with a bunch of well-meaning idiots who can still be educated... unless we treat it as a religious fight and refuse to try to enlighten them.

    1. Re:Hit piece by JMZero · · Score: 2

      Uhh.. The point of the article is that her op-ed is disingenuous and doesn't correspond to what she has said over the years. Quoting from that op-ed to argue that the article writer isn't giving her true position... well, that's not really grasping the chain of argument here.

      The reality is that she's been virulently anti-vaccine over a long period, has played a real part in convincing others to forego vaccination, and is now trying to sell us on something like "she didn't really mean it that way", and pretending she's always held some more moderate position. I mean, go read stuff she wrote years ago.

      --
      Let's not stir that bag of worms...
    2. Re:Hit piece by Theaetetus · · Score: 1

      Uhh.. The point of the article is that her op-ed is disingenuous and doesn't correspond to what she has said over the years. Quoting from that op-ed to argue that the article writer isn't giving her true position... well, that's not really grasping the chain of argument here.

      The reality is that she's been virulently anti-vaccine over a long period, has played a real part in convincing others to forego vaccination, and is now trying to sell us on something like "she didn't really mean it that way", and pretending she's always held some more moderate position. I mean, go read stuff she wrote years ago.

      I did. Did you? Here's a quote from her in January 2011:

      Why aren't there any tests out there on the safety of how vaccines are administered in the real world, six at a time? Why have only 2 of the 36 shots our kids receive been looked at for their relationship to autism? Why hasn't anyone ever studied completely non-vaccinated children to understand their autism rate?
      These missing safety studies are causing many parents to approach vaccines with moderation. Why do other first world countries give children so many fewer vaccines than we do? What if a parent used the vaccine schedule of Denmark, Norway, Japan or Finland -- countries that give one-third the shots we do (12 shots vs. 36 in the U.S.)? Vaccines save lives, but might be harming some children -- is moderation such a terrible idea?

      That seems to coincide with what she's saying now - that she's in favor of slower and reduced vaccination schedules.

      Similarly, here's the transcript of her Larry King appearance, where she says (emphasis added):

      CARREY: We are not saying don't vaccinate. That's the thing we want to get really clear right now with ...
      KING: Let's make it clear.
      MCCARTHY: Yeah, we're not.
      CARREY: This is the thing. There's a lot of misdirection going on. We hear the Campbell Browns and people like this that are saying, you can't not vaccinate. No one has ever suggested not vaccinating.
      MCCARTHY: Go back to 1989 schedule when shots were only 10 and the MMR was on that list. I don't know what happened in 1990, there was no plague that was killing children that we had to triple the amount of vaccines.

      Again, that's not anti-vaccination generally, that's opposed to the current schedule. Farther down in the transcript:

      HANDLEY: Larry, it's on the old schedule. We welcome the people doing the measles and mumps shot.
      KING: You want the measles and mumps shots ...
      HANDLEY: Absolutely.
      CARREY: Vaccinate for the measles, vaccinate ...
      KING: So people are overreacting in canceling that vaccine.
      CARREY: Absolutely, and vaccinate for polio. That is on the '89 schedule. But what happened after that?
      MCCARTHY: But things like the rotavirus which is a diarrhea vaccine, we say really?
      CARREY: If you have access to clean water and health care, it's very difficult to die of diarrhea.

      Again, that was 2011. If she's in favor of measles, mumps, and polio vaccinations, it's tough to claim she's anti-vaccination, and you can't really claim she's changed her story by saying she's not anti-vaccination now.

      Now, let me be clear - I disagree with her about the science, and don't believe that the vaccinations contain toxins that must be "cleaned out" between rounds, nor do I think there's any link between autism and vaccination. I also think that many of the new vaccinations are great and should be given to kids, such as the HPV vaccination. But this isn't a dichotomy - she's clearly not "anti-vaccination" in any general sense, and she doesn't appear to have changed her argument at all from "let's space out vaccinations and return to the fewer number that were given in the 80s". I can disagree with her without having to call her a liar.

    3. Re:Hit piece by Theaetetus · · Score: 1

      Er, sorry - here is the Larry King transcript referenced in my last reply.

    4. Re:Hit piece by JMZero · · Score: 1

      Yeah... Uh, go back to 2008 and listen to her talk, in fairly certain terms, about how vaccines (and fungus and who the hell knows what else) cause autism and mental regression in children. This was when this wave of anti-vaccination scare was just getting going, and she played a big part in popularizing it.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

      I don't know if it's in that video, but I remember her saying, pretty much "Would you rather your child have measles, or autism?"

      At the same time, she was supporting very dangerous crap like chelation as an autism treatment (with the idea that you could remove the mercury from the vaccinations, and then the autism would go away or something) - pretty much telling parents with autistic children to "try everything", so they could be cured like she believed her son was (there's a good chance her son didn't actually have autism to begin with.. but that's another story).

      Again, the fact that she's now moderated some of these views doesn't mean she didn't do real harm.

      --
      Let's not stir that bag of worms...
    5. Re:Hit piece by Theaetetus · · Score: 1

      Yeah... Uh, go back to 2008 and listen to her talk, in fairly certain terms, about how vaccines (and fungus and who the hell knows what else) cause autism and mental regression in children. This was when this wave of anti-vaccination scare was just getting going, and she played a big part in popularizing it.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

      I don't know if it's in that video, but I remember her saying, pretty much "Would you rather your child have measles, or autism?"

      It's referenced in the BA piece. The full quote is:

      People have the misconception that we want to eliminate vaccines. Please understand that we are not an antivaccine group. We are demanding safe vaccines. We want to reduce the schedule and reduce the toxins. If you ask a parent of an autistic child if they want the measles or the autism, we will stand in line for the f--king measles.

      That's consistent with her stated belief that there are too many vaccinations, given too quickly, and doesn't show any change in her position.

      Again, the fact that she's now moderated some of these views doesn't mean she didn't do real harm.

      I agree that this does harm, but it's mainly because there are real anti-vaxxers who don't get any vaccines, primarily out of religious belief. The ones who are following McCarthy aren't in that camp, but are simply misinformed and gullible people who want to do the best they can for their kids. Their minds can be changed, but not with hyperbole and misrepresentations.

    6. Re:Hit piece by JMZero · · Score: 1

      I agree that this does harm, but it's mainly because there are real anti-vaxxers who don't get any vaccines, primarily out of religious belief.

      There's lots of people who don't get vaccines because they think it'll give their kids autism. Which they think because people, including Jenny McCarthy, told them it did. She held onto this belief, virulently, in the face of a lot of evidence - supporting Dr. What's his name long after it made any sense.

      --
      Let's not stir that bag of worms...
    7. Re:Hit piece by Theaetetus · · Score: 1

      I agree that this does harm, but it's mainly because there are real anti-vaxxers who don't get any vaccines, primarily out of religious belief.

      There's lots of people who don't get vaccines because they think it'll give their kids autism. Which they think because people, including Jenny McCarthy, told them it did. She held onto this belief, virulently, in the face of a lot of evidence - supporting Dr. What's his name long after it made any sense.

      Yeah, but the problem is that if you say "you're listening to someone who is well-meaning, but wrong, and here's why," they'll listen. If you say "you're listening to a liar who wants to kill kids," they won't listen. You're misrepresenting her position in the latter, which reduces your credibility, even if you're 100% right about the science.

    8. Re:Hit piece by JMZero · · Score: 1

      I agree she was probably well meaning to start - but she was also dangerously irresponsible.

      And now I think she understands she was at least partly wrong - but instead of coming out and saying "Hey, I got some stuff wrong about vaccines and autism and autism treatment", which I think could really help sway some people in a positive way, she's equivocating.

      In terms of "how should we talk to people who don't want to vaccinate", I'd agree villainizing McCarthy is probably not helpful. But, personally, I think she did something ethically wrong by staking so many people's health on her own little anecdote. I mean, she didn't just make a personal call on some health decision, she evangelized this idea as hard as she could.

      And I think she's choosing now to downplay all that to avoid embarassment, or maybe to avoid feeling like she betrayed people - instead of owning up to mistakes and potentially doing a lot of good.

      --
      Let's not stir that bag of worms...
    9. Re:Hit piece by Theaetetus · · Score: 1

      And I think she's choosing now to downplay all that to avoid embarassment, or maybe to avoid feeling like she betrayed people - instead of owning up to mistakes and potentially doing a lot of good.

      That's true, but if every person who was ever wrong acted conciliatory and apologetic instead of defensive, we'd live in a very different and utopian society.

    10. Re:Hit piece by rjstanford · · Score: 1

      Except that's not what she means. From her op-ed:

      For my child, I asked for a schedule that would allow one shot per visit instead of the multiple shots they were and still are giving infants.

