What I find most troubling these days in the political arena is that
complex issues, many involving science, are being argued at a
high-decibel level by people who couldn’t even spell “science” if you
spotted them the first five letters.
For years, many people have denied the phenomenon of climate change,
and while most have now accepted its existence, some begrudgingly, many
people claim that there’s no way that mankind has anything to do with
it. The dunce Sean Hannity thinks that there’s no such thing as global
warming, and even if there were, it would be caused by the weapons of
mass destruction that Saddam Hussein was able to hide from us. As
technology writer Daniel Lyons wrote recently in Newsweek,
“America’s top scientists face political opposition from a crowd that
couldn’t pass high school algebra.”
We won’t talk about evolution, which even the Catholic Church
accepts as factual. Instead, let’s look at the one-third of America’s
parents who won’t have their kids vaccinated against the H1N1 flu,
because many are afraid that their kids might “catch” autism.
Now, autism is a serious matter, although (God help me for sounding
like Tom Cruise) I believe the claim that it affects one in every 100
kids is wildly overstated. And the idea that it’s caused by
vaccinations is not only aggressively ignorant; it’s dangerous. Thanks
to the Internet and a whole lot of dumb-ass people who have kids, the
belief that the preservative thimerosal (which is in about 60 percent
of the doses available to the public) somehow leads to autism is widely
entrenched, despite the fact that all of the most-exhaustive studies
found absolutely no evidence to back it up.
Out in front of this claim is former Playboy body-exposer
Jenny McCarthy, whose child is autistic. I’m sorry for the kid, but,
people, this is Jenny McCarthy. I’d sooner listen to Joseph McCarthy.
Or Charlie McCarthy. Or Charlie Sheen.
Overpaid scab-picker Rush Limbaugh jumped in the other day, quoting
some doctor who said that the H1N1 vaccine hasn’t been tested enough,
and that there may be some side effects. That’s certainly possible. It
would be great if we could test flu vaccines over a matter of years.
The only problem is that flu strains are unique, and a new one pops up
every year. If every vaccine were tested over a matter of years, no one
would ever get the vaccine. And, generally, the worst thing that can
happen with a bad vaccine is that the recipient gets the flu. (That’s
another thing: The long-held belief that some people contracted
Guillain-Barre syndrome from the mass swine-flu vaccinations of the
1970s is also not true.)
Alas, to hear Limbaugh rail, we’re to believe that the black
helicopters will be circling overhead, with jackbooted thugs rappelling
down, armed with hypodermic needles. He thinks it’s your God-given
right as an American to let your kids get gut-heaving sick rather than
take any medicine from the Obama administration.
There are some parents who don’t think that the H1N1 flu will be
worse than any other flu, so why bother? I actually agree with them,
but they’re in the minority of the abstainers. The vast majority of
those who are rejecting the vaccine are doing so out of wrongheaded
politics or an empty-headed misunderstanding of science.
(In the interest of full disclosure, I won’t be getting the vaccine.
To the best of my knowledge, I’ve never had the flu. Or if I had it, it
was so mild that I didn’t know. I’m not one of those people you
despise, the ones who say, “Oh, I never get sick.” I am, instead, one
of those people who almost never get sick. Big difference. I get
a cold maybe once every two or three years. It lasts for a couple of
days, and then it dies of boredom.)
It’s certainly these parents’ right not to vaccinate their kids
against the flu. But what happens when something more serious comes
along? Would it be OK for them to risk having their kids contract, for
example, cholera in an effort to avoid their catching autism (which,
just to remind you in case you missed it, IS NOT POSSIBLE!)? You’ve got
parents now who shouldn’t be allowed outside without a helmet on who
think that it’s not only OK to keep their kids from getting vaccinated
against childhood diseases, but they also want to sue school districts
to let their kids go and infect those kids whose parents live in the
21st century. It amounts to the willing endangerment of others through
the adherence to a God-forsaken mash-up of junk science and hater
politics.
To end on a somewhat lighter note, I want the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention and the Columbia School of Journalism to join
forces to find the person who first used the term “flu-like symptoms,”
then I want that person to be identified and then clubbed. What does
that mean, “flu-like symptoms?” Either they have the flu, or they
don’t. Force that overpriced medical professional to make a call. I
don’t want to hear that phrase on ESPN or on the local news or
anywhere. It’s dumb.
While you’re at it, get rid of “viable alternative.” If it’s really
an alternative, then, by definition, it’s viable.
And get your vaccination. The only snot I want on my shirt is my
own.
This article appears in Oct 15-21, 2009.
Tom, Tom, Tom, don’t get your panties in a bunch. Swine flu is just God’s way of eliminating those who can’t do algebra.
I like this article and i aggree with it but Tom couldnt you have said all this without you having to go on a negative rant?
Is this what tucson weekly is for to just hear you vent?
Thanks for making me laugh as usual. Last week’s article was good but sad and therefore no laughing.
