MMR Vaccine Finally Cleared Of Assault
"Officials Say 'Bad Science' Links Vaccines, Autism"
Officials with the U.S. Court of Claims said they sympathized with the families, but there was little if any evidence to support claims of a vaccine-autism link.The evidence "is weak, contradictory and unpersuasive," concluded Special Master Denise Vowell. "Sadly, the petitioners in this litigation have been the victims of bad science conducted to support litigation rather than to advance medical and scientific understanding" of autism.
etc. Now that this is behind us, it's okay to ask why it took a court to examine the evidence for the link, even when the evidence was known to be fabricated. At what point in a civilization's demise are the doctors so uninterested in their own work that they turn to lawyers to tell them what's what?
"But the doctors already knew, it was the public." Oh, ok, I'll rephrase: at what point in a civilization's demise are doctors so uninterested in their work of informing the public of what is healthy and what is not, that they leave it to lawyers to decide and journalists to disseminate?
Lawyers for the families said they were disappointed.
No doubt.
"I must decide this case not on sentiment but by analyzing the evidence," said Special Master George Hastings Jr.
"Unfortunately, the [parents of the autistic child who blame the vaccine] have been misled by physicians who are guilty, in my view, of gross medical misjudgment," Hastings concluded.
Wait, what? Decide not on sentiment? You mean you can make reasoned judgments without knowing who got paid how much? You mean doctors can make serious conceptual errors that aren't the result of financial influence?
The hell you say, sir. The hell you say.
Digg | 
del.icio.us | 
StumbleUpon | 
Reddit | 
Yahoo! | 
My favourites
February 13, 2009 12:56 PM | Posted by : | Reply
"You mean doctors can make serious conceptual errors that aren't the result of financial influence?"
Certainly. And the institutionalized arrogance and narcissism of the field is not to be dismissed either. Just ask any direct care nurse.
It's when you combine all these elements ... intellectual arrogance and laziness, egotism based on classification and pay grade ... and narcissism, which serves to cement this particular straitjacket, voila ... business as usual.
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
February 13, 2009 6:23 PM | Posted by : | Reply
I guess society isn't dissolving quite as quickly as you thought. I hope you save the post apocalypse kit for your kids, though, they might need it.
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
February 13, 2009 7:34 PM | Posted, in reply to , by : | Reply
Let's not jump to conclusions here, a bearing seizing can feel like the brakes are working, just depends on the timing. =)
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
February 14, 2009 8:05 AM | Posted by : | Reply
This topic isn't about the laziness of doctors, it's about the refusal of the People to believe what doctors are telling them. People want someone to blame when their kid gets autism. The easiest thing for them to do is blame the doctors or vaccines or witchery. If it wasn't one thing it would be another.
I think youre question should be "at what point in civilization's demise do people stop listening to doctors and start making their own shit up and sueing doctors about it?"
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
February 16, 2009 8:53 AM | Posted by : | Reply
In the shyster business, what on earth is a Special Master? Sounds kinda special.
Is it like an Esquire?
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
February 16, 2009 7:58 PM | Posted by : | Reply
at what point in a civilization's demise are doctors so uninterested in their work of informing the public...that they leave it to lawyers to decide and journalists to disseminate?
I'm not sure if you're trying to make some meta-point here or if you haven't been following the story as it developed over the last ten years. A look at the "Further Reading" section of the Vaccine controversy article at Wikipedia shows how doctors have been working all along at presenting evidence to discredit the MMR-autism link. Numerous medical bloggers have been dogging the anti-vax people, as has Ben Goldacre in his regular Guardian column. A Lexis-Nexis search on "American Medical Association" AND vaccine AND autism turns up 70 results between 01/01/2000 and 12/31/2008; vaccine AND autism AND "no link" for the same period gets us 626 hits.
Your larger point may or may not be valid; I have no relevant experience or data on which to base an opinion. In this particular case, though, I think there's sufficient evidence to suggest that the medical and scientific communities have been working all along to get the message out but the public just haven't been paying attention. (This could, of course, be the meta-point: The docs have been yelling, but the public already thinks they're irrelevant and so haven't been listening.)
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
February 16, 2009 11:07 PM | Posted by : | Reply
Hello everyone,
I'm a newbie to website design and being a this site. I'm stopping by a few sites to pick up tips and get answers from people who know a lot more about this that I do!
Manic Depression News and Discussion Forum
Find the latest news about Depression, Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia. Discuss Mood Disorders topics with members of the Health Community.
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
February 19, 2009 9:42 AM | Posted by : | Reply
If physicians can't collectively and effectively assert, "this is science; that's quackery," then some other social authority will be called in to do that.
There are doctors who write books, join research networks, hold board certifications, who say:
- What if there's some link between autism and an inflammatory bowel condition?
- What if that bowel problem allows toxins to leak into the blood stream?
- What if there's a subset of autistics who can't excrete mercury or other heavy metals/toxins?
- What if those toxins or the body's reaction to the toxins cause brain damage?
- What if the damage results in autism symptoms specifically?
- What if the mercury build-up plus MMR vaccine plus leaky gut causes a chronic, vaccine-type measles infection of the brain and/or gut?
- What if chelation gets rid of the toxins?
- What if the body can fight off the virus once the toxins are gone?
- What if BigPharma is suppressing evidence in support of these what-ifs?
--except they leave off the "what if" bit.
So what to do with colleagues who elevate supposition and personal experience to the level of established fact?
Perhaps it's a kind of mental disorder, this "polymaybeosis" or "hyperwhatifitis." A strict diet limiting what-ifs to no more than ONE per topic under discussion might help.
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
Comments