This is Jon Palfreman’s latest film. Preview and information available at: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/vaccines/. Excerpt:
“On one side sits scientific medicine and the public health establishment; on the other a populist coalition of parents, celebrities (like Jenny McCarthy), politicians and activists. It’s a war that increasingly takes place on the Internet with both sides using the latest social media tools, including Facebook and Twitter, to win the hearts and minds of the public.”
Opinions on other issues in news, journals, PR, advertising, marketing
Monday at #ADA2021, an infectious disease epidemiologist, a journalist, and a researcher shared perspectives on communication of risk in the era of COVID-19: http://ow.ly/ROfR30rMeE7 @AstleyCM @garyschwitzer @berthahidalgo @ADA_DiabetesPro
Shoutouts to @susan_bewley @drkevinknopf @MichaelBaum11 in this call for more than fawning coverage from press releases for these kinds of stories.
Also, linked history inside goes back 5 years just on Grail apparently trying to become Holy Grail. https://twitter.com/garyschwitzer/status/1408849696416841731
Comments (6)
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Rogue Medic
May 12, 2010 at 12:22 pmI was disappointed that the coverage suggested that Barbara Loe Fisher is some sort of reasonable watchdog, when she is an anti-vaccine fanatic.
They did give too much time to conspiracy theories, apparently in some sort of attempt at “balance.”
The description begins with, “On one side sits scientific medicine and the public health establishment;”
Then the next part states “on the other a populist coalition of parents, celebrities (like Jenny McCarthy), politicians and activists. The truth is that these are just a bunch of conspiracy theorists.
They ignore the germ theory of disease and claim that natural is healthier, although they would probably reconsider after having a child die a natural death of smallpox, measles, polio, chicken pox, meningitis, pertussis, or any of the other vaccine-preventable illnesses that kill people every year.
If vaccines are not safe, where is the evidence?
If there is any connection between vaccines and autism, it appears that vaccines protect against autism by preventing illnesses that might cause autism.
Yet, the conspiracy theorists keep repeating the same claims that have been shown to be baseless and they create new claims for the implausible ways vaccines may be connected to autism.
The only airtime they should receive should be in a psychology special on logical fallacies. This is the way errors of judgment can lead to large scale delusions that have fatal outcomes.
Rob Carter
January 30, 2011 at 10:03 amFirst of all, there is no conspiracy theory as people against vaccines base their worries on facts and research. We do not ignore anything but rather look deeper in the lack of info and misinformation given to the public about the theory of vaccines working (the first case went someone like this: man giving it to his son to avoid smallpox and it worked, they left it at that, they did not mention the child died 20 years later, it’s hard to retract something you are pushing for so long and make so much money off of.)The evidence of vaccines not being safe is everywhere if you look for it, it’s just somewhat hidden (if you look at diseases for severe risks, most post very rare and 1 in 500,000. then if you look let’s say on Health Canada, they also post very rare so you assume oh ok 1 in 500,000 but look for the legend of what very rare means to them on another page and it is 1 in 10,000) Autism is the least of people concerned worries, only one of the many many issues with vaccines.
Common sense it to first read the ingredients list in vaccines, their toxicity and associations to cancer, autoimmune diseases, etc. Do your own research before jumping to conclusions and defending your side blindly!
Lynette Hughes
February 1, 2011 at 4:14 amI have just watched the program Vaccine War and with respect the Medical Profession appear dictatorial and ill informed. Vaccines will and do cause harm and most must be used carefully. Instead the medical profession cater to the brainwashing by DRUG COMPANIES without proper understanding of the interaction of many vaccines interacting with each other. Giving so many vaccines to such young children has to be detrimental. Some vaccines are essential but many others such as chicken pox, measles are not essential.
The vaccine researchers apparently would prefer to tell half truths to sell their products; the medical professionals would prefer to use children as laboratory animals to further the drug company’s profits. If I am wrong then let the medical profession give parents all the facts of harm from multiple vaccines or have the medical professionals pay the medical bills or funeral costs of the child. Fully informed information means fully informed decisions.
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