The Resident Anti-Vaccine Reporter at CBS News Strikes Again

[Godhumor]

Subject is title of a post on scienceblogs.com by Orac at http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2011/04/the_resident_anti-vaccine_reporter_at_cb.php

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I'm not infrequently asked why the myth that vaccines cause autism and other anti-vaccine myths are so stubbornly resistant to the science that time and time again fails to support them. Certainly useful celebrity idiots like Jenny McCarthy are one reason. So, too, are anti-vaccine propaganda websites and blogs such as Age of Autism and anti-vaccine organizations like Generation Rescue, the National Vaccine Information Center, and SafeMinds and the organizations that publish them. However, these are clearly not the only reason. Alone, these people and organizations are in general quite rightly viewed as fringe, although they are very popular among the anti-vaccine movement. It is when such groups find a willing conduit for their pseudoscience in the "mainstream media" that they see the opportunity to attain a degree of seeming respectability that they can't achieve on their own based on science. Worse, when mainstream news organizations or reporters fall for the pseudoscience claiming that vaccines cause autism, they contribute to the persistence of this myth outside the activist core of the anti-vaccine movement in the public at large.

Unfortunately, in TV news at least, the role of mainstream media propagandist for the anti-vaccine movement has been taken on with gusto by a CBS News correspondent named Sharyl Attkisson, and, oops, she did it again just this Thursday with an article entitled Vaccines and autism: a new scientific review, in which she pimps a truly horrible "review" of the evidence base regarding whether vaccines cause or predispose to autism. Interestingly, she's quite late. AoA was promoting this article two months ago, and I even mentioned it in the context of an post taking down a recent excretion from David Kirby. On the other hand, April is Autism Awareness Month, and I can always count on the anti-vaccine movement to lay down some vaccine pseudoscience on or around April 1 every year (I leave it to the reader to judge the appropriateness of that date); so perhaps this latest from Attkisson is the opening salvo for this year's campaign.

...Snipped excerpt from Attkisson's article...

Note the classic crank technique of trying to convince the reader that the "debate is not over," that the hypothesis that vaccines cause autism is, in fact, "pining for the fjords" when in fact, on a strictly scientific basis, the hypothesis is at least as dead as that famous parrot, with Attkisson playing the role of the shopkeeper trying to convince his customer that "'E's resting" while raving about the parrot's "beautiful plumage." Meanwhile, John Cleese is pounding the hypothesis against the counter yelling, "Hellooo, Polly!" and getting no response, at least from a scientific standpoint.

...

After all of Attkisson's pandering to the anti-vaccine movement and promoting its message, one huge question remains. Why does CBS News tolerate Attkisson's horrible reporting on vaccines and other scientific issues? I can't speak about her other reporting, but when it comes to science, Sharyl Attkisson is a crank par excellence. She has an agenda; and she tortures the evidence to make it seem to agree with her biases. I also wonder how long it will be before Attkisson joins Dan Olmsted as a writer for AoA. My only surprise is that, nearly four years since I first noticed her, she hasn't made that move already. I suppose I can always hope that CBS News wises up to the anti-vaccine propagandist working as one of its correspondents and forces Attkisson finally to make that move.

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If you haven't heard of it, I strongly recommend the recent book "The Panic Virus" that details how exactly the anti-vaccer movement began, spread and was lended credence by the media. It is amazing how such idiocy as being anti-vaccine can not only start but spread and fester stubbornly.

[xchrom]

1. recommend

[JPZenger]

2. They've killed small children with their lies

Many small children have died of whooping cough and other preventable diseases because of these lies. They are particularly believed in California and Europe.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. +1

[blondeatlast]

5. And it won't end soon; that nearly eradicated diseases are recurring is testament to that.

If these science-deniers want to establish an offshore colony of their own, I'll donate to the cause; but my son shouldn't have to be exposed to others that could make him ill.

I have no shortage of contempt for these fools.

[Life Long Liberal]

This hurts so many kids who have parents who blindly believe it.

[blondeatlast]

4. The analogy of the Monty Python "dead parrot" is absolutely fucking perfect.

thanks for the book suggestion--I love stuff like that.

[Godhumor]

6. Phenomenal book. Highly recommended

It is a bit dry, but extremely well written and researched.