      Which is in its very nature another way of stating that combining multiple vaccines is somehow less safe than giving multiple shots, which as far as I know has never been proven.

      it does a disservice to people like her who don't understand the science behind vaccinations, and nonetheless want what's best for her kids.

      Yes, because they're asking for what feels safer instead of what actually is safer, in this case leaving their children unimmunized for longer than they have to be even if they eventually "catch up" to the full schedule.

      --
      You're special forces then? That's great! I just love your olympics!
    11. Re:Hit piece by Theaetetus · · Score: 1

      Except that's not what she means. From her op-ed:

      For my child, I asked for a schedule that would allow one shot per visit instead of the multiple shots they were and still are giving infants.

      Which is in its very nature another way of stating that combining multiple vaccines is somehow less safe than giving multiple shots, which as far as I know has never been proven.

      And yet, simultaneously, is quite different from the "anti-vaccination" position the article claims she has or held. As I said, she's wrong about the science, but that doesn't mean that she's lying about her position.

      it does a disservice to people like her who don't understand the science behind vaccinations, and nonetheless want what's best for her kids.

      Yes, because they're asking for what feels safer instead of what actually is safer, in this case leaving their children unimmunized for longer than they have to be even if they eventually "catch up" to the full schedule.

      Here's the rest of that quote:

      No, this whole thing is a hit piece, trying to lump her in with the real anti-vax loonies, and in doing so, it does a disservice to people like her who don't understand the science behind vaccinations, and nonetheless want what's best for her kids. This is not a religious fight with people who will never change their minds, but rather an argument with a bunch of well-meaning idiots who can still be educated... unless we treat it as a religious fight and refuse to try to enlighten them.

      If we acknowledge that people want what's safer, even if they're making bad choices about what actually is safer, then we can work towards that common goal and educate them. If, on the other hand, we misrepresent their words in order to call them liars, then they're never going to listen to us, because we've just destroyed our own credibility: if someone sees us misquoting McCarthy or misrepresenting her position, then why should they believe us about what's safe for their kids?

    12. Re:Hit piece by rjstanford · · Score: 1

      And yet, simultaneously, is quite different from the "anti-vaccination" position the article claims she has or held. As I said, she's wrong about the science, but that doesn't mean that she's lying about her position.

      When she's on record as saying things like "If you give us a safe vaccine, we'll use it. It shouldn't be polio versus autism." (and she is), to me that's as good as saying, "The current polio vaccine causes autism." Other classic Jenny quotes that don't jibe with her current stance:

      "Without a doubt in my mind, I believe that vaccinations triggered Evan's autism."

      "People are also dying from vaccinations. Evan, my son, died in front of me for two minutes. You ask any mother in the autism community if we'll take the flu, the measles, over autism and day of the week. I think they need to wake up and stop hurting our kids."

      So yeah, she's not anti-vaccine, she just doesn't feel that the current vaccines are safe and that you shouldn't take any that aren't. That's not misrepresenting her position, that's just repeating her words.

      --
      You're special forces then? That's great! I just love your olympics!
  58. Fair enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm not anti-Jenny McCarthy. I just think she should die in a fire, thats all.

    1. Re:Fair enough by azav · · Score: 1

      that's*

      I'm not anti-you. I just think that you should learn fourth grade English.

      --
      - Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
  59. Next step in the movement.... by stox · · Score: 1

    Intelligently designed vaccines.

    --
    "To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
  60. Jenny needs by azav · · Score: 1

    to learn the difference between bioavailable mercury and non-bioavailable mercury.

    Jenny needs a college biology degree.

    --
    - Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
    1. Re:Jenny needs by drinkypoo · · Score: 0

      to learn the difference between bioavailable mercury and non-bioavailable mercury.

      And you need to learn to look at papers which don't share your bias. There is still question about what the breakdown products of Thimerosal actually are. And since it has actually been used for flu shots for schoolchildren in the USA since it wasn't supposed to be, it's still an item for discussion.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  61. Appeal to hysteria is better! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I had mercury fillings in my teeth when I was younger, which I was then told was poisonous and had to be drilled out and replaced

    Jenny, is that you?

  62. Death Row by bricko · · Score: 1

    She is a liar. Should be on death row for all the children she had killed.

  63. George Carlin nailed it by RogueWarrior65 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "Hello. I'm a famous person...and I'm for sale. Do have a product or a business that needs promotion? Do you sell something worthless? Something no one will buy because it's poorly built and doesn't work properly? Likely to come apart at high speeds? Perhaps with toxic side effects? Well, I'm here to help you. I'll take your product and I'll sell it to them because they trust me. That's right; they trust me because...I'm a famous person."

    Now will somebody please explain to me why people shouldn't listen to this particular celebrity but we should all listen to and shout hosannas to the rogue's gallery of celebrities James Cameron got to spout off in his global warming movie.

    1. Re:George Carlin nailed it by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Why should we pay attention to celebrities on global warming? That's as stupid as believing vaccinations cause autism because of some celebrity. It doesn't matter whether the celebrity is saying something backed up scientifically or not, because I'm at least as competent at figuring things out as most celebrities.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    2. Re:George Carlin nailed it by Alsee · · Score: 1

      Now will somebody please explain to me why people shouldn't listen to this particular celebrity but we should all listen to and shout hosannas to the rogue's gallery of celebrities James Cameron got to spout off in his global warming movie.

      Because the percentage of scientists who say anti-vax is nonsense is within a rounding error of 100%,
      and because the percentage of scientists who say global warming is real and serious is within a rounding error of 100%.

      (Not that I know jack squat about James Cameron's movie, but the question was why one celebrity voice would be credible while another would not be. A celebrity who doesn't speak French, but who accurately recites a French dictionary, is backed by the full credibility of that dictionary.)

      -

      --
      - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
  64. Re:Vaccinces cause and carry Cancer!!! by 3.5+stripes · · Score: 1

    I hope you get all of those things at one time.

    It still won't make up for all the other people who will die because of your bullshit, but it would certainly be a small bit of justice.

    --


    He tried to kill me with a forklift!
  65. Reduce the toxins by Spazmania · · Score: 1

    We want to reduce the schedule and reduce the toxins.

    Er... a vaccine is generally a weakened form of the actual disease you're trying to protect against. It's a little concept called "immunotherapy." One doesn't create a vaccine by running away from toxins, one embraces the toxins in a manner that stimulates the body to protect itself.

    --
    Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
    1. Re:Reduce the toxins by GodfatherofSoul · · Score: 1

      One doesn't create a vaccine by running away from toxins, one embraces the toxins

      That's very Buddhist

      --
      I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
    2. Re:Reduce the toxins by Spazmania · · Score: 1

      It's very Science. You tinker with the disease so it'll no longer kill you and then expose yourself so that your autoimmune response will be triggered. This results in antibodies ready to fight off the full strength version should you ever come in contact with it.

      That's what a vaccine is.

      The concept was discovered back when someone thought to wonder why milk maids always had smooth skin. It turned out they didn't get smallpox like everybody else. But every one of them caught smallpox's weaker cousin, cowpox, early in life.

      Catch is, tinkering with a disease so it won't kill you is only about 99.999% successful. The other 0.001% of the time it kills you anyway. So you don't want to take a vaccine for every conceivable disease... just for those you're likely to come in to contact with.

      --
      Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
    3. Re:Reduce the toxins by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship.

      Well it's a good thing there's no "-1, Disagree" option.

      In my experience, the only people complaining about how they only get modded down because someone is trying to censor them, are the trolls. Not to say you are one, but you do have an up-hill battle to convince people otherwise.

  66. "Toxins" by FuzzNugget · · Score: 2

    This is a word, when spoken by anyone other than a respected and trustworthy medical professional or scientist, should put your bullshit meter on high alert.

    They throw this word around like a catch-all, as if it trumps any argument. Hell, it even *sounds* ominous. It evokes mental imagery of a skull and crossbones and attempts to sway you into someone's camp by suppressing the logical and critical thinking portions of your mind.

    What are these supposed toxins? They're toxins, duh! Toxins are dangerous! Are you stupid? You don't want people to think your stupid do you?

    1. Re:"Toxins" by Shatrat · · Score: 1

      Toxins are almost as bad as Chemicals!

      --
      09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
    2. Re:"Toxins" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is a word, when spoken by anyone other than a respected and trustworthy medical professional or scientist, should put your bullshit meter on high alert.

      They throw this word around like a catch-all, as if it trumps any argument. Hell, it even *sounds* ominous. It evokes mental imagery of a skull and crossbones and attempts to sway you into someone's camp by suppressing the logical and critical thinking portions of your mind.

