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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

If you think measles is always a “minor” disease…

…Dr. John Kiely, a.k.a. EpiWonk, will school you otherwise. (I had to attend a function for work last night; so no new insolence for you right now. Maybe later. Hard as it is to believe, I do sometimes have to let my job interfere with my blogging. Fortunately, I’ve been meaning to plug Dr. Kiely’s post since it came out.)

After telling the harrowing story of his brush with serious complications from the measles as a child, he sums up the current day know-nothing, “green our vaccines” antivaccination movement succinctly and accurately:

Meanwhile, the modern anti-vaccination movement, which has become a hobby of upper-middle-class activists and Hollywood celebrities with no time to learn the basic tenets of epidemiologic methods (or even of the scientific process), has used pseudoscience and misinformation to gain far too much influence on our public discourse on child health.

Exactly. There’s also the bankrolling of propaganda organs like Age of Autism by wealthy businessmen and, now, by the dollars that Jenny McCarthy’s D-list celebrity and her boyfriend Jim Carrey’s A-list celebrity can bring in through Hollywood and celebrity fundraisers that disguise Generation Rescue, for example, as an “autism” charity (“We’re raising money for an autism charity! Isn’t that wonderful?”), instead of what it really is: An antivaccination organization. Somehow, “We’re raising money for an antivaccinationist fringe group!” doesn’t sound as good, but that’s what’s happening now that Jenny McCarthy has become the celebrity face of the antivaccination movement.

Don’t be shy about heading over to EpiWonk to show Dr. Kiely some love.

By Orac

Orac is the nom de blog of a humble surgeon/scientist who has an ego just big enough to delude himself that someone, somewhere might actually give a rodent's posterior about his copious verbal meanderings, but just barely small enough to admit to himself that few probably will. That surgeon is otherwise known as David Gorski.

That this particular surgeon has chosen his nom de blog based on a rather cranky and arrogant computer shaped like a clear box of blinking lights that he originally encountered when he became a fan of a 35 year old British SF television show whose special effects were renowned for their BBC/Doctor Who-style low budget look, but whose stories nonetheless resulted in some of the best, most innovative science fiction ever televised, should tell you nearly all that you need to know about Orac. (That, and the length of the preceding sentence.)

DISCLAIMER:: The various written meanderings here are the opinions of Orac and Orac alone, written on his own time. They should never be construed as representing the opinions of any other person or entity, especially Orac's cancer center, department of surgery, medical school, or university. Also note that Orac is nonpartisan; he is more than willing to criticize the statements of anyone, regardless of of political leanings, if that anyone advocates pseudoscience or quackery. Finally, medical commentary is not to be construed in any way as medical advice.

To contact Orac: [email protected]

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