Obama, Clinton join the know-nothing brigades on autism-vaccine "link"

Turn out Barack Obama is just as indefensibly ignorant as John McCain of the science surrounding vaccines and autism. Ugh. He should read Mike's comment from a few weeks back. Or, you know, anything written by anyone with the remotest idea of what they're talking about -- which would not include Jenny McCarthy, CNN's unfortunate editorial judgment to the contrary.

P.S. I sympathize with McCarthy's parental plight, and I'm sure she genuinely believes the provably false (indeed, proven false) things that she says. The same is probably true, in most cases, of 9/11 Truthers, Flat Earth Society members, etc. But genuine emotional grief and honest-but-discredited beliefs are no excuse for using a national platform to ignorantly spout nonsense.

And as for Obama and McCain? They have even less of an excuse.

UPDATE: Clinton, too!

(Hat tip: Aaron, who quips, "all tremble before the mighty Israel gun union defense autism lobby." Indeed. *sigh*)

Comments

[Aaron]

Disappointing, for sure.

[Scientizzle]

*whacks head against keyboard*

ler2bg>"eahk.baeru; 43v8

This is what irresponsible fear-mongering journalism does...provides undue attention and unearned validity to ideas with no merit.

[Like liberalism]

:)

[Aaron]

Via Yglesias, Clinton joins in the pander-fest. All tremble before the mighty Israel gun union defense autism lobby.

[Aaron]

Unfortunately, this is probably one of those frustrating cases where the political pander/don't-pander choice is a no-brainer. Nobody will shape their vote on this issue... except the people convinced their child's autism was caused by vaccines, who may very well shape their vote on little else.

And yes, better journalism be good start.

[Mad Max, Esquire]

There is conclusive evidence that vaccines are not linked to autism? Really? As far as I know, the jury is still out on that one - at least in terms of it being "settled science."

While I doubt vaccines are a contributor to autism, everything I have heard is that there is a percentage of the population that is predisposed to have autism, which can be triggered by environmental factors - possibly but not conclusively vaccines, toxins, radiation, etc.

I personally think the rise of autism diagnoses has more to do with the definition of autism being expanded to include aspergers and other similar afflictions. And it may very well be vaccines have no correlation with autism at all.

But to compare these concerns to 9/11 Conspiracy Theories is just as irresponsible as Jenny McCarthy and Don Imus going on TV saying there a conclusive link between mercury in vaccines and autism.

[Aaron]

umm... me Tarzan, better journalism be good start.

sheesh.

[Aaron]

It's reasonable to say that we know very little about the etiology of autism. It's also reasonable to say that to date there has been no convincing proof offered of a link between Thimerosal (let alone vaccines in general) and autism.

We could give Obama the benefit of the doubt, in that the recent Vaccine Injury Compensation Program settlement to a child injured by a vaccine was widely represented as a case of a vaccine causing autism. The actual story is more complex and did not involve a diagnosis of autism, but I would understand if Obama is sufficiently distracted by other issues that he didn't get past the headline.

[Aaron]

Kevin Drum's email inbox supports my point.

[Aaron]

2:54:45 isn't me... but I'm happy to take credit for it ;)

[Scientizzle]

Max, there is conclusive evidence. Several large studies have determined that, when the broadened definitions of autism spectrum disorders is controlled for, there has been no substantive rise in the incidence of autism; nor has there been any reduction in the incidence of autism following the removal of thimerosal (the ethlymercury-containing preservative often blamed) from relevant childhood vaccines a dozen years ago; nor is there any difference in the rate of autism diagnosis between children that have and have not received vaccines.

It's about as conclusive as it gets, really. This is never made as clear as it should be in every report about this whole nonsense.

[Scientizzle]

Furthermore, Andrew Wakefield, the doc who first researched an between MMR vaccine-autism link, is currently up before the General Medical Council in Britain, facing charges of fraud & research misconduct and general scientific dishonesty which may result in losing his license. The Lancet, the journal that published his claims, has repudiated the research (as "fatally flawed" and tainted by ethical violations), and 10 of 12 of his co-authors published a retraction.

The COI? The kids in his study were recruited by an attorney preparing a lawsuit against MMR manufacturers. Wakefield received £400,000 from the attorneys responsible for the MMR lawsuit, too.

This Wikipedia article has a rundown of the studies that contributed to the scientific consensus that there is no causal link between vaccines and autism.

[Alasdair]

Hmmmmm ... hasn't the inceidence of autism risen significantly since the Clintons got onto the political scene ?

I blame the Clintons for the increase in autism ...

Second hmmm ... Osmotic Clintonism Syndrome ...

You read it here, first !

[Andrew]

I think you're being a bit harsh on Jenny McCarthy. Just because she's blonde, hot, has big boobs, and we've all wanted to boink her since we first saw her on Singled Out, doesn't mean she can't ever be taken seriously. Indeed, I specifically put my old Jenny McCarthy Playboy centerfolds out of sight for a few minutes and actually read her article on its own merits. Then I asked Mike a couple of straightforward, honest questions, and got some very good rebuttals. Then again, I'd gladly take Jenny McCarthy's side of the debate despite Mike's comments if she attached some racy pictures to her articles.

Personally, I somewhat favor the whole "going back to nature" stuff to a degree, so I tend to be sympathetic to arguments like Jenny McCarthy's that all these vaccines filled with weird chemicals are potentially harmful to young children. But I prefer cold, hard facts and logic, so I'm glad I got the other side of the story from Mike.