      What are these supposed toxins? They're toxins, duh! Toxins are dangerous! Are you stupid? You don't want people to think your stupid do you?

      Its cuz they got electrolytes!

  67. Dumb Blonde by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And we all know how she got her medical education while posing with her legs spread for Playboy. "Celebs" need to learn to keep their mouths shut about things such as science and politics as those are subjects too complicated for their minds.

  68. turkey yacht charter by light+tour · · Score: 1

    we are the company from turkey we have our gulet we do gulet charter www.holidaygulet.com

  69. She's _not_ [merely] anti-vaccine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    She's anti-evidence and anti-thought. The anti-vaccine stuff is merely a symptom; you can't have a religion without there being a FUCKTON of extra baggage underneath the relatively trivial symptoms of your specific beliefs. It's the larger and more general belief (that it is impossible for people to learn things by observing evidence and make inferences) by which one of these people should be labeled.

  70. Re:Bloody Idiot-YOU!! by Nexion · · Score: 1

    Don't worry, you are vaccinated against them, right? I love how ridiculous the zealots on both sides can be.

  71. Has this changed? by Latent+Heat · · Score: 1
    Can someone weigh in on the vaccine schedule? I had heard that it is not just a parent "refusing vaccination" for their child but that "getting vaccinated" means being bombarded with shots like in an Army induction physical?

    Couldn't there be some kind of Common Core -- for Public Health reasons, we want your kid to have the vaccines for Polio, Diptheria-Pertusis, Measles, Rubella, and Chicken Pox, or is the list much, much longer?

    1. Re:Has this changed? by the+phantom · · Score: 4, Informative

      The CDC recommended vaccination schedule is easy to find, and contains a "Common Core" of vaccinations (your list, plus a couple more---this is not much, much longer than your list). Of those on the list, the only one that is not obviously part of building herd immunity is the Tetanus vaccine, though given how nasty Tetanus can be to an individual and how effective the vaccine is, it seems like an obvious choice to me.

    2. Re:Has this changed? by Agent0013 · · Score: 1

      Yeah, Tetanus can be nasty. And I think the vaccine is worth getting. It is worth pointing out that it is also treatable after getting it if you go to the doctor within a reasonable time frame. So it isn't quite as bad of a thing to get as it used to be.

      --

      -- ssoorrrryy,, dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh oonn.. -Quote found on actual fortune cookie.
    3. Re:Has this changed? by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      They often put several vaccines into the same shot though. Part of this whole anti-vacc hoax paper was all about a single shot for mumps/measles/rubella, and Wakefield claimed that three separate shots would be safer. Sort of ironic that he wanted more shots and yet the anti-vaccine movement he spurred on wants fewer.

  72. People change... by dtjohnson · · Score: 1

    Jenny McCarthy is obviously not a mental giant but...give her credit for changing her mind. Before she had kids, she might have thought vaccines were the spawn of satan but after becoming a Mom, maybe they didn't look so bad. From TFA, sounds like she's wanting 'one poke per visit' to the Doctor which is a whole lot better than those parents who refuse to give their kids any vaccines whatsoever. This Slashdot article seems pointless other than to try and make the case that Jenny McCarthy is a hypocrite and bring out some discussion about vaccines. However, we have to cut McCarthy some slack on the hypocrite charge as people are allowed to change their mind with the passage of time.

    1. Re:People change... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Jenny McCarthy is obviously not a mental giant but...give her credit for changing her mind. Before she had kids, she might have thought vaccines were the spawn of satan but after becoming a Mom, maybe they didn't look so bad.

      You got it backwards. She claimed her son got autism from the MMR vaccine. That's when she started speaking out against vaccination – after she became a mother, and after her son's diagnosis. Also, he was cured through a combination of a milk and gluten free diet, and praying.

  73. Vaccines did contain some questional ingredients by Theovon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It’s not mytical that some vaccines used to contain thiomersal, a mercury-based preservative. This was replaced with an aluminum compound, and aluminum is correlated with diseases like Alzheimer’s. Of course, we have no evidence that aluminum accumlation causes Alzheimer’s; it could just as well accumulate as a side-effect. Still, it’s cause for investigation. Some flu vaccines are grown in chicken eggs, which may be of concern to someone who has an allergy to eggs. In general, most preservatives aren’t a good thing to be putting into your body, although I’m at a loss how else you’d give vaccines a reasonable shelf life.

    As for autism, there is a growing but confusing and often conflicting body of evidence that it is associated with a variety of different things: Inability of the liver to keep up with metabolizing toxins, over-activation of the immune system, food sensitivities, and a number of things I can’t remember right off. Actually, the three I listed aren’t entirely unrelated. Food sensitivities can cause heightened immune response (depending on the nature of the sensitivity), some of which are auto-immune like celiac disease. As for the liver, I don’t fully understand its role, but there seems to be some issue with competition for a limited resource (which is why taking too much tylenol and/or alcohol can cause liver damage), and it’s involved in doing some cleanup during immune response, I think, and if your body is busy dealing with a pathogen (perceived or real) then it won’t deal with other brain-affecting toxins well enough. (If you want to spend the time to check this, please do.)

    One hypothesis regarding autism is that there is an accumulation of toxins in the system that the liver can’t keep up with, and those toxins impair brain function. If you eliminate foods you’re sensitive to, the liver has less work to do and can better keep up with the remaining toxin workload.

    So the reasoning seems to be that vaccines cause an overactivation of the immune system and that that response is somehow different from the normal one if you contract the real disease, that over-activation lasts a long time, and during that period, the liver is too busy to metabolize toxins that cause autism.

    Ok, fine. Let’s go with that. So vaccines may add ONE contributing factor that may, in some circumstances, overload liver function. Also, so do allergenic foods, polluted air, polluted ground water, BPA, pesticides, etc., etc. But the one thing they pick on is vaccines? Of course, because we HAVE to eat our shitty American diet and drive our gas-guzzling cars and blast our farms with neurotoxins. Oh, NO. We couldn’t possibly boycott those other things with the same vehemence (and possibly ignorance) that we do with vaccines!

    So my opinion is this. If you think that vaccines cause autism and you’re being a responsible parent by keeping your kids off vaccines, then you’re a moron unless you also:
    - Drive only solar electric vehicles or use horses
    - Use reverse osmosis and only glass containers for ALL of your water consumption
    - Eat a 100% organic paleo diet

    Just to name few. Because only then will you at least have any semblance of consistency in your reasoning. I can’t say for sure whether or not you’d be RIGHT, but at least you’d be CONSISTENT.

    As for me, I get my kids vaccinated but we also eat a mostly organic diet, high in nutrients, low in junk food, and we filter our water. Also, we live out in the country and get fresh air. So IF there is some kind of convoluted link between vaccines and autism, I think we’ve more than offset that risk by removing some of the OTHER potential environmental factors sometimes vaguely linked with autism. Also, we feel better because we eat healthier food, and I’ve lost 30 lbs (down from almost 190) since December 2013 by putting myself on the paleo diet (actually, it’s SCD, but you never heard of it). BTW, although I and my wife both have family histories of ASD, neither of our kids show any sign of it, despite the fact that they get vaccinated.

  74. Not anti-vax, anti-autism by Xaedalus · · Score: 1

    Which in my mind is even scarier. If you look at her statement comparing standing in line for measles as opposed to autism, it could be interpreted as "I'd rather my children catch the measles because at least it isn't permanent, whereas autism is". Autism is an economic death sentence to most families in America, whereas measles is survivable with a decent chance of no lasting effects. What Jenny and her cohorts (IMHO) seem to believe is that autism can be induced or transmitted, and that it is far worse than any illness a child could be vaccinated against. To me, that's an insult to all the functional autistics and Aspies out there.

    --
    Here's to hot beer, cold women, and Glaswegian kisses for all.
  75. Typical denialist tactic by GameboyRMH · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm not totally against X in a way that would make me seem like a total loon to any sane person, I just have certain important qualms with X which may seem reasonable on the surface but, if you pick at it, amount to something indistinguishable from total denial of the issue.

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    1. Re:Typical denialist tactic by BergZ · · Score: 1

      She should just call herself a vaccine "skeptic".
      Suddenly her reputation will go from anti-science loon, to hero of "free-thinkers" (aka conspiracy nutjobs) for challenging the scientific consensus about vaccines!

      --
      Warning: This sig is not thread safe. For more information see Slashdot's sig policy.
  76. My son is autistic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My son is autistic and he showed signs of it before he even received his first shots. So how would they have caused his condition?

  77. Because she said it publicly by sjbe · · Score: 2

    Is it because of her advanced medical degree? Her first hand knowledge of the pharmaceutical industry?

