Salon retracts Robert Kennedy’s “Deadly Immunity”

[trotsky]

From Autism Blog:

One of the worst pieces written claiming that mercury caused an autism epidemic was the piece “Deadly Immunity” by Robert Kennedy Jr. Salon.com and Rolling Stone co-published the piece. It was immediately met with criticism and corrections: multiple correction pieces were published.

Salon has decided to review the piece and decided that corrections were not enough. They’ve pulled the piece from their site. Here’s the statement.

...In 2005, Salon published online an exclusive story by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that offered an explosive premise: that the mercury-based thimerosal compound present in vaccines until 2001 was dangerous, and that he was “convinced that the link between thimerosal and the epidemic of childhood neurological disorders is real.”

The piece was co-published with Rolling Stone magazine—they fact-checked it and published it in print; we posted it online. In the days after running “Deadly Immunity,” we amended the story with five corrections (which can still be found logged here) that went far in undermining Kennedy’s exposé. At the time, we felt that correcting the piece—and keeping it on the site, in the spirit of transparency—was the best way to operate. But subsequent critics, including most recently, Seth Mnookin in his book “The Panic Virus,” further eroded any faith we had in the story’s value. We’ve grown to believe the best reader service is to delete the piece entirely.

“I regret we didn’t move on this more quickly, as evidence continued to emerge debunking the vaccines and autism link,” says former Salon editor in chief Joan Walsh, now editor at large. “But continued revelations of the flaws and even fraud tainting the science behind the connection make taking down the story the right thing to do.” The story’s original URL now links to our autism topics page, which we believe now offers a strong record of clear thinking and skeptical coverage we’re proud of—including the critical pursuit of others who continue to propagate the debunked, and dangerous, autism-vaccine link.

[xchrom]

1. recommend

[hlthe2b]

2. Robert Kennedy JR is a good environmental lawyer, but not a scientist

and he was really taken in. I cringed when this article came out, had to debunk it in my professional life, but found that many people were not open to reconsideration. The "facts" that were based on so much misunderstanding of the science, had, by that time, become an object of faith.

I still adore RFK, Jr. but am glad this unfortunate step is being taken.

[trotsky]

3. As a wise person once put it...

"You can't reason a person out of a position they didn't reason themselves into."

A small but vocal minority embraced the anti-vax religion as you say, by faith. They *know* in their heart of hearts that vaccines cause all sorts of maladies, so therefore any and all data is forced through a filter first. "Does this data agree with me?" If yes, it is embraced. If no, it is rejected. Sometimes viciously. Paul Offit receives death threats from the anti-vax loonies. It's the FAUX Newsification of society.

[mhatrw]

4. As a wiser person once said, "Show me the science."

It is very dangerous to believe in the safety of an entire class of medical treatments as an article of faith and to accuse all those who don't share your fervent belief in the safety of this entire class of medical treatments of menacing heresy.

[trotsky]

5. Two of your heroes have been repudiated and humiliated.

And all you can do is attack, attack, attack.

[mhatrw]

7. My heroes? When have I ever used Wakefield or RFK, Jr. to push a

mercury-autism link? Who exactly are you confusing me with?

Why does almost every response you make to me focus on attacking me personally rather than anything I write?

[trotsky]

8. Peruse this forum.

You've been in full-on defense mode for Wakefield from the get-go, and have re-upped your efforts with his latest humiliation. That thread is still on the first page of the forum!

[mhatrw]

9. OK. Whatever you say.

Why don't you link up or quote whatever I said to make you think either Wakefield or JFK, Jr is my hero.

I'm not trying to fight you. I'm just wondering what I ever said that gave you that impression.

If I see a crack addict getting beaten to death by a bunch of thugs and I try to intervene to prevent this crack addict from being murdered without a fair trial, does that mean that I necessarily hero worship him?

[trotsky]

10. Here's the thread where you are defending the fraud:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=222x97779

Now your analogy has a number of problems, most notably trying to compare Andrew Wakefield to a crack addict. This is a false and unfair comparison. Wakefield has harmed FAR more people and done MUCH more damage to society than any crack addict ever did.

[mhatrw]

11. I was not defending Wakefield's original MMR study with that thread.

I was pointing out that Brian Deer's 7+ year attack on Wakefield resulted in a very important experiment getting squashed simply because Wakefield was the last author listed.

[trotsky]

12. You were defending Wakefield.

He is a proven fraud and liar. Attaching his name to any paper makes it automatically suspect, as he has never acknowledged his fraud and continues to lie in order to profit from the anti-vaccine scare.

[HuckleB]

16. It's interesting to be reminded of that, as the spin turns into pure spam on the health forum.

:crazy:

[Orrex]

6. It's about goddamn time

Good for Salon for doing the right thing!

[HuckleB]

13. This is good, though there was no excuse for publishing it, in the first place.

[trotsky]

14. I totally agree.

The problems were huge and obvious from day one. RFK just simply took quotes completely out of context, sourced people who have no idea what they're talking about, etc. But the anti-vax movement is very shrill and very vocal.

I am thankful that DU's Admins are supportive of the efforts to dispel anti-vax nonsense.

[SidDithers]

15. Good for Salon...

wonder if RFK Jr. will ever retract it.

Sid