Joannas Diary: a TGirl Blog : Warning, May Contain Nuts

Look, for fucks sake. The MMR thing is one of the biggest media hoaxes out there. The research by Wakefield was seriously flawed in the first place and leapt upon by a horde of journalists and celebrity columnists without a science qualification between them. No actual studies have been published that show a link between MMR and Autism, and the evidence against a link is overwhelming. Every media outlet that discusses this always ends up trying to "balance the debate" by allowing anti-vaccine nutjobs to have their say and continue to spread this absolute rubbish.

Of course, now the media point the finger purely at Wakefield, and walk away whistling... claiming it was never anything to do with them guv, oh no honest. And the biggest bastard in all this is the Daily Mail...

So of course, one of the things we really need to do is to get our children to start thinking about how science is manipulated by the media and by parties with a cash investment in peddling alternative therapies etc. It's good common sense to doubt what these shitrags are telling us.

So this story in the Daily Mail yesterday made my blood boil when I read it (which to be honest every story in the Daily Mail does) - for the sheer arrogant cheek of it.

So - to try and show children that the whole MMR thing was complete bollocks and that people like Wakefield and the Daily Mail were bastards of the highest order - is somehow Brainwashing them? Oh for fucks sake.

I'm gobsmacked. Really i am.

To have people from JABS talking about insidious ways of shaping peoples opinions? Words fail me.

And for AQA to now withdraw the past paper because of it. Shameful. Stand up to these bastards. (And I've now seen the paper and it was only for 3 marks anyway!)

I'm hoping Ben at Bad Science will be writing about this soon, keep an eye on his blog.

And the Anti-vaccine movement is moving ahead at a scary rate in the US with that fuckwit Jenny McCarthy being signed up by Oprah. These diseases are going to come back, and people are going to die, and the blame for that falls squarely on these celebrity rent-a-quotes and the arts students that work in the media who don't have a clue about what they are doing.

Bah.....

Want to read more. Try some of these links
Why Does the Vaccine/Autism Controversy Live On?
Oprah drinks the antivax Kool Aid
Why is Oprah Winfrey promoting vaccine skeptic Jenny McCarthy?
Daily Mail Exposes Secret Government Brainwashing Plot!
Mail & MMR: who's doing the brainwashing?

The stupid.. they not only burn, they kill...

Labels: angry, badscience

11 Comments:

At May 10, 2009 11:16 PM, Demi said…

It's ever so easy to just let this sort of madness wash over, keeping one's own corner of the world straight.

But people swallow this crap, assuming conspiracy theories are true. And as soon as the charlatans threaten to sue, most mainstream media roll over.
At May 10, 2009 11:26 PM, Lynn Jones said…

..and people are going to die..Sad and very true. Perhaps we need large flashing signs that state opinion when certain people speak on TV.
At May 11, 2009 8:41 AM, Joanna said…

it would be easy to let it wash over you, but it's going to start causing deaths.

If you want another example of how serious this has become - read up on the South African government stopping spending on Anti-AIDS drugs and investing in Vitamin C pills and suchlike. It is crazy. Read this here.

What I think annoys the Mail about this story is teachers teaching kids to start questioning the shit thats in the mail
At May 11, 2009 9:19 PM, Lynn Jones said…

What's wrong with questioning? Ummm... that wasn't meant to be flippant!

When a newspaper publishes something, is it a bad thing to tell a student (of whatever age): "You don't have to believe it, go and look it up if you want. See what others say."

As to deaths, I think there will be a wave of these as those missing MMR grow up.
At May 11, 2009 10:28 PM, Joanna said…

Exactly.. we need them to be media-savvy.. One of the points of the new 21st century science curriculum was to do this (although sadly at the expense of a lot of the science)

and the effects of kids not being vaccinated are already sadly leading to measles and mumps coming back...

it's very sad... and completely avoidable
At May 12, 2009 11:43 AM, Andrea S said…

I share your pain, Jo. Measles and mumps are serious illnesses and they have already started to come back, but apparently Jenny McCarthy is still blaming the drug companies:

I do believe sadly it's going to take some diseases coming back to realize that we need to change and develop vaccines that are safe. If the vaccine companies are not listening to us, it's their fucking fault that the diseases are coming back. They're making a product that's shit. If you give us a safe vaccine, we'll use it. It shouldn't be polio versus autism.Hey, if people die it's not her fault. So that's alright then.

It isn't a choice between polio or autism, but try telling her that. We are truly living in the age of unreason.
At May 14, 2009 8:10 PM, LucyTolliday said…

A story saying nothing to worry about wouldn't sell or fill The Mail. In the meantime there are great risks to an increasing number of unvaccinated children.
At May 19, 2009 8:48 PM, sophie h said…

I dont read news papers as almost every artical that contains anything factual or technical information in my experience is usually wrong in some way or other and is therefore worthless or even harmful.
The problem is how does someone who doesnt know avoid being mislead?
Surely there ought to be a duty of factual correctness placed upon journalist to make them more responsible.

Rant ends
At May 20, 2009 6:07 PM, Andrea S said…

I agree Sophie: so many articles in the mainstream media are inaccurate or just plain wrong.

It's 50 years since CP Snow's "Two Cultures" lecture, and I'm not sure that things have improved much. Certainly most journalists have no idea about the sciences.

Incidentally, did you see that there's been a big outbreak of measles in Wales?
At June 29, 2009 11:15 PM, Anonymous said…

Autism didn't exist until the 1930s when they started putting mercury in vaccines.

The Amish community don't vaccinate there children and they never suffer from autism.

Medicine has been corrupted by Big Pharma. You are more likely to be killed than cured by the drugs doctors give you.

I know on average we live longer than we did a hundred years ago but that is down to reductions in infant mortality. Those who survived infancy a hundred years ago lived just as long as we do today.

Not a doctor or anything.

Estelle
At July 01, 2009 12:17 PM, Joanna said…

Dear Estelle.

Afraid that's all bollocks.

But thanks for playing.