    Because if you say ANYTHING, no matter how absurd, on television or any other public forum, someone is going to believe it. Doesn't matter if it is true or not. Doesn't matter if it is clearly a joke. Doesn't matter if you explicitly say that it isn't true. Doesn't matter if it is not supported by the evidence, or just clearly logically wrong to anyone with a functioning brain. Some non-zero percentage of the population will absolutely believe it if it is said out loud.

    Many people who have to deal with autism are looking for a scapegoat. They want to believe there is a cause other than random chance roll of the genetic dice and that we know what that cause is even when we do not. They are unwilling to accept that the current answer is "we don't know". They want to believe that someone is to blame for their situation. Combine that with the fact that humans are REALLY good at pattern matching, to the point where we often find patterns where there aren't any. As a result they will grasp onto anything that resembles an explanation. They might blame chemicals or vaccines or "immoral" behavior, or comets, or government conspiracies or lack of prayer or violent video games or a minority group conspiracy or any number of other explanations that clearly don't work when examined against the available facts.

    There are several logical fallacies at work here. Post hoc ergo propter hoc, confirmation bias, magical thinking, fallacy of the single cause, and probably some others I'm not thinking of.

  78. the universe really is out to get you by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well that and the laws of physics are working for big brother. When the universe is against you how can you hope to win?

  79. Re:What American advocates rarely/never mention... by Overzeetop · · Score: 1

    Where are my mod points when I need them. Thank you - I couldn't have said it better myself.

    --
    Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
  80. Re:Autism by mfh · · Score: 1

    If there were another smart animal on this planet, as smart as we are and more cooperative and less likely to lie to each other AND being speciist, ie not trusting human beings, then they would have an evolutionary advantage as a species over us. There isn't.

    This is totally mind-blowing to consider. Perhaps that's exactly the kind of species we could encounter that was space-faring, and from another planet, solar system or galaxy. When you consider the Borg in Star Trek terms fits this concept perfectly, it's a little chilling. I wonder if it's simply free will and a short lifespan that causes a species to be so completely dishonest as human beings.

    --
    The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
  81. Re:Yeah, maybe not now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Let me get this out of the way. I have the full set and will be giving them to my kids.

    However, this is why I listen to the other side. Not because she is right about it. But because she actually has an idea. Lets go back and re-check this crap. Science is not a line in the sand. It is a shifting line where what was 'true' yesterday may be not so good today. She may have moved the goal posts. But science does too. Are the schedules right? Are the amounts right? There was a girl in NY who recently got measles and she was fully vaccinated and gave it to 5 others who were too. Thats not good. Something is broken and they are looking into it.

    It is like the 8 glasses of water thing. Where did that come from? What is the basis of that? Is it sound? Or did someone make something up?

    We are trusting the doctors to get it right. But they should be going back and triple checking things (as we are trusting them to do)?

    If we didnt check things we would still be pumping people full of mercury for VD's. Not a few drops either. Full on syringes of the stuff. It is their job to correlate the studies and quad check it. All I can do is trust they know what they are doing at this moment.

    Never mind that science doesn't work this way. You don't get to make a claim with no evidence and then declare that you are right until people prove you wrong.
    Where did you learn the scientific method? That is *exactly* how the scientific method works. You make a claim then prove it right or wrong. However, many ideas are wrong. In fact wildly wrong. This woman just happens to have a platform to say her wrong idea louder than others. So you have to be even more diligent. Science is not always about science. Many times there is emotion and politics involved too. Its not 'right' but it is what it is.

  82. Sooooo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What is this really? The media attaching the stupidity of a lady to a story that makes it harder to get change to happen? By that I mean, vaccines, while I believe are necessary, do have things in them that they do not need and are only put in to produce a cheaper product that make them unsafe while the manufacturers make profit on which they never pass on to the consumer in lower cost. And why would anyone choose a less safe product to safe cash? So now we have Mcarthy attached to wanting the safer ingredients in vaccines, so it must be "crazy" or "ridicules" to even suggest so.

  83. Medical authority vs you by sjbe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    However, you can't simply appeal to authority. The medical community is often wrong.

    Yes they are wrong with surprising frequency. That does not however mean that you cannot appeal to authority unless you have evidence that they authority is reasonably likely to be wrong. My wife is a doctor and has quite literally forgotten more about medicine than I will ever know. I would be an absolute fool to not take her opinions on any medical matter very seriously. Doesn't mean I have to turn my brain off or that she cannot be wrong but the vast majority of the time she understands the issues involved FAR better than I will. We trust doctors because by and large they have a very credible track record of actually getting it right more than anyone else. In the absence of other available data a trusted expert with a credible track record is a good source of information to listen to.

    The pharmaceutical industry has sold some utter crap to people. It routinely does bad things in the name profit.

    They also have produced miracle treatments that save lives and alleviate suffering. LOTS of them. Odds are very good that the big percentage of the people reading this are alive today because of the drugs produced by the pharmaceutical industry. They also are closely regulated to ensure that opportunities for quackery are minimized. Just because there have been some criminals in the industry doesn't make the entire industry guilty by association. Microsoft has sold a lot of crap software in the name of profit but we don't blame the entire software industry for their actions. Doing so for the pharma industry is an equally illogical application of guilt by association.

    Of all Ms. McCarthy's flaws inherent distrust of the medical industry is not one of them in my opinion.

    It is when there is a HUGE amount of evidence that vaccines are largely safe, effective, have few side effects and save lives. You don't have to trust the medical industry but if you don't trust the mountains of credible data available supporting the use of vaccines and other demonstrably effective drugs then you are an idiot. The data is available if you care to look into it. Miss McCarthy plainly has never bothered and her actions almost certainly have lead to preventable deaths and illnesses from confused parents who avoided vaccines for no good reason. What she has done is functionally equivalent to shouting fire in a crowded movie theater when there is no fire. I think her actions are borderline criminal.

    I have no problem with a healthy skepticism of any claim no matter how well accepted. Test any and all hypothesis you can. That's how science is supposed to work. But (falsely) claiming authoritatively that there is a link between vaccines and autism when literally none of the evidence supports that claim is irresponsible in the extreme.

    1. Re:Medical authority vs you by NoKaOi · · Score: 1

      I think her actions are borderline criminal.

      Not borderline. She should be charged with negligent homicide. She gave medical advice without a license and that resulted in deaths. A reasonable person putting so much time and effort as she is should have known the evidence is so strongly against a link between autism and vaccines. A reasonable person should have read about Wakefield's fraud and known she was wrong. Too bad DAs are politicians and not one of them will have the balls to charge her.

  84. Opportunity cost by sjbe · · Score: 5, Insightful

    McCarthy has a good point. We can't keep pumping our kids full of these old vaccines without doing regular studies, and using some of the profits to ensure safer versions.

    No she does NOT have a good point. There already have been copious studies of these drugs safety and efficacy. There also have been numerous (and ongoing) studies of the many theories of dangers presented by these vaccines, all of which have shown that her theories have no evidence backing them up whatsoever. Every time someone has to go and stomp out another anti-vax lunatic theory creates an opportunity cost. Those people could have spent their time and money and energy working on newer or safer vaccines instead of proving yet-another unsupported safety claim wrong.

    Personally I will selectively vaccinate my kids up to a certain age, depending on risk factor, then they can choose themselves. I had both mumps and measles, it was hardly a big deal. If the kids are old enough it's probably even better they get it naturally and get over it than take the vaccine.

    You are an idiot and a dangerous idiot at that. Mumps and measles can and do kill people and cause significant and lasting damage in many they do not kill. Furthermore you aren't just endangering your own children. You are allowing them to be potential carriers of the disease to other people who cannot be vaccinated against it whether due to age or medical conditions. Actions like what you propose demonstrably results in people dying when it could have been prevented. What you propose is incredibly irresponsible since every bit of scientific data we have says that the safest and most effective solution for both your children and society at large is to get vaccinated.

    1. Re:Opportunity cost by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are allowing them to be potential carriers of the disease to other people who cannot be vaccinated against it whether due to age or medical conditions.

      ...and also for those that did get vaccinated but for which the vaccine didn't provide immunity - most vaccines are not 100% effective.

    2. Re:Opportunity cost by Belial6 · · Score: 1

      While the mumps and measles vaccines cause more good than harm (even if every single case of autism were casued by the vaccine), you would save more lives by banning home cooked meals than the best case scenerio for giving kids the chicken pox vaccine. I don't watch much with Jenny McCarthy, so I can't tell you about every interview she has had, but I do see articles like this one, and the people writing the article consistantly quote her, and then claim that what she said was different than what they just quoted. They almost alway resort to ad hominem attacks, and will try to change the subject, and then accuse her of being the one who 'moved the goal posts'.

