I’m leaving, on a jet plane… but I do know when I’ll be back again. But between now and then I’m off to jolly old to attend TAM London! So this is a short post designed to buy me a few hours.
1) Remember the homeopath and his wife who killed their nine-month-old daughter, because she had severe eczema and all they did was give her nothing but water (because that’s what homeopathic “medicine” is)? Yeah, they got six years in jail.
2) Antivax groups aren’t getting smarter about medicine, but they are getting smarter about branding. They call themselves Talking About Curing Autism and Operation Rescue, but don’t be fooled: they are antivaccination, pure and simple. And whether they believe what they say or not, they are not supporting children. They are putting them at grave risk of illness and death from preventable diseases.
Worse, if you read that link you’ll see that TACA is sponsoring a concert to raise funds for their antivax efforts, and got the radio station JACK 93.1 to partner with them. Lots of big names will be at the concert, and all the money will go toward a group that may in fact want to help autistic kids, but is also spreading gross misinformation about vaccines while doing it.
3) And finally, a ray of hope: the New York Times posted an article debunking antivax swine flu nonsense. Yay!
