1. insolence
  2. David Kirby smacked down--and not by me! (Part 2)

David Kirby smacked down--and not by me! (Part 2)

By oracknows on September 26, 2008.

You know, I'm really, really beginning to like this Dr. Rahul Parikh guy.

Yesterday, he delivered an absolutely delicious smackdown of that chief propagandist for the mercury militia and antivaccine movement, David Kirby. It was at least seven kinds of awesome, and I was truly grateful to Dr. Parikh for doing it so that I didn't have to. This time around, Dr. Parikh's done me another favor. You see, on Wednesday David Kirby gave a talk to Congressional staffers and a few Congressmen. He was also kind enough to include a link to his slides on the Age of Autism blog, and, indeed, such a huge, fat, juicy target seemed ripe for a dose of not-so-Respectful Insolence. The slides were the same idiotic Kirby talking points that I've been deconstructing since at least 2005, though, and that tempered my enthusiasm to charge once more into the breach.

Fortunately for me, Dr. Parikh was more than happy to do the job for me. Read and be amused. Here's just one example of many to whet your appetite:

Mr. Kirby loves to use "social proof" (as opposed to scientific proof) to make his case. Here he does it to perfection, taking quotes from the Presidential Candidates to tell us that yes, vaccines are the cause of autism.

That's gonna leave a mark.

Tags
Antivaccine nonsense
autism
medicine

More like this

The Huffington Post's war on medical science is noticed
One of the advantages of having been a blogger for nearly five years is that you gain a sense of perspective after having written about various issues over and over for a long time. True, the disadvantage is that it sometimes becomes difficult to think of something new to say about longstanding…
David Kirby smacked down--and not by me!
As you may have guessed, I'm tired of David Kirby. I've slapped down his nonsense so many times before, but, like the Energizer Bunny, he keeps going and going and going, spewing his pseudoscientific antivaccine nonsense, all the while asking that we really, truly believe that he isn't "antivaccine…
Thank You, Antivaxxers, and Let the Deconstructing Begin
Deconstructing David Kirby. This is the title of one of two follow-up posts that Dr. Rahul Parikh wrote after reviewing Dr. Paul Offit's Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure and getting the usual treatment by the usual "anti-vaccine/pro-vaccine-safety/…
David Kirby: When you're in a hole over vaccines and autism, get out the back hoe and dig deeper!
Pity poor David Kirby. Nearly three years ago now, he published his now-infamous Evidence of Harm: Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic, A Medical Mystery. Hooking up with the most vocal of the mercury militia, his book blamed mercury in vaccines as the major cause of autism. Unfortunately…

If you search the archives of Google news, you will find that Dr. Parikh has taken on Mr. Rick Rollens in some of the local California newspapers as well.

Kirby and Rollens provided the opportunity. Somebody has go to do it.

Indeed, well written bit of dissection.

Always good to see someone fighting the good fight.

Maybe Mr. Kirby would like to talk to the parents in this article - http://www.theolympian.com/living/story/600802.html They elected not to have their daughter immunized against yellow fever prior to going to Africa to, ironically, volunteer with immunizing people there.

There! Old age playing havoc with my memory. The family was travelling to Africa to build a school (yay!) and a church (no yay this time. Another school or a clinic would've been nice), *not* to assist with vaccinations.