      I followed the links in the summary. If I didn't know better, I would think that they were plants for an anti-vaccination movement.

  85. Guilt by association by sjbe · · Score: 1

    Doctors have been taking kick-backs for prescribing drugs for years.

    SOME doctors do that. Most do not. Most doctors are decent, honest and hard working people who dedicate their lives to keeping you and me healthy. Just because a few turn out to be criminals doesn't mean it is accurate or fair to assume all are.

    They have a long historical record of gettings things wrong.

    Show me ANY branch of science where we do not have a long history of getting things wrong. The only way to find out what works is to try things and find out what works and what doesn't. There is a lot we don't know about they human body and medicine is very complicated. Furthermore doctors have a very clear track record of saving far more lives than their actions cost. The average lifespan of humans has DOUBLED largely thanks to doctors and modern medicines. Just because we don't know everything and make mistakes doesn't invalidate the enormous benefit doctors provide to society.

    However something you are giving to an entire generation of healthy children you had better be pretty damn sure there aren't going to be side-effects down the line.

    There ALWAYS are going to be side effects with any drug. You literally cannot have a 100% safe drug. It is impossible. You will do far more harm by insisting that drugs be 100% safe (they will never come to market) than by understanding the risks profile of the drugs available.

  86. Why we vaccinate by sjbe · · Score: 1

    Yes, but that does not lead to "... therefore, we should vaccinate".

    Actually it does lead to that. That is EXACTLY why we vaccinate. We vaccinate because it saves lives, reduces medical costs (more expensive to treat than prevent), reduces suffering and enables a greater realization of human potential.

    Is culling of the herd necessarily a bad thing for humanity in the long perspective?

    You're not "culling the herd". You're not weeding out the weak in most cases. You simply are allowing suffering to continue needlessly. Measles doesn't kill most people it infects before they reproduce so you aren't "culling the herd" in any meaningful way by withholding vaccines.

    Is there a plus for humanity to increasing lifespans, or will that slow down evolution?

    There are many pluses to increasing lifespans. The most obvious is that people are able to contribute productively to society for longer. More useful work can be done with a longer lifespan. Enabling longer lifespans does not eliminate evolutionary pressure - it merely changes the source of it.

    Would humanity be better off if we put half of the money that goes to medical science and practice into other sciences?

    You really are cold blooded aren't you? Do you realize the lack of empathy it takes to seriously ask that question? I hope no one ever has to depend on you for their well being.

    1. Re:Why we vaccinate by Copid · · Score: 1

      Come on! It makes sense! Letting people die of polio eliminates the weak people who tend to die of polio. Never mind that nobody has to die of polio so that "weakness" is kind of a non-issue. We could expand this philosophy wider by setting land mines everywhere. Sure, it's a problem we don't actually have to live with, but it does keep us on our toes and it weeds out people who don't pay attention and people with bad clotting times.

      A colleague of mine suggested that we screen resumes by randomly shredding 50% of them. Those are the unlucky people. Why would you want an unlucky person on your team? If only the lucky people are left behind, the team is much better off.

      --
      An interesting anagram of "BANACH TARSKI" is "BANACH TARSKI BANACH TARSKI"
    2. Re:Why we vaccinate by arth1 · · Score: 1

      Actually it does lead to that. That is EXACTLY why we vaccinate. We vaccinate because it saves lives, reduces medical costs (more expensive to treat than prevent), reduces suffering and enables a greater realization of human potential.

      You're begging the question at least twice here, using your belief that life should be saved and suffering avoided at all costs as justification for saving life and avoiding suffering through vaccination.

      For costs, do you think I favor treatment when I don't favor vaccination? Let the weak die. It's the low cost solution. Spend that money on something that has long term value, like physics.

      As for realization of human potential, sorry, you're wrong. As the weak die, they get replaced with other individuals who can realize their human potential. The higher the mortality, the higher the birth rate can (and will) be. It's a zero sum game.
      If your kids die, change partners to try to make better ones, or adopt some poor but healthier 3rd world kids. No potential lost.

      You really are cold blooded aren't you?

      I care a lot - about humanity, and our far future, and far less about individuals who live today. Does that make me callous? Perhaps. I think that's needed, as a reaction to the kum-ba-yah society of today where everyone are indoctrinated to cuddle and care about their own culture, and not give a fuck about the future or those with different complexion.

      The saying goes that one person dead is a tragedy, a hundred dead is news, and a million dead is statistics. I think it should be the other way around. Let hundreds die now to save millions in the future, and don't spend a second worrying about individuals dying. Individuals are a renewable resource, humanity is not.

  87. Accusation of Anti-Vaccine Stance by skywire · · Score: 1

    >'If you ask a parent of an autistic child if they want the measles or the autism, we will stand in line for the f--king measles.' That missing line rather changes the tone of her position considerably, writes Phil Plait and is a difficult stance to square with someone who is not anti-vaccine.

    There is nothing necessarily anti-vaccine about her words here. The devil is in the details -- the relative risks of each choice for the individual child, and the risks to the population from the reduction of herd immunity resulting from an individual child's being opted out.

    --
    Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
  88. Re:Vaccinces cause and carry Cancer!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Y'know, it's typically nice to cite your sources if you're going to do a copy-paste dump like this, but I wouldn't want people knowing I take vactruth.com seriously, either.

  89. Fine by silentcoder · · Score: 1

    You're not anti-vaccine... you're just pro-infectious-disease.

    --
    Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
  90. Herd immunity and opportunity cost by sjbe · · Score: 1

    They knocked over a single pin and said that that was representative of any potential link with autism. They then went on to throw balls to represent all the different diseases that vaccines protect against. But the "cost" of all vaccines was only counted once. The "benefit" of vaccine protection was counted dozens of times.

    It's an imperfect analogy but they are generally right. They are talking about two things. One is herd immunity. When you are vaccinated you not only cannot get the disease but you cannot transmit it to others either. This means you aren't just protecting yourself once, you are protecting others repeatedly. The other thing they are talking about is the fact that you probably aren't exposed to each virus just once. Odds are good you'll come in contact with a widely spread virus from multiple sources. So by immunizing once you are protected repeatedly. The cost of each vaccine (collectively) is a one time expense but the benefit of it is incurred repeatedly down the line.

    It is FAR more economically efficient to vaccinate and prevent infection altogether than to treat infection after they occur. Not only do you save on medical expenses and reduce suffering but you also recoup a lot of opportunity cost from productivity that otherwise would have been lost.

  91. Zealots by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Are those anything like pro-vax zealots, who blindly prattle on about how vaccines are perfect in every way and anyone who questions them is a religious, uneducated, Fascist/communist nutjob? Vaccines have of course on the whole been a massive benefit for humanity, but misuse/overuse of them DOES cause more harm than good in specific cases. If you don't believe me look up the "1976 swine flu outbreak", $500 million wasted (inflation adjusted), 25 dead and 500 cases Guillain–Barré syndrome, all for a flu that didn't spread past a few recruits at a military base in New Jersey.

  92. There ARE differences between corporate pseudo-... by sgt_doom · · Score: 1

    ...science and Real Science:

    http://news.sciencemag.org/hea...

  93. Exactly, which is why the largest whorehouse in... by sgt_doom · · Score: 1

    ...the Western Hemisphere, the US Congress, is forever having all these Hollywood airheads make fraudulent movies for them (Tom Hanks' Joe Wilson's War) and testifying before them. Of course, since GlaxoSmithKline, Eli Lilly, and a bunch of other biopharmaceuticals have falsely marketing their drugs, resulting in the deaths of many, and TV specials, quite some time back now, captured dirty bathtubs in China by sub-sub-subcontractors used in drug/vaccine preparation, the criticisms should be obvious to all by this late date!

  94. Quite some time back..... by sgt_doom · · Score: 1

    ...I posted a link to a most respected French medical institute study on the correlation between the number of vaccines administered to children under 2 years of age, and the correlation to autism, and not a soul responded to the study or link. Look it up, doucheys.

    1. Re:Quite some time back..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My father did not get some of the vax's I had when I was a child due to being shuffled around as a kid as an orphan.

      He is half blind because of the measles and has partial paralysis in his left arm. Lets just say he made sure I got my vaccinations. If there was a risk of autism. He would have still admin'd the shots himself because of what happened to him.

      Autism makes you a pain to be around. The things these protect you from, fuck you up if your lucky and kill you if you are unlucky. Look it up (and we are 'doucheys')...

