Apparently ABC has a new law drama called “Eli Stone” whcih I have not heard of. Apprently they are preparing an episode whereby the lawyer, looking out for the little guy, as they all do on TV, sues a Big med company for putting mercury in their vaccinges…
Naturally this has come under protest from the usual suspects, meaning those who actually know what the fuck is going on, people who have actually studied the issue and read the literature. But why let facts get in the way of a good, albeit standard, little guy versus megacorp legal drama?
Seriously, is the next episode going to be suing over contrails and High Voltage Electric lines?
Its a common theme in US mythology…starting with Abraham Lincoln (in reality, he represented railroad companies). Most recently it has been taken up by Robert Kennedy (Jr.), who has been pushing the mercury-autism crap of late.
Never mind that Kennedy probably doesn’t know a double-blind trial from a bottle of scotch, he’s in it “for the children”. Just another fraud, masquerading as a crusading hero.
Which is precisely why the OP’s complaint is valid. Folks are going to see this television show, think, “Gosh, vaccines are dangerous! I’d better not give my kid any!” and the next thing you know, we’re all dying of small pox.
Lincoln practiced law for 25 years, and represented a lot of people both in circuit court and appellate court (He appeared before the Illinois Supreme Court over 300 times), state and federal. While Lincoln did represent railroads a lot, he didn’t exclusively…he represented both rich and poor people, boith companies and people suing them. He did criminal, civil, and family law.
I think he’s refering to an episode where House tricked an adulterer, who was desperately reaching for an excuse, into saying he must have gotten **herpes ** from a toilet seat.
That’s what I thought of, too. The one who was more willing to believe that he must have gotten the herpes from a toilet seat was the one fingered as the cheater.
I have said it before. I will say it again. The only thing the anti-vax morons are immune to is reason.
You don’t want to vax? Hey fine. Find a little island and have fun with Measles, one of the world’s most contagious illnesses that has no treatment. Let your throat close up from Diphtheria. Listen to your baby break a rib from coughing as she struggles with Pertussis. Let your adolescent males lose their fertility as their testicles swell up from Mumps Orchitis. Get lockjaw from Tetanus and a rotting liver from Hep B.
But leave the rest of us the hell out of it. If you want to blithely punch holes in our collective safety net go do it somewhere else!
Unfortunately, this show will help prolong false fears about vaccines and autism.
Many people still have the idea that thimerosal (mercury) preservative remains in childhood vaccines, even though it was removed from virtually all of them in 2001 (even the flu vaccine has a thimerosal-free version now). And there’s no credible evidence thimerosal ever caused autism (a slew of good research confirms this, including the recently published study showing that California autism rates were unaffected by the removal of thimerosal from vaccines).
Misconceptions spread by controversy (and ratings)-seeking TV shows can have dangerous effects.
*Before vaccines, parents in the United States could expect that every year:
Polio would paralyze 10,000 children.
Rubella (German measles) would cause birth defects and mental retardation in as many as 20,000 newborns.
Measles would infect about 4 million children, killing 3,000.
Diphtheria would be one of the most common causes of death in school-aged children.
A bacterium called Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) would cause meningitis in 15,000 children, leaving many with permanent brain damage.
Pertussis (whooping cough) would kill thousands of infants*
That’s the world antivaxers would have us return to. And make no mistake - the “concern” about mercury is only the latest tool used by these people to spread their fear agenda.
With the mercury ploy already showing signs of losing effectiveness, they’ll just move on to other alleged and unfounded vaccine dangers.
LavenderBlue is right. This doesn’t just place the children of gullible parents at risk. The rest of us are also endangered by the loss of herd immunity (for instance, recent measles mini-epidemics have been traced to unvaccinated children who spread the disease among the rest of the population (no vaccine is 100% protective).
By the way, this academic surgeon’s blog is a good source of news on vaccine research and clueless attacks on immunization.
Are there still anti-vaccination folks on the SDMB, or has particular brand of ignorance been stamped out? I don’t recall reading any of their rantings in a long while.
I haven’t seen the show yet, but my understanding is that not only are they going along with the whole “vaccines cause autism” bunk, but they’ve ignored the ethical rules as well. I understand that the lawyer who’s the protagonist used to be the lawyer for the pharma company – and now he’s suing his old client over the same drug! (Pardon me while I file my motion to disqualify.)
This is just as annoying as on The Practice, when they made Rebecca a partner. She wasn’t a lawyer at the time, and they didn’t even know she was going to law school! Ridiculous.
Mercury does have a link to mental deficiency. Mercury was used in the making of felt for hats. Hence the phrase, ‘mad as a hatter’. The effects of mercury on children are also well known.