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I don't know where to start on that. I think I'll abstain.
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 12:15:32 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I know it's the Onion, but given the way the mob have run policy up to now, I think that their sarcastic suggestion of widening the mob's franchise sadly reflects the reality of the situation rather than a satirical distortion of it.

I believe you missed that inference and imagined I might believe it myself.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 02:37:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]
The only word I understand in what you say is "vaccination". Even then, what vaccination?
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 02:54:38 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Oh, I had no idea you didn't know the background.

The UK replaced 3 separate vaccines against the childhood diseases mumps, measles and rubella with a single combined MMR vaccine. A cowboy doctor, using poor methodology and allegedly dodgy commercial motives wrote a paper for the Lancet that suggested that this new vaccine was implicated in the coincident rise in autism.

this lit a fire of populism in the right wing press that meant that take up of these vaccinations in the UK was significantly down. It took over a decade before those involved were held responsible. but for a decade incidences of these quite serious diseases have been rising because kids aren't being vaccinated.

Hence mine and the Onion's dig at the idea that mob rule is determining vaccination policy.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 03:05:25 PM EST
[ Parent ]
OK, but that wasn't just a UK issue. The Onion's American, and this question of autism was everywhere (apparently backed by a Lancet article): North America, across Europe too, and no doubt elsewhere.

Though I had great difficulty with the notion that MMR vaccines cause autism, I don't see why people shying away from them should be equated with mob rule (even if the Mail was involved, from a British perspective).

The Onion doesn't seem to be saying what you think, btw.

It's a spoof on "have your say", not that "mob rule is determining vaccination policy".

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 03:25:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]
A Statement from Jenny McCarthy & Jim Carrey: Andrew Wakefield, Scientific Censorship, and Fourteen Monkeys - AGE OF AUTISM

Dr. Andrew Wakefield is being discredited to prevent an historic study from being published that for the first time looks at vaccinated versus unvaccinated primates and compares health outcomes, with potentially devastating consequences for vaccine makers and public health officials.

It is our most sincere belief that Dr. Wakefield and parents of children with autism around the world are being subjected to a remarkable media campaign engineered by vaccine manufacturers reporting on the retraction of a paper published in The Lancet in 1998 by Dr. Wakefield and his colleagues. 

The retraction from The Lancet was a response to a ruling from England's General Medical Council, a kangaroo court where public health officials in the pocket of vaccine makers served as judge and jury. Dr. Wakefield strenuously denies all the findings of the GMC and plans a vigorous appeal.



Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 05:25:03 PM EST
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