Paul Krugman often discusses discredited “arguments that have been proved wrong, should be dead, but keep shambling along because they serve a political purpose” (Krugman’s words). He calls them zombie arguments.
Example:
Veterans and Zombies
The Hype Behind the Health Care Scandal, Paul Krugman, New York Times, June 19, 2014, 7th paragraph.
One of the great things about both me and my wife working in the pharmaceutical industry, where most of our friends also work: We believe in our products.
To those who don’t, consider that the very people who perform the research and would therefore know what studies have been buried vaccinate their kids. Every single one I know.
Contrast to the tobacco executive who freaks out when he discovers his kid is smoking.
Why Even Vaccinated People Can Catch Measles
https://gma.yahoo.com/why-even-vaccinated-people-catch-measles-113125324--abc-news-wellness.html
herd immunity is needed.
now 102 cases in 14 states for the year.
Has anybody heard of Dr Jack Wolfson, self-styled paleo-cardiologist & vaccine opponent? From AZCentral:
There’s lots more. He’s been getting lots of coverage–quite a bit of it extremely angry. (But some not angry enough.) Apparently he found Truth after he married a chiropractor. And he has a website where he sells supplements. Because, you know, they were big in Paleolithic days…
I am just blown away that Chris Christie and, especially, “Dr.” Rand Paul are dangerously pandering to the idiots. The one silver lining is that this “controversy” is well-timed to separate the complete morons (of whichever party) from the other likely 2016 presidential contenders (some of whom will surely prove to be morons by other means, but that’s a different story).
Exactly! Rather like asking “have you stopped beating your wife?”.
He’s been getting his five minutes of infamy here.
There was an editorial in the Wall St. Journal yesterday blasting Christie for his “meandering meditation” on vaccines. The Journal likely is taking this principled stand not so much in favor of immunization, but as a means of marginalizing Christie as a presidential contender (he is too “liberal” for much of the Republican Party).
A New York Times article about school vaccination rates in Mississippi (a state which would probably be considered among one of the more backwards states):
Here is an approach
Wouldn’t it be easier to deny insurance coverage to dimwitted parents who refuse to vaccinate their kid if they contract the disease??
Make a definite date-- say six years old (enough fucking time IMO to weigh the dumb options) for the vaccination rate. Then simply inform them, if their child contracts measles, CP or rubella, yer on yer own!
The remote possibility of their child dying of a controllable disease PLUS a $450,000 hospital bill for the poor kid’s last ten or twelve days on the planet might just be enough stimulation to get these dummies to the doctor.
No, it won’t, because these parents are convinced nothing terrible will happen to their special snowflake.
And then the snowflake melts.
I saw that. First I’ve heard of this. And nobody was there to say “Cite?”
Follow-up. Looks like this particular piece of bullshit is known:
NM
In case it hasn’t been mentioned yet . . .
Vox recently published this take-down of Wakefield’s folly:
The research linking autism to vaccines is even more bogus than you think, Julia Belluz, Vox, February 2, 2015.
Including this gem:
That is the worst party game ever.
I’ll add this other gem:
So, how do the anti-vaxxers reconcile the fact that Wakefield, a hero to some of them, isn’t actually anti-vaccine (or, at least he wasn’t at first–not sure where he stands now), but specifically anti-MMR vaccine? And, it turns out, he’s anti-MMR vaccine because he wanted to push his own competing vaccine.