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autism-vaccine link?

Here is a relevant article from today's "The Australian"

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23463973-23289,00.html

A SENIOR member of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists resigned as convenor of its 2009 congress after his peers unanimously voted down a proposal to dump drug company sponsorship.
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Dr Battersby, who handed in his resignation as congress convenor last week, said the entire nine-member congress committee had supported a ban. He said they were happy to accept the industry as exhibitors at the event, but believed it had to remain in its "rightful place". "It's a much much stronger form of promotion and blurring of the boundaries between psychiatrists and pharmaceutical companies if they become the formal sponsors of a meeting or a congress," Dr Battersby said.
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This year's RANZCP congress at the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre in Melbourne has awarded its gold sponsorships to drug companies AstraZeneca, Lilly and Pfizer...AstraZeneca and Pfizer are among the companies due to face this month a code of conduct committee hearing of Medicines Australia, the peak drug industry body, over potential ethical breaches in the educational activities offered to doctors.
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The clash highlights the debate about the scale and implications of the industry's influence over doctors, whose prescribing patterns affect not only patient care but the viability of taxpayer-funded schemes subsidising drugs. In the second half of last year, 42 drug companies spent a total of $31 million paying for "educational events" for health professionals - mostly doctors.
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This thread started with a link to a CNN story, so to return to the spirit of the OP :) I bump this thread with another CNN story:

Vaccine-autism question divides parents, scientists

Yes, the title is a statement of the blindingly obvious. It unfortunately also is a simple reaffirmation of the divide, and a poor story for education, as it conflates the good real science it contains with moral proclaimations and a "counter-expert" who's gone against the established grain on the topic.

Anyway, here's my rant: It seems as though there's no progression of knowledge in the mainstream news reportage of the autism-vaccine issue. All reportage seems to follow the script of "here's the affected parents", "here's the science", and "here are the counter-arguments to the accepted science". That story construction can lead to a mistaken impression that the counter-arguments have the same validity as the established science, and also reinforces a mistaken paradigm that individual experience trumps statistical evidence. It's a bit aggravating to see this over and over again.

End rant... anyway, some of you will have seen the story by now, but for the others that haven't, I admit there's nothing really new in this story. But it is an example of how news stories just keep following the same script in reporting this subject.
 
ElMondoHummus said:
This thread started with a link to a CNN story, so to return to the spirit of the OP :) I bump this thread with another CNN story:

Vaccine-autism question divides parents, scientists

Yes, the title is a statement of the blindingly obvious. It unfortunately also is a simple reaffirmation of the divide, and a poor story for education, as it conflates the good real science it contains with moral proclaimations and a "counter-expert" who's gone against the established grain on the topic.

Anyway, here's my rant: It seems as though there's no progression of knowledge in the mainstream news reportage of the autism-vaccine issue. All reportage seems to follow the script of "here's the affected parents", "here's the science", and "here are the counter-arguments to the accepted science". That story construction can lead to a mistaken impression that the counter-arguments have the same validity as the established science, and also reinforces a mistaken paradigm that individual experience trumps statistical evidence. It's a bit aggravating to see this over and over again.

End rant... anyway, some of you will have seen the story by now, but for the others that haven't, I admit there's nothing really new in this story. But it is an example of how news stories just keep following the same script in reporting this subject.
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I agree wholeheartedly. At best, this is irresponsible journalism.

I'd like to point out that the headline of this article on CNN's home page is even slightly worse: "Vaccine-autism link divides parents, scientists".
 
ElMondoHummus said:
This thread started with a link to a CNN story, so to return to the spirit of the OP :) I bump this thread with another CNN story:

Vaccine-autism question divides parents, scientists
Click to expand...

Furthermore, at the present moment the CNN front page also has a link to tonight's Larry King show, which says:

On World Autism Day, the controversy over vaccines heats up! Do they contribute to autism, or is there a greater risk going without? Actress and mother of an autistic child, Jenny McCarthy, debates the issue with medical professionals.
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http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/larry.king.live/

"Actress debates medical professionals." :boggled:
 
My hunt for info on "Actress" (or should that be "actor" in today's gobbledegook PC speak) Jenny McCarthy yeilded this snippet from my first google hit:
Jenny McCarthy wants to have an orgy.

The busty blonde wants to share her breasts with as many people as possible - because they're so perfect.

She said: "I always wanted an orgy to see what it was like, but never got the opportunity.

"I have good boobs and I know they'd get a lot of attention. Hey, if someone's tickling my bits I'm happy."

Meanwhile, Jenny has rubbished reports she had lesbian sex in a Las Vegas toilet with porn star Jenna Jameson.

The X-rated beauty recently made the shocking claim on the US DJ Howard Stern's radio show.

She told the New York shock jock Jenny performed oral sex on her in a ladies lavatory.
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Any chance I can debate her and check out her oral linguistic skills?
 
I'm confused.

I can't find the bit in there about her medical license or PhD in biology, immunology, or epidemiology.

I assume she must have at least two or three such degrees if Larry King is setting her up to debate not one but an entire panel of medical professionals.
 
Vorticity said:
I'm confused.

I can't find the bit in there about her medical license or PhD in biology, immunology, or epidemiology.

I assume she must have at least two or three such degrees if Larry King is setting her up to debate not one but an entire panel of medical professionals.
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Imagine the scenario: Several know-it-all doctors picking on an innocent mother who has an autistic son and nice tits*. Who do you think the audience is going to side with? (Hint: I don’t think the facts are particularly relevant.)

*I don’t know, I haven’t seen them myself.
 
*SIGH*
From the article:
They believe the MMR vaccine, combined with a mercury-containing preservative found in that and other vaccines at the time
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The MMR never used themarisol, other vaccines did.
I also take issue with the phrase "mercury-containing". Ethylmercury is not the same thing as elemental mercury. It "contains" mercury just like table salt "contains" chlorine gas.
 
McCarthy started off the Larry King interview with the "we aren't against vaccines" misstatement then went on to say her son got better when they "treated the vaccine side effect, not autism". That was it, I couldn't take anymore.
 
skeptigirl said:
McCarthy started off the Larry King interview with the "we aren't against vaccines" misstatement then went on to say her son got better when they "treated the vaccine side effect, not autism". That was it, I couldn't take anymore.
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In my current state of mind, I probably would have destroyed my TV set.
 
skeptigirl said:
McCarthy started off the Larry King interview with the "we aren't against vaccines" misstatement then went on to say her son got better when they "treated the vaccine side effect, not autism". That was it, I couldn't take anymore.
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I watched almost the whole thing. It wasn't really a debate, but rather an attack, with any reasoned arguments drowned out by yelling, emotional appeals, and interruptions. And of course Jenny McCarthy can get away with it because she is sincere, attractive, confident and sympathetic. And I would guess that she knows her audience by now. So that she did not feel it necessary to address the content of what the physicians had to say, tells us that she knows it's not necessary (confirming my prior supposition that people are not making these decisions based on reason).

And I apologize to all concerned. I forgot to check out her tits, so I cannot comment on them for you.

Linda
 
800px-Fractal_Broccoli.jpg
 
....not sure why I was reminded of that vegetable but it somehow seems appropriate.
 
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