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Mark Hoofnagle has a PhD in physiology from the University of Virginia and is currently a 3rd year medical student. His interest in denialism concerns the use of denialist tactics to confuse public understanding of scientific knowledge.
Chris Hoofnagle is a recovering Washington, DC lawyer and information privacy law expert at UC-Berkeley Law School. Denialism became apparent to him while working on consumer protection laws in Washington. The Denialists' Deck of Cards is essentially a how-to guide for being an industry lobbyist.
PalMD is a practicing internist in the Midwestern United States. Aside from the great joy he finds in his family and his work, he likes communicating some of that joy to others. He has a special interest in the ways patients---and we are all patients at one time or another---are deceived by charlatans. He aims to change the world, one reader at a time. Previous writings can still be found here.
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« The economy, denialism, and perception | Main | Skeptics' Circle #91 »
Category: Anti-Vax Denialism
Posted on: July 17, 2008 7:45 AM, by PalMD
Tonight on WXYZ Channel 7 in Detroit, the station that brought us the irresponsible health reporting of Steve Wilson, there will be a report on the HPV vaccine Gardasil. Given this station's recent history, I'm not very optimistic.
The Gardasil issue has been a unique crank-magnet. It has attracted a an interesting mix of religious zealots, antivax cultists, consumer advocates, and conspiracy theorists. It's even got Oprah! It's also damned interesting science.
Stay tuned.
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Comments
Great. Just great. So, let's see how many of these pop up tonight:
1) "There are nearly 8,000 reported adverse events relating to (over 8 million) injection so far". Conclusion: all 8,000 events are directly attributable to the use of the vaccine...no other sources of adverse events can be considered.
2) "There were 4 deaths since the vaccine has been used". Conclusion: the deaths were a direct result of the vaccine. Forget that one of the persons had congenital issues. Perhaps the vaccine caused the congenital issue.
3) "Only 3,000 women die of cervical cancer a year in the U.S.". Conclusion: 8,000 adverse events (over all years the vaccine has been in use) is more than 4,000 deaths, therefore, it's better to not vaccinate and avoid the larger number of problems. As for the other 6,000 women diagnosed and treated for cervical cancer each year, since they are not deaths, the fact that their numbers are greatly reduced is not important.
4) "Adverse events...." Conclusion: pain, suffering, and death. Forget pain at the injection site (duh! It's s needle), tenderness, and fainting (because we know stressed girls never faint...why just look at fainting for blood donations, they never...wait a minute, scratch that).
5) "One girl suffered from pancreatitis after receiving the vaccination". Conclusion: 1 girl out of 8 million getting pancreatitis confirms that a mechanism exists. Just ask her lawyer involved in the lawsuit.
Posted by: RJ | July 17, 2008 1:16 PM
Makes perfect sense. Did he also mention that the vaccine contains toxic chemicals with scary sounding names?
Posted by: Rogi | July 17, 2008 4:38 PM
Like sodium chloride and sucrose?
Posted by: HCN | July 17, 2008 5:20 PM
I think sodium thiopental is better for everyone involved.
Posted by: Chuck | July 17, 2008 6:03 PM