      Let me put this into perspective with respect to getting autism. If you play the lottery powerball specifically it is like picking 3 white numbers and the powerball at the same time or about 1 in 10,000. The odds of having a baby with down syndrome are higher at about 1 in 1000. You can play the odds and probably win at this one. Dont be so melodramatic.

    2. Re:Quite some time back..... by Sabriel · · Score: 1

      Okay, they found correlation. The question is, did they find causation?

      To paraphrase rationalwiki.org, the fact that there's a strong and persistent correlation between shoe size and reading ability does not mean large feet cause good reading skills.

  95. Botox... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Botulinum is the single most lethal toxin known to humans. Yet McCarthy has enthusiastically praised injecting this toxin into her face. How can anyone possibly say that and also say vaccines have dangerous levels of toxins in them with a straight face?"
    Anwser: By injecting Botox!

  96. Wrong metric by sjbe · · Score: 1

    Actually she has mentioned some vaccine method that were safe.

    There is NO vaccine that is 100% safe. There is no drug that is 100% safe. Does not exist and probably never will.

    Poeple against her have come out and said those vaccine distribution methods were safer however they cost most and would make distribution harder.

    When you make distribution harder (whether due to cost or technical complications) you make it less likely to be administered and thus you get worse results overall. The best vaccine is the one that prevents the greatest number of infections, not the one that has the fewest side effects.

  97. You freak them out . . . by sgt_doom · · Score: 1

    . . .when you throw actual facts at them, nawcom, aliterates and illiterates cannot stand nor fathom the facts.

    Instead, they believe everything the Easter Bunny, Santa, and whomever is president says is correct, and all those revised flight paths CNN keeps showing us on MH370, really did happen, it's just that they have difficulties reading Phil Falcone's Inmarsat data, so they simply have to keep revising everything, don't ya know!

  98. You're right... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    She's done a ton of harm and you have every right to be mad over that. But... she's influential. Yes, that's pathetic... but it also means we can use this. In true PR fashion, simply publicize the "NOT ANTI-VAX" bit and leave out the rest. If she's not anti-vax now, why should you be? Etc.

    No, it's not a logical way to convince anyone. But as should be evident, the people not getting vaccinated (and causing harm to everyone else's kids by weakening herd immunity) have not been convinced via logic.

    So it's better to take this for the PR value. We have her history recorded well enough. Use this as PR to get others on board--if she can be "convinced" anyone can.

    1. Re:You're right... by tachin1 · · Score: 0

      Interesting, this could work.

      --
      I'm always right, except when i'm not.
  99. Jenner was a fraud by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Vaccination in TV programmes and books, pre 1980s:
    'The masters or sitcom' by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, p161:
    BILL: Go round kissing all the babies. That'll get the votes. ...
    ANDREE: How is he doctor?
    KENNETH: Oh, it's nothing to worry about, just a slight case of measles. Plenty of rest, he'll be all right in a week or two. ...
    TONY: (Disgusted) Measles. Whose bright idea was it to go round kissing all the babies?
    BILL: Well, I'm sorry, Tub.
    TONY: 'Don't forget the one with the freckles,' he says. Aaah... If I get half as many votes as I've got spots, I'll sweep the country.

    Doctor at Large, Series 1 Ep. 25, 2:14 Dr. Upton is taken ill and says "Feels like mumps. I had mumps. I had it when I was eight."
    Catweazle, series 1, final part, 'The Trickery Lantern', 2:30 Flo (Mr. Bennett's sister); "You were just like this with chickenpox." Mr. Bennett; "Chickenpox?" Flo; "When you were nine." Mr. Bennett; "When I was? ...Really, Flo, you can't possibly remember that." Flo; "I can! Of course I can, George. Mother let me stay up to read you Treasure Island."
    Catweazle, Series 1, Episode 4, 'The Witching Hour', 22:20, Miss Bonnington says "My arch enemy, Mrs. Willougbhy wasn't there." Mr. Bennett (Carrot's father); "Wasn't there?" Miss Bonnington; "Terribly funny, you'd never believe it. She's suddenly gone down with measles!" Carrot; "Measles?" Miss Bonnington; "Funny that - so sudden - several cases in the village of course, but she was perfectly alright this afternoon in the hairdressers. Hope I don't catch it!" (laughing out loud)
    Steptoe and Son Christmas Special - Chickenpox, last five minutes.
    Robin's Nest, Series 2, Episode 7, 10:10, Robin's brother's got mumps.
    Robin's Nest, Series 3, Episode 4, 18:20 - Mr Nicholls said he hadn't had mumps.
    The Famous Five - Five Go Adventuring Again, 2:00 - George says "And what with that, and my being ill, he thought it would be a good idea if we all have lessons", Anne says "Your spots have all gone", George replies "I know, I was officially de-measled this morning".
    Man About the House - Series 1, Episode 3 - After the Monopoly game, Chrissie says "I haven't had so much fun since I had the mumps".
    "Larry Grayson on Pebble Mill 1992" in Mpegs/Comedy, 4:39, said he had measles twice.
    'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer' directed by Selznick. 10:33,
    Tom: Where have you been such a long time. I haven't seen you since we got engaged.
    Girl: I had the chickenpox.
    Tom: You haven't got it now, have you?
    Girl: No, silly, think my ma would let me out if I wasn't all cured?
    Oliver Postgage book "Seeing things", page 12: (When he was six or seven) "but I saw little of the place because I almost immediately came down with measles... a day or two later when Grandad himself turned up, really just to pat me and wish me well because by then I was over the worst of the measles."
    (This was in 1930-1932)

    Please explain why all of these POPULAR television shows referred to having mumps, measles and chickenpox as being ORDINARY, with no fear of 'terrible consequences'...

    Measles outbreak in a 98% vaccinated population:
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1646939/

  100. Here's how stupid she is by slashmydots · · Score: 1

    When I was about 2, I got a vaccine and had a horrible reaction to it. I'm not allergic to eggs or anything normal, I just plan had a horrible reaction to it. I had a fever that almost killed me. I also have an autism spectrum disorder but it's mild and barely affects my social skills and made me exceptional at IT.

    AND YET

    I'm 100% for vaccinations. If it's down to dying from a fever or measles, I'd take my change with the fever. But, it was obviously a dangerous vaccine that obviously should be monitored a little closely or followed up on and generally "fixed" so it doesn't give people fevers. So she does sort of have a point but she's also sort of a classless psycho-bitch lunatic.

    1. Re:Here's how stupid she is by geekoid · · Score: 1

      correlation is not causation.

      "...made me exceptional at IT.":
      Autism in now way effects ones ability in a field.
      I mean, it's a nice delusion, but research in no way bears that out.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  101. PENIS LICK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    mod me down idiot

  102. Jenny and Eich vs OKCupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Admit you were wrong and move on.

  103. Smoking? by masonc · · Score: 0

    The woman promotes smoking e-cigarettes containing anti-freeze and nicotine. Anyone who smokes or promotes smoking should not give medical advice to others.
    http://leftbrainrightbrain.co....

    --
    CM www.cometenergysystems.com Blog: http://caribbeanrenewable.blogspot.com/
  104. Jenny Mcarthy is a free thinker by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    and embodies the best tennants of 19th century science, when people made decisions based on their observations and in light of the best known understanding at the time. Today we have something akin to a blind belief in whatever the church, ughh i mean experts happen to be handing out at the time. Today an expert more often than nought is somebody who is paid to lobby for a paticular world view. Think about it in 2000 all the experts were saying the stock market is going to be going up and up and up. In 2008 all the experts were saying that real estate is a can't loose proposition, and I just happen to have a house you can buy. Stop believing in experts. Believe in yourself. If it is cloudy, and your skin is getting wet when you stand outside, it is probably raining outside despite the fact that the weather experts are on the radio right now saying you will have a clear and sunny day outside. Stand up and have the courage to say it's raining, fuck the experts. Jenny Mcarthy is a hero. So in spite of the fact that I have no advanced degree in meterology, I feel that I can accurately tell if it is raining or not. This used to be common sense, but today there is a global witch hunt on for whomever decides to believe in their own observations vs what the experts in the media are saying.

  105. If you ever spend a night... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    with Jenny McCarthy, you'll need more than a vaccine!

  106. I don't have all the answers... by Yakasha · · Score: 3, Informative
    But I might have one.

    Plait wondered:

    Also, botulinum is the single most lethal toxin known to humans. Yet McCarthy has enthusiastically praised injecting this toxin into her face. How can anyone possibly say that and also say vaccines have dangerous levels of toxins in them with a straight face?

    Partial facial paralysis. Duh.