Mr. Danehy,
Your research for this subject is better served by looking somewhere else besides the industry shills in favor of vaccines and Rush Limbaugh. I’m inclined to believe that you actually don’t care about the 30% of U.S. researchers that admitted to shaping the outcomes of their studies to please funding sources. That’s why part of a responsible treatment of this subject would look for researchers with no stake in the game – if you cared to. No, I think here you are just “painting by numbers” and conjuring up the usual targets like Jenny McCarthy and dismissing skeptics as full of “junk science” and “hater politics”.
Anyone familiar with your past articles would see the irony of your actually using the term “junk science”. This Op-Ed is particularly bad because it specifically encourages people to do something that is indeed dangerous. If the celebrated board-certified neurosurgeon Dr. Russell Blaylock doesn’t do if for you, there’s always the excellent work of Dr. Andrew Moulden of Laurentian University:
http://vactruth.com/2009/07/21/dr-andrew-m…
If you are concerned about the fact that it is on a website, you can always call the dude yourself. Then again, maybe such activity would be inconsistent with the Weekly’s choice in allowing the current poster child for the “erosion of talent in the vision thing” to continue to appear in 40,000 or more papers strewn throughout the city of Tucson.
Heh. I was already vaccinated by the bloody virus itself. Nastiest infection I’ve had in decades.
I will be getting the Swine Flu shot in the first second of the first minute of the first hour of the first day it is available to the public. The 1918 flu killed over 100 million people and like the Swine Flu targeted the young age groups. The 1998 Hong Kong Flu was only stopped by killing every foul in Hong Kong and lots of pigs. This flu is not a joke. Its serious. If it turns out that it is not as bad as predicted, well thats good. Washing hands frequently, keeping hands away from the face (during a time that there is an epidemic of folks sticking their fingers in their mouths and noses) and using alcohol swipes to wipe down seats and hand holders for common usage things like grocery carts. THE GREAT INFLUENZA, the story of the great 1918 flu should catch everyones attention.
Guess the “Global Warming” debunking is slow to reach Tucson but you betcha Siberia, Canada,Greenland, Iceland and other areas of the Frozen North would love to have their temperature rise a few points and have more sun shine, like Tucoson for instance.
I’ve often wondered if the anti-vaccine crowd would refuse the rabies vaccine if their child were bitten by a rabid animal?
I wonder what the anti-vaccine crowd would do if exposed to the rabies virus, which is 100% fatal without the vaccine.
I’ll tell you what, AZRLS. You can line your offspring up to take the regimen of one dose of rabies immune globulin and five doses of the rabies vaccine just as a preventive measure. Just in case, you better take it yourself. That will make you a good, obedient consumer capable of really dumb arguments like the two you just posted.
Duuuude! You regularly consort with folks who are both politically left and right. Interesting how you fail to mention the “Lola Granola” types on the left who regularly through known scientific truths into an organic compost pile. Don’t we all know some liberal ‘Earth Mamma’ or ‘Gaia Guy’ that believe the only the beneficial medicine comes from (non-homogenized, non-pasteurized, BGH free) milk from free range albino Tibetan Yaks? (BTW – Am I not uber kool for the “Bloom County” reference [re: Lola Granola])?
I know of several local left folk that would soon vote for a hated conservative pol before they would vaccinate themselves or their children. It is telling how Tom conveniently leaves this huge non-vaccinating population out of this hit piece.
If you want to rely on Danehy for your medical advice, all I can say is better you than me. I suggest some alternative sources regarding vaccines that you can find on Amazon or a local bookstore: Dr. Sherry Tenpenny (DVD), Dr. Russell Blaylock, Dr. Mayer Eisenstein, and Neil Z. Miller.
Here are some other people who are not going to get the vaccination, to include a leader (in the US) who says it is designed to kill people (and amazingly, none are hillbillies).
Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan said the H1N1 flu vaccine was developed to kill people, UPI reported.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2…
My guess is that half of Norwegians (the place where the committee that decides who gets the Nobel Preace Prize comes from) will refuse the swine flu vaccination as well.
More than half of all Swedes will refuse the “swine flu” vaccination
11 October 2009
http://www.theflucase.com/index.php?option…
My interpretation of what Mr. Danehy is writing here is that some parents are refusing treatment because of an insubstantiated claim that an ingredient in the vaccine causes autism.
General information about Autism here. http://www.webmd.com/parenting/guide/menta…
It seems to be the general agreement that the exact causes of autism are unknown. I think if there was a definitive cause, such as the ingredient in this Vaccine, there would be wide and known agreement among the medical community.
I agree with Tom in that its foolish for a parent to refuse to provide treatment to a child based on insubstantiated hype. The soundest advice that’s always been given is to consult with your family’s physician and to follow that physician’s advice.
My physician would have my family’s health and interests in priority far more than the public or any of the sources cited in the above article would. By following my physician’s advice and treatment, I would be doing my part in preventing the spread of sickness as well.