Well said, did you see the 7:30 report the other night?

Dorey said something along the lines of “Doctors don’t know it all.” I felt like shouting at the dumb bint “but they know a damn sight more than you”

Yep, I sure did see it, Oz.

I only wish Dorey could be charged with murder every time some parent follows her advice and it results in the death of a child.

Video of the 7:30 Report’s segment on vaccination can be seen here.

There’s a common thread amongst conspiracy theorists in general; anomaly spotting. Someone with a limited understanding of the topic they think they’re whistleblowing on cherry picks something they believe stands out and then gets on the ‘net and spreads their spotted anomaly worldwide. Invariably, they’re missing a big piece of information, have taken something out of context, etc. Moon hoaxers are the most prolific offenders but anti-vaxers are the most egregious.

But why do they do it? Simple. Everybody wants to be perceived to be useful. Some folks have a need to demonstrate to others that they know something others have overlooked. Anomaly spotting is a compensatory behaviour for a deep-seated sense of insecurity.

Before the days when the internet became easy enough for idiots to use, rumourmongering of this nature didn’t go very far. It’d usually get you dismissed as a crank or a crackpot. However, in the 21st century, any old crank can put a slick publishing platform on a website and make themselves look polished and somewhat credible. Suddenly, utter nonsense gets traction, at least amongst those absent the critical thinking ability to properly question.

It only gets worse when celebs throw their hats in the ring. Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey are celebrity anti-vaxers. Suddenly, nonsense gets stilts. AS IF a former nudie model and a comic actor know jack shit about immunology. If we were talking about moon landing hoaxes or mobile phone cancer myths, that’d be one thing… but this nonsense on stilts has a body count.

Just a note for anti-vaxers who want to comment on mgk: Get lost.

In the words of the inimitable US Senator Barney Frank as he addressed an anti-healthcare reform conspiracy theorist, arguing with you is like arguing with a dining room table– and I have no intention whatsoever of doing either.

And while we’re at it, it’s a good time to draw the gentle reader’s attention to one of my favourite blogroll links:

Science-Based Medicine

The key point anti-vaxers normally miss is that science (what you can know and can prove) trumps conspiracy theories (what you don’t know and can’t prove) every single time.

If it were the main intent of ‘big pharma’ to secretly plot to kill all their customers, don’t you think they’d have annihilated their client base by now? This is not to say that errors are not made in research from time to time, but there’s regulatory bodies in place such as the US FDA and Australian TGA, which, when doing their jobs, catch problems before they affect patients. However, to throw a ‘big pharma just wants to kill us all and take our money’ blanket over all of them is simplistic, provincial, naïve and anti-intellectual.

One rock you CAN throw at ‘big pharma’ is an accusation of profiteering. The nature of capitalism is that business’ primary focus is earning a profit for the shareholders. The goal all too often is dividends, not outcomes for patients. Obama’s US healthcare reform, if it manages to implement a single-payer model, promises to control rampant overcharging for medications much in the same way the Australian Medicare program has done over here, by simply refusing to put absurdly priced medications on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme’s reimbursement schedule.

Well said. Couldn’t have put it better myself.

Ta, Chasy. 🙂

Note to anti-vaccination twits: Don’t bother reposting the hoaxes and rumours that you read on antivax cult websites here at mgk. I won’t publish your rubbish. When you decide that you’re interested in science, I’ll decide I’m interested in a discussion- but not before.