Comments on: Amanda Peet Defends Vaccines on GMA

By: NeuroLogica Blog » Skeptical Battlegrounds: Part IV - Anti-Vaccine Hysteria

NeuroLogica Blog » Skeptical Battlegrounds: Part IV - Anti-Vaccine Hysteria — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 12:01:09 +0000

[...] actress Amanda Peet decided to go up against Jenny McCarthy in a celebrity death match over the issue (or at least [...]

By: isles

isles — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 19:58:04 +0000

She conveyed just the right message, and was so brave! I think she knew exactly what she was getting into when she agreed to speak for childhood immunization and didn’t let the militant fringe scare her off.

(Side note – the new X-Files movie does not do justice to her good looks – she was perfectly luminous on GMA.)

By: tai_fung

tai_fung — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:30:56 +0000

My only regret is that she didn’t have a very good answer for the increase in autism diagnoses. She could have smacked down the question much better on that particular front. But on the whole, she made her point very well.

By: halincoh

halincoh — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 01:01:33 +0000

The power of TV is especially bizarre, if not out and out scary. About ten years ago I did a local commercial for a fitness club here. Twas no big deal. It was one in a series of commercials running through different demographics of clientele. Standard stuff.

In the weeks that followed suddenly ANYTHING I had to say about fitness or prevention became gospel. I’ve always been proactive in this regard. Nothing about my message changed overnight. Except … that I was on TV.

The final straw of bizarreness occured when twin pre-teen girls ( I’d known them since they were in kindergarten ) came in and asked me to sign their autograph book. One day , maybe today, a friend of their’s will look at those pages and think, ” wow … Justin Timberlake … wowwww … Britney Spears and huh … halincoh???????”

By: tooth fairy

tooth fairy — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 23:05:49 +0000

sorry about the typos there *sigh*

By: tooth fairy

tooth fairy — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 23:04:31 +0000

authority from celebrity-that’s great!!!! Thank god here in australia it’s not a huge issue. i’ve been speaking to a few people i know who have recently had children and they haven’t even heard about when i’ve started talking to them about vaccination, so i’m glad in this instance i can expose them to the anti vax movement with good reliable info and great articles (thanks Doc). I’m not sure though wheather this is a testiment to the fact australians listen to their doctors or if it’s an indication we’re just so out of the loop down here?????? haha none the less i’m happy to say our B grade celebs dont’ have much persuasive power when it comes to science and thankfully we take everything your celebs with a grain of salt.

By: Groovydoc

Groovydoc — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 22:13:02 +0000

I’d also like to thank Amanda for being a voice of reason amongst the Hollywood crowd. Unfortunately, most of my medical use of celebrities is as scary anecdotes related to the dangers of prescription medicines, for which I’d rather not have examples. Thanks to Ms. Peet, I now have a counter celeb to name for my friend’s wife, who believes in authority from celebrity!

By: superdave

superdave — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 19:58:55 +0000

I scanned the comments for that ABC news story. Even the pro vaccination parents are making statements like, I vaccinated my kids and the did not get autism, so vaccines don’t cause autism. I don’t to tell readers of this blog why this is fallacious. I think more important the educating parents about autism is educating them about the fallacy of using anecdotal evidence.

By: godkillzyou

godkillzyou — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 19:11:03 +0000

What a breath of fresh air…

I just wish I could hear what Ja Rule thinks about vaccines.

By: DevilsAdvocate

DevilsAdvocate — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 17:39:24 +0000

Though Ms. Peet is to be commended, it still rankles that such common sense advice – for medical info, ask medical experts – goes largely unheeded until a Hollywood personality speaks it.

Well, my doctor is recommending a lithotripsy for these stubborn kidney stones of mine. Let me see if I can get Julia Roberts on the phone to see what she thinks about it.