  107. darwin award by heuermh · · Score: 1

    I think all the download links for this are still active:

    darwin_award, a 48 Hour Compo Entry for Ludum Dare 24.
    Save humanity from Darwin Award winners.
    http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-24/?action=preview&uid=1864

  108. Go Vaccines Go by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Foe me to be anti-Vaccine you would have to show that vaccines kill more people than lack of vaccines. Look into the past before vaccines see what the death rate was for that disease then see what the death rate for that same disease now. If the death rate is lower now then every come and get your shots. Fear of dying can be sometimes the leading cause of death.

  109. Re:Vaccines did contain some questional ingredient by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ironically the reason why none of that other stuff gets blasted in the media for causing autism is that, unlike vaccines, agribusiness and the fossil fuel industries have enormous PR budgets and legislative lobbies.

  110. Re:Vaccines did contain some questional ingredient by Agent0013 · · Score: 1

    I like your post, very reasoned thoughts and I would say I agree with you in general. I would only lean towards the altered vaccine schedule as that might also help with the overloading of the immune system or whatever might be the cause.

    The real reason I am posting is just a little fact as I understand it about the aluminum in the vaccines. It may serve as a preservative, but I believe the main function is to activate the person's immune system. Without the aluminum, the immune system does not always detect that there is something to react to for making the antibodies and thus, the vaccine is much less effective. I found that to be an interesting idea, that the dead or deactivated virus may not cause your immune system to react, so they add something else that helps to get the immune system all fired up where it will then discover the deactivated virus particles and make the antibodies desired from getting the vaccine.

    --

    -- ssoorrrryy,, dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh oonn.. -Quote found on actual fortune cookie.
  111. PENIS! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    penis penis penis

  112. Too many vaccines, too soon? by tgibbs · · Score: 2

    There are several problems with the "too many vaccines, too soon" idea.

    First, a study in the UK found that using modern criteria, the incidence of autism does not differ by much with age--up to age 70. This agrees with the scientific consensus that the apparent increase in autism is largely, probably entirely, due to increased diagnosis

    Second, our immune system has evolved to deal with huge numbers of natural "vaccines" from bacteria and viruses constantly introduced through every scratch, scrape, and inflammation. And the number of antigens introduced from natural bacteria and viruses are far in excess of the simplified antigens that are introduced in vaccines. If you study that antibodies produced from even one infection, you find that the number of antibodies produced are easily in the excess of dozens.

    So it simply does not make sense.

  113. Improve the delivery/preservative method and it's by jago25_98 · · Score: 1

    Can't we just agree that the preservative and delivery method needs to be improved? Vaccines are one thing but the way they are packaged is another. If the vaccine is delivered to the body without the need for heavy metals then this sorry argument could be put to bed.

      It's not about the vaccine, it's the packaging that's an issue here.

  114. I think *you* misunderstand by warrax_666 · · Score: 1

    "Herd immunity" isn't an argument for you getting the vaccine for your children (those arguments are already plain) -- it's an argument against you being able to opt out of the vaccine for your children (barring medical reasons such as allergy to the vaccine).

    --
    HAND.
  115. Re:Improve the delivery/preservative method and it by geekoid · · Score: 1

    "Can't we just agree that the preservative and delivery method needs to be improved? "
    based on..what? other then the generic anything can be improved.

    " If the vaccine is delivered to the body without the need for heavy metals then this sorry argument could be put to bed."
    You really ave no clue what you are talking about. You might want to read some actual facts on the issue and point as specific instances. Until then STFU you are only adding to the stupidity.
    Oh, and if you just want to slap your meaty fingers on the keyboard in hopes of typing out 'Mercury', then you had better talk about what kind of mercury, and have done some reading (wikipedia) on that type of mercury.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  116. be careful of claiming "no evidence" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > So far, there is NO medical evidence to support her claims.

    This is not accurate as there is ample evidence suggesting a link between vaccines and autism in the the peer reviewed literature. There is also ample evidence that there is not a link. Thus the research is conflicting and complicated. That doesn't make the hypothesis that vaccinations may contribute to the development of an ASD true, but it's not wholly unsupported.

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10759242 for example found 3 out of 9 children with autism tested positive for having virus strain measles coloines present in their gastrointestinal tract. Hardly a large finding, certainly nothing that would indicate that all autism is being caused by vaccines. But evidence to support one potential contribution to the development of autism in children whose immune systems do not successfully fight off the measles virus present in the vaccines.

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11950955 also found high incidence (75 of 91 subjects) of measles in the gastrointestinal tracts of children with developmental disorders.

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17519494 is a response to these 2 arguing that their methods in detecting MV DNA may have been prone to false positives and that http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17015560 utilized a more accurate measure which did not find MV DNA in any of its 88 subjects.

    And this is just 1 hypothesis, that live measles were contributing to the development of ASD. There are others, and dozens of research papers, some supporting, some opposing. So it's not as simple as there being "no evidence".

    1. Re:be careful of claiming "no evidence" by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      The question is what you call "ample". Your largest sample size is 91; the link is at best tenuous given the rather small size. Also the samples are not sufficiently randomized but have a selection bias. The Dutch study looked at millions of Dutch children and found no link. That was only one study. The Japanese study also looked at millions and found no link.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  117. question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The difference between injecting mercury into the bloodstream and injesting it into the gastrointestinal tract is?

  118. Re:What American advocates rarely/never mention... by david_thornley · · Score: 1

    And, on top of that, lots of products contain Tylenol without prominently listing it. It wouldn't be difficult at all to exceed the recommended dosage without noticing it.

    --
    "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  119. to be fair the statistics are flawed by liquid_schwartz · · Score: 1

    Few deaths that happen right after vaccinations are listed as caused by vaccinations. This is why the "anti-vax" crowd does have a point about vaccinations still needing to be improved. My son had a reaction immediately after his MMR vaccination that involved severe head swelling and we discontinued vaccinations for him. My daughter still gets them as she has had no reactions and I understand the issue. To many on this site I should have continued the vaccinations right up until my son's death. However we were privately advised by the doctors that although they can't say anything bad about vaccinations, we should stop them. I was willing to listen to their private opinion. The fact that they have to say it privately and confidentially tells a lot about how politicized the debate is. Essentially because vaccinations do so much good on a macro level there is incredible pressure (easily seen here) against any complaints on the individual level. Not much different than feeding a maiden a year to keep the dragon away works out well for most people but not all people.

  120. It all boils down to fear and profit... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm not against vaccines, but I am against endlessly vaccinating against threats that no longer exist. In other words, they should only be used in the event that there's an outbreak. We are after-all living in an era where sanitation has way over stepped its boundaries and now threatens all of us with super germs...

    1. Re:It all boils down to fear and profit... by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      I'm not against vaccines, but I am against endlessly vaccinating against threats that no longer exist.

      This is terrible logic. First of all these threats still exist as evidenced by the numerous outbreaks in the last decade. Second, the threats were lessoned because of vaccinations. The increase in outbreaks coincide with the drop in vaccination rates.

      In other words, they should only be used in the event that there's an outbreak.

      Again, this is terrible logic. If there is an outbreak, those who have the disease will not be helped by a vaccine. An during an outbreak, many will be exposed. That's why it's called an "outbreak." With world travel, an outbreak may not be easily contained. See H1N1.

      We are after-all living in an era where sanitation has way over stepped its boundaries and now threatens all of us with super germs...

      This is also terrible logic. Sanitation has not overstepped its boundaries; it has saved millions of lives including many in developing worlds of dying of water borne illnesses like Giarda, etc. Super germs have been created by the over-use of antibiotics not sanitation.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  121. Re:Yeah, maybe not now by Alsee · · Score: 1

    It seems there's a portion of the population that will compulsively latch onto hear-say and pseudoscience nonsense and conspiracy theories, no matter what we do. Maybe we should just accept that. Just deal with it and make the best of things.

    I've got this totally scientific evidence that autism is caused by the ink in lottery tickets. The ink doesn't affect adults, but the chemicals stick to your fingers. Then when you touch your kids the chemicals get absorbed through their skin and disrupt their developing brains. My kid was perfectly healthy one morning, and at a routine checkup that afternoon my child was diagnosed with autism! And the only thing that happened in between was that I bought lottery tickets and hugged by child! You can't imagine how devastating that is to a parent, unless of course you're a parent who bought a lottery ticket and immediately had their child diagnosed with autism.

    Have the so-called "scientists" tested the lottery ticket ink? HELL NO! The government rakes in millions of dollars on lottery tickets! Scientists all want grant money (our money taken in taxes!) to do their research. And is the government going to give them money if the government doesn't like the results of that research! OF COURSE the scientists are going to be biased and tow the government line.

