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Antivax, I’m puzzled as to why you would even mention a website that represents the antithesis of all this blog stands for. It’s a bit like going on an atheist website and posting a link to the Koran.
http://boards.babycenter.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?webtag=bcus3353
Anyway, she was trying to tell me the whole babycenter operation is itself a bit "antivax," but I was always a bit skeptical. I wrote something once there myself, being the father of our baby after all, and I was promptly swarmed by the antivaccine hydra. They were (it was?) exceedingly indignant that a male had the audacity to be writing on a bulletin board about babies. I've since discovered only mothers have the magical power to intuit that vaccines are tools of the Illuminati. Or the Jews. Or the Illuminated Jewsish Jesuits. Or Merck.
I agree the guy appears to be actually, for real, insane. But so was Charlie Manson. That excuse can only take a person so far. I'm shocked anyone can take the nutjob seriously at all, but apparently some actually manage it. You'd think the overt antisemitism (not to mention the gibbering insanity) would be more of a turnoff than it actually appears to be. I just don't know anymore if it's possible to have too little faith in humanity.
I have a relation who was blined by measles. Measles can be a killer. It is not a trivial disease. Who said that MMR vaccine contains mercury? Not in my knowledge. Who said that MMR was not safe? A doctor who I understand can no longer practice in the UK, but still earns a living in America! The Yanks are welcome. All the scientific evidence that I have ever read says that MMR is safe. If you want single vaccines, the pay for them. If your child has reacted to previous immunisations, then don't get your child vaccinated. Otherwise, don't put the next generation at risk. Posted by: Peter Rowberry | Tuesday, 24 June 2008 at 04:41 PM
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Not at all. The anti-vaccination lobby use the
same tactics as anti-evolutionists
(creationists), which is to obsfucate, make
fallacious appeals to authority which do not
back up there position, quote mine and make
absolute statements from anecdotal and
subjective experiences. They ignore the
mountains of peer-reviewed objective scientific
research over crack-pot sights like whale.to,
and when their inaccurate and bogus claims are
proved false they cry victim and demand their
views are given legitimacy in the name of
"fairness and balance", truth be damned.
If you'd like to point out the "bias" in the numerous epidemiological studies that show no link with MMR and autism, if you'd like to evaluate the papers, then by all means do. But the combatting of pseudo-science is not social repression, it's maintaining some intellectual standards. |
Antivax, I’m puzzled as to why you would even mention a website that represents the antithesis of all this blog stands for. It’s a bit like going on an atheist website and posting a link to the Koran.
In Their Own Words
[Some pharma gang type posts on Orac blog and others. Catherina Science & Mom are resident Babycentre forum pharma trolls 5 years up to 2008.]
My partner has run across the whale.to webmaster recently on the babycenter.com discussion boards. He's over there spreading his bullshit to an audience almost tailor-made for vulnerability to it. My partner is uncertain whether to alert the site moderators, or to simply let him continue to lead the anti-vaccination crowd further into the wilderness. I'm not sure which tactic to encourage. Any thoughts?
Posted by: Rev.Enki | June 15, 2008 2:31 AM