Never let it be said that we ignore the Republicans! Seeking to further highlight distinctions between the parties, presumptive nominee John McCain has been on something of an anti-science tear lately. First, he dined and spoke with the Discovery Institute in Seattle — not a huge red flag by itself (there were many co-presenters, and one can’t always choose one’s lunch companions), but telling in light of his many flip-flops on teaching intelligent design in schools. (Like any good postmodern conservative, he has staked out firm positions on both sides of a wide variety of issues.)
But the latest news is much worse, as McCain panders to crackpots who believe that vaccination causes autism.
At a town hall meeting Friday in Texas, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., declared that “there’s strong evidence” that thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative that was once in many childhood vaccines, is responsible for the increased diagnoses of autism in the U.S. — a position in stark contrast with the view of the medical establishment.
The main problem with such a claim is not that just it’s untrue — it’s complete rubbish, of course, but politicians say untrue things all the time. The problem is that, unlike unfortunate choices about NASA spending priorities, in this case the stupidity can cause people to die. Hilzoy quotes the CDC on measles, which these vaccinations protect against:
Measles itself is unpleasant, but the complications are dangerous. Six to 20 percent of the people who get the disease will get an ear infection, diarrhea, or even pneumonia. One out of 1000 people with measles will develop inflammation of the brain, and about one out of 1000 will die.
Of course, McCain himself will be perfectly safe. He is arguably the most superstitious Presidential candidate of recent times, relying on a defense-in-depth strategy when it comes to lucky charms.
“I’m wearing my lucky shoes from today till Sunday,” McCain says from his bus on Wednesday. At the moment, his pockets contain the compass, feather (from a tribal leader) and penny (flattened, in his wallet). When McCain once misplaced his feather, there was momentary panic in the campaign, until his wife found it in one of his suits. When the compass went missing once, McCain assigned his political director to hunt it down. Weaver found it, and it remains safe, knock wood.
Primary day requires additional rituals. By the time you read this, Steve Dart, McCain’s lucky friend, should have arrived in South Carolina from California. He has been present with McCain for every Election Day since McCain first won a seat in Congress. McCain must sleep on a certain side of the bed, particularly before an election (and he never puts a hat on a bed–bad luck). Rain is good for Election Day, as are motion pictures. McCain requires himself to view a movie before the vote is counted. He fell asleep in his hotel room in New Hampshire before he watched a movie on primary day, but his staff didn’t panic. “We have superstition fire walls,” says Todd Harris, a spokesman.
I presume that one of his first initiatives as President will be to provide lucky compasses, feathers, and pennies to young children throughout this great land, which will keep them safe from those nasty viruses. Ready to lead on day one.
It’s ok. Soon one of McCain’s advisers will tell us all that it was all just for political consumption in the US, and he doesn’t really mean it.
I mean, it works for the Idealistic One. Even when He sounds like a xenophobic redneck talking about something really important, like trade.
Lawrence,
Yeah it should be. If Hillary doesn’t blow it for us by throwing Obama under the bus to save her failing campaign.
She needs to do whats good for the party not what she thinks is good for her.
e.
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Having Mumps as a child has left me azospermatic.
Ivf has cost me $30,000 so far but we have twins on the way. 🙂
They WILL be getting the MMR vaccine.
Elliot on Mar 5th, 2008 at 1:04 am
Lawrence,
Yeah it should be. If Hillary doesn’t blow it for us by throwing Obama under the bus to save her failing campaign.
She needs to do whats good for the party not what she thinks is good for her.
—————-
I would not write Obama off yet. He has a substantial margin still. Yesterday’s results just keeps Hillary in the running, but she has a long way to go before she can clearly turn this around. Obama also may well have picked up more delegates in the Texas Causcuses. If McCain gets the national election I can only conclude that Americans are a brainless and fickle population of slobs. The biggest thing about Hillary I don’t like is that she is the perfect Dem candidate the GOP dirty tricksters can run through their human-paper shredder (people enter one end, sheds come out the other end — a system used to shred candidates and citizens as well).
Lawrence B. Crowell
Sean is at a significant higher than average risk of having an autistic child 🙂
If McCain gets the national election I can only conclude that Americans are a brainless and fickle population of slobs.
More brainless than fickle. But americans have always been slobs. I fear that this country is going to get the president it deserves. Things will get much worse and the dollar will plunge even further, and we’ll become the third world country we always wanted to be. But nothing lasts forever – even Rome fell. I’m just angry at myself for not leaving four years ago when I had the chance. Obviously, I’m just as brainless. I’d be much safer now (and richer) in a place like canada or new zealand.
I don’t think Americans are fickle or brainless. I think that Karl Rove and friends have diabolically created a mindset where Americans vote out of fear that something bad will happen vs. a hope that something good will happen. That is the cycle that needs to be broken and that is why I am a fervent Obama supporter.
e.
Some time ago I read about possible genetic differences in people who are more right wing oriented compared to left wingers. An extreme example in closely related animal species are chimps vs. bonobos. Although they are evolutionary very close, chimps will start to fight much faster than bonobos.