    I am not anti-lottery-tickets.
    I just want to reduce the ink and reduce the toxins. Lottery tickets are fine when the government proves that that new ink ensures no children will get autism.
    If you ask a parent of an autistic child if they want their kid to have autism, or whether they'd choose to pass up on a lousy lottery ticket, well duh they'll pass up on the lousy lottery ticket.

    What parent would ever knowingly risk giving their child autism? It's unthinkable! It's just not worth the risk.

    -

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    - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
  122. Please look at vitamin D and mitochrondrial issues by Paul+Fernhout · · Score: 1

    http://drhyman.com/blog/2010/1...
    "The mitochondrial dysfunction identified in the JAMA study I've been talking about is ultimately only one downstream symptom of many upstream causes. Other researchers have found systemic inflammation,(ix) brain inflammation,(x) gut inflammation,(xi) elevated levels of toxins and metals, gluten and casein antibodies,(xii) nutrient deficiencies including omega-3 fats,(xiii) vitamin D,(xiv) zinc, and magnesium, and collections of metabolic dysfunction related to quirky genes that make it difficult to perform chemical reactions essential for health in the body such as methylation and sulfation.(xv)
        The take home message here is that the answer to autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders will not be found in one of these factors, but in all of them taken together in varying degrees in each individual. There is no such thing as "autism." Rather there are "autisms"--different patterns of biological dysfunction unique to each child that result in multiple insults to the brain that all manifest with symptoms we call autism."

    Also:
    http://www.vitamindcouncil.org...
    http://www.dailycal.org/2014/0...
    "To further validate their theories, the researchers cited a study involving Somali mothers, who naturally absorb less sunlight due to their dark skin pigmentation. When they moved north to Stockholm, a less-sunny region, they were found to be 4.5 times more likely to have autistic children, compared to the the country's lighter-skinned natives."

    Also may help:
    https://www.drfuhrman.com/chil...

    Good luck!

    --
    A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
  123. Re:Jenny Mcarthy is a free thinker vs. "Experts"? by Paul+Fernhout · · Score: 1

    AC wrote: "Jenny Mcarthy is a free thinker ... and embodies the best tennants of 19th century science, when people made decisions based on their observations and in light of the best known understanding at the time. Today we have something akin to a blind belief in whatever the church, ughh i mean experts happen to be handing out at the time. Today an expert more often than nought is somebody who is paid to lobby for a paticular world view. Think about it in 2000 all the experts were saying the stock market is going to be going up and up and up. In 2008 all the experts were saying that real estate is a can't loose proposition, and I just happen to have a house you can buy. Stop believing in experts. Believe in yourself. If it is cloudy, and your skin is getting wet when you stand outside, it is probably raining outside despite the fact that the weather experts are on the radio right now saying you will have a clear and sunny day outside. Stand up and have the courage to say it's raining, fuck the experts. Jenny Mcarthy is a hero. So in spite of the fact that I have no advanced degree in meterology, I feel that I can accurately tell if it is raining or not. This used to be common sense, but today there is a global witch hunt on for whomever decides to believe in their own observations vs what the experts in the media are saying."

    Conflict-of-interest definitely makes this all harder to sort through. Compare with the book "Disclipined Minds"
    http://disciplinedminds.tripod...
    "Who are you going to be? That is the question.
    In this riveting book about the world of professional work, Jeff Schmidt demonstrates that the workplace is a battleground for the very identity of the individual, as is graduate school, where professionals are trained. He shows that professional work is inherently political, and that professionals are hired to subordinate their own vision and maintain strict "ideological discipline."
    The hidden root of much career dissatisfaction, argues Schmidt, is the professional's lack of control over the political component of his or her creative work. Many professionals set out to make a contribution to society and add meaning to their lives. Yet our system of professional education and employment abusively inculcates an acceptance of politically subordinate roles in which professionals typically do not make a significant difference, undermining the creative potential of individuals, organizations and even democracy.
    Schmidt details the battle one must fight to be an independent thinker and to pursue one's own social vision in today's corporate society. He shows how an honest reassessment of what it really means to be a professional employee can be remarkably liberating. After reading this brutally frank book, no one who works for a living will ever think the same way about his or her job."

    Other social problems with mainstream science:
    http://www.pdfernhout.net/to-j...

    All that said, a lot of time the experts are right -- for example, expert Civil Engineers designing and building bridges. Thinking is hard work, and a lot of "free thinking" may be re-inventing plausible but otherwise bad ideas. Perhaps the more variables involved, and the less we know about them, the more problematical the notion of "Expertise" becomes, other than to admit ignorance (which does not sound that impressive)? However, 2000 years ago, perhaps bridge building was more by trial and error, same as much medicine today? Certainly Cathedral building shows a process of trial and error before civil engineering became better understood in terms of materials and structures.

    Here is a related diagram about different types of problem domains, where perhaps bridge building today is in one area but medicine in another:

    --
    A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
  124. Vaccine failures among vaccinated individuals by smilestill · · Score: 1

    "Vaccine failures among apparently adequately vaccinated individuals were sources of infection for at least 48 per cent of the cases in the outbreak. " (Am J Public Health. 1987 April; 77(4): 434–438. PMCID: PMC1646939) I think it is interesting that you chose to vilify those who would chose a course of medical action, considering the vaccine itself appears to be failing. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pm...

  125. Open Forum by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Her mouth is for receiving only. Why are people even entertaining this?

  126. She has no clue... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Having worked as a special education teacher with 'rubella' children, the devastating illness and disability borne by these kids and their parents is heartbreaking. We thought we eliminated that cause of severe disability but if there are children out there who are not immunized, we can be facing serious illnesses that are not just the external ones....rubella decimates the growing fetus. Neurological, cognitive, hearing, visual, orthopedic, cardiac...just about any and all systems can be effected. Jenny should stick with being cute on camera and leave the medicine to the doctors. A little risk is worth saving so much pain.

  127. Blame vaccine or "Hollywood Lifestyle"? by geowar · · Score: 1

    My "Occam's razor" says given a choice between blaming vaccines developed by reputable medical companies vs. the boat loads of illegal drugs consumed by most Hollywood starlets I think the conclusion is obvious.

  128. Smoking Result? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hmm, wonder if the problems her child has could be due to the toxins she put into her body and the babys body if she was smoking while pregnant.

  129. But wait..... She is a CELEBRITY! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Celebrities are to be revered, especially by the media. After all, 'serious' news organizations go looking for sage words of wisdom about gun control and the U.S Constitution by such well-informed luminaries as Ted Nugent, and political opinions by serious heavy-weights such as Jane Fonda (after all, she was married to a U.S Senator at one point).
    I personally would never undertake a course of action in my life unless it was heartily endorsed by a major celebrity. Spheres of MAJOR expertise include:
    1. Dietary habits (even when they are paid to endorse the product they are pushing).
    2. Exercise regimens. (even though they have a personal trainer, personal chef, masseuse, etc., I am sure I will see the same results).
    3. Beauty Secrets. (Even if the celebrity has 8 hours a day to work on this, and I only have 5 minutes).
    4. Raising Children. (Given that children of celebrities turn out so well!)
    5. Latest fads (on the topics above, or anything else that catches their attention).

    Celebrities are demi-gods. We must follow their advice on everything!

  130. Here, look at her tits. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It doesn't make up for the damage she's done to society, but it's a start: http://www.celebsempire.com/pi...

  131. 99.999% safe? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Where did you get that ?

    I don't know who's Jenny McCarthy, but I read an excellent and well documented book from a French journalist :

    "Vaccins, mensonges et propagande"

    we can translate that by "Vaccines, lies and propaganda" a summary and the introduction is available on Amazon.

    Some recent vaccines aren't cheap for example gardasil price is 123 euros in europa and you need three injections ( 369 euros )
    It's not 100% efficient (for example there are more virus than those you "should" be protected with this vaccine).
    Vaccine vendors just can't say it's expensive, inefficient and dangerous if they want to convince goverment that all young girls should be vaccinated.
    So they throw numbers like 100% efficient and 99,999 % safe, but no studies confirm that, and we don't have sufficient data over a long period to says that for that particular vaccine.
    Gardasil is safe but not 99,999% in fact it's more about 93%.
    And there are quite serious side effects like Guillain-Barré syndrome and death...

  132. Re:Vaccines did contain some questional ingredient by hawkfish · · Score: 1

    This was replaced with an aluminum compound, and aluminum is correlated with diseases like Alzheimer’s. Of course, we have no evidence that aluminum accumlation causes Alzheimer’s; it could just as well accumulate as a side-effect. Still, it’s cause for investigation. .

    No it isn't. And the best current theory on what causes autism is that is developmental disruption of the cortex during pregnancy, not "toxins".

    --
    You will not drink with us, but you would taste our steel? - Walter Matthau, The Pirates