I’m sure you heard the news story a couple of weeks ago about a federal claims court finding that vaccines containing thimerosal and/or the MMR vaccine in particular do not cause autism. Though it’s a legal finding, the court reviewed thousands of pages of research, as well as the medical records of thousands of individuals, and heard testimony from expert witnesses as part of their decision.
Needless to say, the scientifically-based, evidence-backed, legally-considered opinion of a panel of judges won’t change the minds of the nutjobs in the anti-vaccination movement. If we’ve learned anything over the last eight years, all you need to do is substitute whatever reality is most convenient for your political agenda in place of objective and empirical findings. And when you’ve got a hot ‘n’ spicy celebrity like Jenny McCarthy on your side, you don’t need to pay the slightest attention to whatever those freedom-hating science-lovers have to say.
Oh, well.
Meanwhile, back here in the reality-based community, I read this outstanding post at the group blog Making Light called “Why We Immunize” . The author of the post, Jim Macdonald, talks about the ravages of the diseases that generationally decimated populations again and again: rubella, polio, diptheria, hepatitis. His post is punctuated with photos of the graves of children lost so very young to illnesses that simply do not exist in the world of today’s children, with poems and lyrics, and chilling photographs of children stricken with those diseases. It is simply an outstanding example of a well-written blog post and I recommend it highly.
I also recommend taking the time to watch this recent American Experience documentary about the polio scares of the 20th century and the battle between Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin to develop an effective vaccine. Though Salk was first to go public with a working vaccine, it would eventually be Sabin’s that would completely eradicate polio in the United States. The film interviews people who were personally affected by polio to differing degrees and does an excellent job of capturing the state of panic that would descend on towns every year as “polio season” came around. With any luck, we won’t have to let the current panic-mongering take us backward to a time of real panic.
Phil Plait says that everyone should read this post, too.