Re Arnaldo
David Kirby is a phony from phonyville who has been completely discredited. See the attached link from Dr. Orac which is one of many debunkings of Mr. Kirby he has posted.
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2008/03/best_line_about_david_kirby_ive_heard_in.php
Count,
If you like that kind of study, try reading up on the Jukes and the Kallikaks. It should be right up your alley.
Theodor Adorno did a study where his research found that about 25% of people have what he termed the authoritarian personality, and published a book with that title back in 1950. The authoritarian personality is a feature of someone who has a near obsessive worship of those in authority or a drive to achieve such a position. This was found in reference to a study on how the Nazi party in Germany gained absolute power. An interesting corollary is that about 25% of people in the wake of Nixon’s resignation thought that Nixon was the victim of a left wing conspiracy. The main difficulty is that people with this sort of mentality very often do work their way into government and other positions of power. This extends IMO to the media, where the talking heads on TV, particularly FOX network programs and such intellectual giants as Hannity and O’Reilly (just shut up!), shout down critics of the current administration and boast about how they are “always right.” Of course there is Anne Coulter, who really belongs in a mental hospital instead of on TV.
It is uncertain whether this is genetic, though if that turns out to be the case I would not be surprised. It think there is some cultural element in America which follow this trend. The early North American colonies were settled by the Puritans, called roundheads back in Britain, who formed their own theocracy here, and back in Britain had their days of fun with Cromwell. Religion I think tracks this sort of mentality. Note the large number of Biblical references of the righteous man or people being sheep or putting on “the yoke.” God is a sort of imaginary person, who is the ultimate authority figure. God is often referred to in an authoritarian manner such as Lord and in many Jewish prayers God (Adonia) is referred to as “Melech,” Hebrew for King. So anyone who says that Jesus is their Lord and Savior I suspect they have an authoritarian personality, and note how many are ardent conservatives. This is intertwined with a curious libertarianism of sorts, as seen with the strange gun culture that pervades our society. It is a sort of oddball idea of individual freedom through an instrument where the individual may assert themselves with brute power. The NRA types tend to vote ultra-conservative and back Bushian politics.
The American mentality is also in my opinion rather paranoid. The McCarthy period was a case of pure social hysteria fueled by an alcoholic maniac in Congress. Americans are very fearful of many things, and we even have a TV advertizement system which preys on people’s fears. We have all met people who are afraid of strange things, such as vacinnes. It is easily exploited as well, and Bush has managed to convince Americans to be horridly fearful of Islamic miscreants hiding out in Afghan/Pakistan border region mountainous caves in order to nearly double pentagon bugets and get us into an occupation war in Iraq.
Lawrence B. Crowell
My son was diagnosed with Asperger’s last year. After explaining this to a friend, he asked me if I believed that vaccinations had caused his autism. The person that asked me was considering forgoing vaccinations for his children. I told him I believed that Autism was absolutely genetic and I explained to him some of the science behind it.
I am deeply troubled by this controversy and its refusal to subside in the face of hard science (I cover the issue and current Autism science in this post: http://bodbrain.blogspot.com/2008/01/eli-stone-and-marvelous-children.html). One of the major problems with this issue lingering is that real, important, and critical science is being drowned out in the media.
In addition, there is also an incomplete understanding of autism in the mainstream. The behavorial and neurological problems receive so much attention in the media, but the gastrointestinal problems that accompany Autism are rarely mentioned. These symptoms are fairly widespread among people with Autism. Early detection is discussed as critical for Autism treatment. However, for our family, there were no obvious signs of Autism until my son was four years old. But, he suffered gastrointensinal problems much earilier.
I think that these types of problems may be a warning sign which pediatricians should investigate without necessarily alerting the parents.
Due to these gastro problems, the side effects of the vaccinations have become confused as a cause of a disorder. Many scientists suspect that children with Autism may have trouble processing toxins that otherwise healthy children do not. As a result, autistic children may become visibly irritated or possibly sick after a vaccination. For some parents, this may be the first time that they realize something is not normal.
This is where the media has failed. Scientists are talking about this, but it does not receive the same amount of coverage. Everytime someone writes about this subject they would do a great service by not only mentioning the studies disputing that vaccinations are a cause of autism, they also would do well to mention that gastrointensinal problems are assoiciated with Autism and this may lead to some side effects.
Lawrence B. Crowell:
“The Virus House” is by David Irving; it was published in the U.S. under the title “The German Atomic Bomb”. Tendentious and not entirely trustworthy (not surprising, given the author), it has some useful information.
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“(Aaron) : The behavorial and neurological problems receive so much attention in the media, but the gastrointestinal problems that accompany Autism are rarely mentioned.”
I thought Andrew Wakefield, the guy who became household name due to “MMR controversy” did suggest that gastrointestinal problems are directly related to autism.
But is there a definite proof that
“(Aaron) : children with Autism may have trouble processing toxins that otherwise healthy children do not.”
If yes, then a skeptic may say that a particular vaccine (be it MMR or something containing thiomersal) which leads to gastro problems would eventually make a child susceptible to autism.