[blondeatlast]

7. I read and write legal docs for a living--

compared to many of those, it'll probably be like a desert sage after the rain!

[Godhumor]

9. Quite possibly, yes. Heh.

So, yeah, the book might be a perfect getaway for you.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted sub-thread

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[RockaFowler]

10. I know someone like this

She's marrying my nephew this month and she refuses to get her youngest child vaccinated. I told her she won't be able to get the child into any schools whatsoever if you don't. She doesn't care. She believes this stuff. She has 2 other kids and both are fine - why would she worry now about her youngest child??

Oh yeah and they believe the end of the world is in May this year. I'm still trying to figure out why they're getting married

[Godhumor]

11. Well, depending on if you believe marriage is heaven or hell on earth, they might be practicing n/t

[ejpoeta]

12. well if the end of the world is coming in may, then i guess not vaccinating your kid

won't matter.... does that mean after the magic date passes with no end of the world she'll get the kid vaccinated? I have three kids. and while I have avoided the flu shot, I have never not had shots (except that gardisil) for my kids. and when we had that big scare about the h1n1 and my youngest was too young to vaccinate, when the school did the vaccines i had the older two get theirs. i could not afford to get one myself though because of the crap insurance i had at the time. but when it comes to measles, mumps, polio..... it is well worth any risk to keep them from getting those awful diseases!!

[truebrit71]

13. If she believes the world ends in six weeks she has bigger issues to deal with than vacine-denial...

...

[hayu_lol]

16. These anti-vaxers need a guided tour to life in America just...

100 years ago. More than 50% of all children born here died before their 16th birthday. Check the obits in any newspaper morgue for that period. As late as 1940, there were only a very few immunizations available...but parents made sure that their kids were in the line to get them.

There are a few labs in the world that still handle smallpox. If that were turned loose in the world again...the death rate would be horrendous.

All children today should be immunized or no admittance to public or 'charter' schools--sole exception would be on a doctors reasoning by individual case.

I guess the only way to convince our anti-vaxers to start believing in science again would be to discontinue all immunizations for 20 years...then count the coffins of the kids that died during that period. As it was in my childhood, epidemics would run rampant. There were no wonder drugs back in the 30s when I was born.

[blondeatlast]

17. +1. A little history could go a long way in this debate.

It wasn't just "those people's" kids who died from horrible diseases--it transcended class, race, and education

[Liberal Dose]

14. So, if your kid is vaccinated, why worry about exposure to a kid who is not? EOM

[Godhumor]

15. I strongly suggest on reading up how vaccination works and what happens in cases

where non-vaccination is introduced. Long story very short, among many other concerns, vaccination does not prevent 100% ending of diseases and non-vaccatinated kids are both easy carriers of both traditional illness and incubators for vaccine proof diseases (extremely simplified hypothetical to follow, but vaccinated kid carries a disease rendered harmless by the vaccine, disease gets passed on to anti-vac kid where it blooms, however, since it lived in the vac'd kid it is now resistent to the kid and reenters the school or playground populations mutated and stronger.).

[HuckleB]

19. Please read....

http://specialchildren.about.com/b/2007/04/02/study-unvaccinated-kids-put-communities-at-risk.htm

http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/637218.html

http://www.marinij.com/marinnews/ci_12125899

[LeftishBrit]

20. Apart from the 'herd immunity' issue, some vaccinations are only effective after a certain age

Young babies cannot be vaccinated effectively against some diseases - and they are often the most at risk if they do get the disease. Measles vaccination isn't effective in the first year of life (getting the disease at that early age also often doesn't confer immunity; e.g. my dad had measles twice, because the first time was at only six months). Whooping-cough vaccine can be given from 6 weeks - but even that was too late for someone I know, who got it at one week. She survived but has cerebral palsy.

Also, some children can't be vaccinated, due to severe allergies, immune disorders, or being on chemo. Such children are also particularly vulnerable to the diseases, so depend on others being vaccinated.

[Dorian Gray]

23. Infants

and those with allergies to certain elements of vaccines can never be vaccinated. Herd immunity provides protection for them.

[Godhumor]

18. Aw, dingle-berries, it got moved. But considering someone actually posted the article in question

Here. Maybe that's not such a bad thing, heh.

[LeftishBrit]

21. Deleted (posted in wrong place)

[Name removed]

22. Deleted message

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