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Blogger still under fire

By sb admin on April 20, 2008.

If the uber-fascist wing of the anti-vaccine movement had any scientific credibility, it wouldn't need to throw around subpoenas. That is what is (still) happening to the author of the Neurodiversty blog (hat tip again to LizDitz).

I'm sitting here in the hospital with my sick daughter. She has all that modern medicine has to offer, and is thankfully doing well. If she weren't, my reaction wouldn't be to abandon science and start slinging blame---she fell ill to a common virus, and that's that. I certainly wouldn't start legal action against people who disagree with me. That's crazy.

In science, evidence is what makes an argument. Legal threats don't change physical reality. All they do is intimidate. And if legal intimidation is all the support your crazy hypothesis can gather, then it's time to give up and go home. Instead of suing bloggers, go home and spend time with your family---that's how you can help them best.

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Anti-Vax Denialism

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I am glad to hear your daughter is doing well.

This subpoena business is scary. It stands to waste people's money on anyone who wants to harass others. My understanding of US law is that you can't bring a lawsuit just to harass others. PZ Myers went through something like this recently and the other side dropped it when they realized it would be roundly dismissed for this reason.

Good news on your daughter. Hope she gets well soon.

I just think its fantastic during such a stressful time that you can stillto blog on such matters for the public good.

I'm very glad your daughter is improving. There's not much more frightening than seeing one's child seriously ill.

On modern medicine: I have two siblings. Without modern medicine, all three of us would most likely have died before the age of fourteen, one at four from pneumonia and kidney infection, one at eight from meningitis, and one at fourteen from peritonitis. Of our collective four children, one would likely have died from complications of birth, along with the mother, another of peritonitis, another may have succumbed to a severe asthmatic condition. One might have survived.