Comments for Life Under A Rock

Comment on There Is No Good Way to Follow Up a Post about Your Deceased Grandpa… by David

David — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 10:11:04 +0000

I just wanted to say that if I hadn’t read your demented rants about confederacy reenactment, this would not have been remotely as funny…
http://xkcd.com/787/

Comment on Why Anti-Vaccination Proponents Annoy Me by m

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 03:02:17 +0000

Thank you fir saying this so eloquently. My gramma told me about polio, I am so fortunate to have my shots against that.

Comment on Why Anti-Vaccination Proponents Annoy Me by A'Llyn

A'Llyn — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 00:32:54 +0000

But it’s such a nice zing when you turn to science writing! Well put.

Comment on Why Anti-Vaccination Proponents Annoy Me by Talulah

Talulah — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:55:39 +0000

And this is why I’m a book reviewer and general malcontent, not a science writer.

Comment on Why Anti-Vaccination Proponents Annoy Me by Talulah

Talulah — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:55:02 +0000

I didn’t mention the Lancet retraction within the post for a number of reasons, but the foremost is this: like I said, people need something to blame, and in this case, they need it so badly that no amount of evidence has been enough to change their minds about the supposed link between autism and vaccination. I think it was Paul Offit who said that in the “debate” about autism and vaccines, the anti-vaccination group keeps changing the goal posts: every time a scientist debunks a hypothesis, the anti-vaxxers switch to a new one–but vaccines are always the culprit, just for new and more difficult to disprove reasons. For them, it’s become an argument of faith, not of scientific fact, and no matter how many retractions are made, they’re still going to believe. For that reason, I just didn’t want to get into it, no matter how vehemently I disagree with them. I don’t believe I can win the argument from that angle.

All that being said–yeah, the link’s been debunked. A lot.

Comment on Why Anti-Vaccination Proponents Annoy Me by Talulah

Talulah — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:45:50 +0000

Thank you.

Comment on Why Anti-Vaccination Proponents Annoy Me by Talulah

Talulah — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:45:29 +0000

That’s really informative and answered some questions I’ve had about my family’s medical history. Thanks for the link!

Comment on Why Anti-Vaccination Proponents Annoy Me by Adapa

Adapa — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 18:22:27 +0000

As powerful as vaccines are you can not say your child wont die from one of these illnesses, just that he/she will be at vastly lower risk. Our side of the argument is strong enough that we do not need to talk in absolute terms

Comment on Why Anti-Vaccination Proponents Annoy Me by Ashley

Ashley — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 16:38:04 +0000

I came over from Skepchick (the RSS feed; for some reason the website isn’t listing the post). This really is wonderful.

I feel the need to point out, though, how completely bogus the claims of a link between vaccinations and autism are. I get the feeling you’re aware of this, but for the sake of the uneducated who might read this, there really is no demonstrable link between vaccines and autism. The doctor who established the link originally turned out to have faked his data (http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2009/02/why_am_i_not_surprised_it_looks_as_thoug.php).

So as far as the “He COULD get autism!”, it looks like the anxious are going to have to find something else to be anxious about.

Comment on Why Anti-Vaccination Proponents Annoy Me by mpe

mpe — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 08:57:49 +0000