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Clearly, recent postings to the cesspool of the AoA Collective demonstrate that they want to be more offensive that they usually are. Paul Offit is attacked, again, and Michael Fitzpatrick is attacked in an article that fails to mention that he is a parent of an autistic child.
They have tacitly announced their Spring Offensive, and the target is your mind. I will suggest some reading that is "mental kevlar."
This is clearly more AoA Collective "thinking", where they would love to have the opposition realize that refuting their male bovine excreta with facts is futile, and if you have the temerity to do so, you will be mercilessly attacked.
Recently, J.B. decided to put up another website where he uses his uncanny lack of intelligence and dearth of scientific knowledge to feebly discredit scientific studies which do not neatly fit into CollectiveThink. He calls it 14 Studies. I call it proof that the Collective Leader has no scientific knowledge what-so-ever. Both Steve Novella, and Dave Gorski eviscerate the site, with anyone who has a high school diploma, and stayed awake through biology and chemistry, can understand. That, of course, leaves out the Collective and their drones.
Read 14 Studies and then read Steve Novella and Dave Gorski. You will know why this blog is called the Age of Ignorance.
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The sad thing is-well to be quite honest..yes, one can read through these papers and pick them apart. I have to say that even though I am a college graduate-and did take bio/chem/physics...It took me time to muddle through. The problem is-how many people especially those without scientific leanings are going to do this? If you were to take a parent of a newly diagnosed child and gave them the "14 studies" to read-What do you think their reaction is going to be? Sadly, in many cases, they would be taken at face value-as truth. It is astounding to me that inaccuracy is allowed to be presented as factual science-even more horrifying is that main stream media doesn't seem to have a problem with that.
ReplyDeleteIn actuality, it is worse than that. First, the mainstream media gives "false balance" to the anti-vax arguments, and even fails to realize that they are anti-vax.
ReplyDeleteSecond, many times the media has the study and just gets it wrong. Some media outlets have regular science reporters, and some of them do a decent job. But, when the reporter is expected to cover a wide variety of topics, they often blow it when it comes to science.
As for parents doing their homework, I tend to disagree with you. From what I have seen, there is plenty of solid scientific information out there on the web. Parents selectively choose the "science" that supports their fears, desire for revenge at being stuck with a special child, etc. It is the easy way out.
And, fo course, parents do have a ready made source of information, i.e. their child's doctor. They have chosen the doctor supposedly because they want the best of care for their child. When vaccination comes up, they get loonie and reject what that professional says.
I feel that their rejection is based on the lies and inuendos promulgated by the anti-vax liars. That is their intent, i.e. to sow mistrust, and they are doing a damn good job.
I agree-there is a whole lot of very good information. Finding it is not always easy.I can only speak from my own experience of when my boys were diagnosed.(7 and 5 years ago) It was a terrifying-vulnerable time. The way autism has been portrayed-one can't help but feel that way. The specialists we went to, had about 10 minutes of time available..So where do you turn-the internet. What is the first thing you are bombarded with...cure sites and anti-vax propoganda...much of it written by people with Dr. in front of their names. It can be very very scary and confusing. Thankfully, after 3 tries, I found a pediatrician who was willing and more than happy to discuss all things autism with us-including vaccines. My two oldest are on the spectrum, my two youngest are not. They are all immunized. I do my best to work with parents of newly diagnosed-to steer them in the right direction..because the sheer volume of information available is quite overwhelming.
ReplyDeleteI rarely go to AoA anymore, but I did notice a couple of things the other day I wanted to comment on:
ReplyDelete1. They were running an ad from uber-kook Andrew Moulden (if you don't know him, Google him at your peril) -- guess they'll take money from anyone, eh?
2. One of their recent articles contained a bit about how the authoress felt wracked with guilt because she had "caused [her] boys to have autism."
That is so fucked. So very many of these folks are walking around loaded down with guilt because they've become convinced that THEY are responsible for their kids' autism -- if only they'd educated themselves on "the truth about vaccines," they reason, the kids wouldn't be autistic.
That's tragic. And completely unnecessary. Add that to the list of AoA's crimes . . . .
AoA take money from anyone? Well, you know what the oldest profession is, don't you?
ReplyDeleteThe authoress probably did help cause the autism. She contributed one half of the genetic material. Feeling guilty over that is just weird.
Hey, don't know if you've caught the June 2009 issue of Reader's Digest (of all places!), but there's an article in there about "celebrity science" that focuses, in part, on Our Jenny and the vaccine-autism "debate."
ReplyDeleteBottom line: RD thinks it's bunk.
And (with apologies to Lyndon Johnson), if AoA has lost Reader's Digest, they've probably lost Middle America . . . .
Connie, when a movement loses Reader's Digest, they have lost Middle America. My son's doctor had ten copies of it in the waiting room, and he ordered 500 reprints.
ReplyDelete