??
TG: Regarding Andrew Wakefield. I think that many in the Autism field have recognized that people with Autism often have co-morbid gastro problems. The problem is that it is difficult to discern this from media reports or find information about it on the Web.
When my son was diagnosed, the neuropsychologist did not have much insight regarding the gastro problems. Then, when I first started to seek information about this Andrew Wakefield was one of the most accessible sources. As I dug deeper, I found that connection between gastro problems and Autism was widely accepted. However, this was not easy to discover.
This is the problem I have. Many parents with Autistic children probably wonder whether their child’s gastro problems are related to Autism. However, it is very likely that the first source of information they encounter is Andrew Wakefield. They are then led to believe that the gastro problems led to the Autistic symptoms. Wakefield recommends very radical diets. Others recommend chelation, which it is unclear whether it is helpful and may actually be harmful.
Instead of being a cause of Autism, the gastro problems are strong indicator that it is a genetic disorder. According to Dr. Nancy Minshew, genetic disorders rarely are expressed in only one system. Generally, they affect many functions of the body. In the case of Autism, there are the neurological impacts (including behaviors impacts, social impacts, sensory impacts), the gastro impacts, and the immunological impacts. It is a whole body disorder. This is the information that should be getting out there.
“(TG) a skeptic may say that a particular vaccine (be it MMR or something containing thimersal) which leads to gastro problems would eventually make a child susceptible to autism.”
My son was born in 2001. I am not sure that he received a vaccine with thimerosal. We noticed his gastro problems long before we realized that he had Autism. Therefore, you could infer that the vaccinations caused the gastro problems and that “caused” Autism.
However, I do not subscribe to this scenario. The onset of the constipation relates to his potty-training. He was somewhat difficult to potty-train. His problems first started when we went on vacation. He was away from home. He possibly became dehydrated and then was eating a somewhat unbalanced diet. I think without the routines of home and because of his sensory problems (he is under-sensitive and under-stimulated), he did not attend to his duties and became very sick.
His pediatrician noticed that he was somewhat withdrawn and quiet at his two-year check-up. Our first constipation incident occurred when he was three. The trouble is that I think parents may notice signs of Autism much earlier than they are willing to admit to themselves or that they could only realize in retrospect. His constipation was not vaccine-related. Neither is his Autism. In many cases, it is a subtle disorder that becomes obvious only when children mature.
There is so much incredible science occurring right now in this field. The unfortunate part is that it is drowned on by a single question: Are vaccinations the cause?
The original article on this issue was cheap and uninformed – not up to your usual standard. It unfairly lumps people who are skeptical about the benefits of the range of vaccinations offered to children in North America together with the wildly superstitutious, neoconservative crazies etc. that it makes your crowd feel good to poke fun at. A more intelligent article would have reflected on the influence of money in the vaccine and medical research industry, which surely is not the one field of endeavor in our society immune (ha, ha) to the role of money and politics. The MMR- Autism scare in my view is a rare case where regular people, families of children affected by autism, were able to demand change and get the medical establishment to pay attention to the scourge of autism (affecting 1 in 4 boys and 1 in 8 girls) which until the widespread reaction to the Andrew Wakefield study in the Lancet, the medical research community was more or less ignoring. Through internet networking and spreading the stories of their personal experiences witnessing the kinds of reactions to vaccines that some of the earlier comments above attest to (possibly related gastro-intestinal sensitivity to compounds in the vaccinne as the post above suggests), parents of children with autism pushed people to withdraw their consent to have their children vaccinated, causing a public health crisis in some countries and finally pushing the medical research community to respond with some serious studies of this issue. Calling this group fear mongerers is both cheap and socially irresponsible, as is not recognizing that the diseases that get attention in our society are the ones where drug companies can envision big profits. We know this so why do we put our faith in the public health authorities so completely on the issues of vacinnes? Now our children are being vacinnated for all kinds of illnesses (chicken pox, 3 variants of meningicocal and now the new HPV campaign which in Canada has been abruptly called off because of serious adverse reactions in girls and a seeming ‘rush to market’. As well, many of these vacinnes have limited duration and these generations may indeed need a chicken pox booster at a later point, yet we all rush in to take the next miracle vaccine offered to us by the drug companies… in this case skepticism about the “public health party line” has led to positive outcomes, much more serious research on the alarming rise in autism levels that coincided with the introduction of the MMR.
Rob Mar 3rd HITS THE BULLS EYE
An unvaccinated student gets an illness and then gives it to the vaccinated people.
Vaccines to him are a myth.
Have a vaccine and you get protection for a couple of years ONLY.
RIGHT ON!
But illness at an early age is better managed than at an older age.
Everyone gets loads of colds – NO PROBLEM
But old folks getting colds – begins to be a problem.
Before it was nothing but now it gets worse.
We DO NEED vaccinations.
We dont NEED vaccinations to stop GLUE EAR and DIARHOEA caused by other vaccines.
We NEED a few vaccines for MAJOR problems – Smallpox et al.
We dont need BRAIN DESTROYING additives in our vaccines.
John Fryer
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