Heinlein called them “The Crazy Years”, and it’s a bit disturbing how accurate he was in many of his stories about the rise of populism and dominionism and the glorification of ignorance and deprecation of education.
Much as I adored Heinlein’s writings as a kid, it really is important to recall he preached a reactionary, misogynist, libertarian nut job philosophy in many of his books.
I’m assuming this was a joke, as the last “baby boomer” was born in 1964.
It’s true the Elders of the antivaccine movement are, well, up there in age. There are however numerous celebrity antivaxers from Gen X and later. This bunch includes such luminaries as Jessica Biel, Charlie Sheen, Alicia Silverstone and Mayim Bialik.
Sure, the first thing you should do to confirm someone’s stance on vaccines is to rely on a short and less than revelatory paragraph on their Facebook page. :dubious:
Bialik has another Facebook page statement describing how utterly delighted she was at one of her books receiving a wildly positive blurb from Bob Sears, a California pediatrician known for promulgating antivax views (while promoting an unscientific limited vaccine schedule).* She has co-written a couple of child-rearing books with Jay Gordon, another pediatrician with a long antivaccine history, who also tries to soft-pedal his antivax nonsense by grudgingly allowing that a few vaccines are OK, sort of (my understanding is that both Bialik’s and Jenny McCarthy’s kids are patients of Gordon).**
"Bialik, who in addition to acting and parenting also holds a PhD in neuroscience from UCLA, said in a 2009 interview with People magazine’s Celebrity Babies feature, “We are a non-vaccinating family, but I make no claims about people’s individual decisions. We based ours on research and discussions with our pediatrician, and we’ve been happy with that decision, but obviously there’s a lot of controversy about it.”…
On Kveller in 2012, Bialik wrote, “Children today get about four times as many vaccines as the average 35-year-old did when we were kids. Besides visiting the CDC website and finding out who gets diseases the medical establishment vaccinates for (and why and where and when), here are the books [with links to two books widely read in the anti-vaxxer movement] we used to research each vaccine and discuss each with several doctors before deciding what was right for our family.”
Elsewhere in 2012, Bialik said on an NPR radio program, “My feeling is that everyone gets to decide and do research based on their family and their needs as to what they want to do.”"***
Excuse me for being skeptical about Bialik being pro-vaccine (while intimating that her critics are angry and hysterical). I don’t see that’s she’s ever walked back her previous antivax statements or rejected support from prominent antivax pediatricians. Maybe her kids have received a few vaccines, but I’m highly dubious that they have been protected by anything close to the full recommended vaccine schedule.
*Bob Sears was disciplined by the California Medical Board for granting an improper vaccine exemption and not performing a proper neurologic exam on a young boy with a history of head trauma. As of this past June he was the subject of yet another complaint by the medical board for writing improper vaccine exemptions. Should one be gushingly proud of getting an endorsement from such a person?
**in the world of antivax pediatricians (Paul Thomas is another example), it’s a typical M.O. to issue bogus warnings about vaccine hazards to scare the crap out of unsuspecting parents, while promoting their own limited/delayed vaccination schedules. It’s a great strategy in that one can appeal to diehard antivaxers and vaccine-hesitant parents who are reluctant to dispense entirely with vaccines. Profit!
***yeah, none of that mandatory vaccination crap for my children! I’ve done my ''research"!!
Bialik has long struck me as having one wheel off the track. And while lately she’s tried to sound like she’s pro-vaccine-ish, I have my doubts, based in part on her refusal to give her children antibiotics:
Doesn’t sound like someone with a PhD in neuroscience, does it? She doesn’t do any research in journals. No, she “learned” from “talking to other moms” that she didn’t need no stinkin’ medicines for her kids. I can’t help wondering how she got her PhD with such a mindset. Has she ever worked as a scientist? I rather think not.
Bialik has long struck me as having a wheel off the track. And while lately she’s tried to sound like she’s pro-vaccine-ish, I have my doubts, based in part on her refusal to give her children antibiotics:
Doesn’t sound like someone with a PhD in neuroscience, does it? She doesn’t do any research in journals. No, she “learned” from “talking to other moms” that she didn’t need no stinkin’ medicines for her kids. What’s in your heart is enough.I can’t help wondering how she got her PhD with such a mindset. Has she ever worked as a scientist? I rather think not.
It seems to me that Bialik’s attitude towards antibiotics is very likely to be healthier (in multiple senses of the word) than the attitude of the typical middle-class parents who hysterically demand antibiotics from the doctor every time their child comes down with a minor illness.
In many cases, the average immune system will clear up a minor-to-medium illness about as fast as medication will.
For what it’s worth, she may have written what you referred to in 2012, but the Facebook post I linked to was posted in 2015, according to the timestamp on it. It’s possible that her opinion has changed. It’s also possible that she’s full of shit. Or it could be somewhere between those two things.
Sure, antibiotics used in the face of common viral infection are a problem, but she’s also not giving palliative things like acetaminophen and dextromethorphan that make the kid feel better.
Uh-huh, but Bialik didn’t say she doesn’t believe in antibiotics for “minor to medium” illnesses that might clear up without antibiotics. Untreated strep throat can lead to rheumatic fever, which can damage the heart. Untreated bacterial pneumonia can lead to death. Unvaccinated children and those whose parents delay vaccination–and Bialik falls into one of those categories–can develop potentially fatal diseases such as diphtheria or pertussis, which require antibiotics.
Locrian