Apr 23 2008

Some Follow Up On Vaccines

I had written previously about the plight of Kathleen Seidel, from the neurodiversity blog, who was the target of an inappropriate subpoena that was little more than blatant harassment. Kathleen filed her own motion to quash the subpoena, and now she reports that her motion was granted – the subpoena is quashed. Congratulations.

Last month I wrote about John McCain’s ignorant parroting of the false claims for an autism epidemic and a possible link to vaccines. I had mentioned at the time that Hillary Clinton had also made some pandering remarks, such as that she is, “Committed to make investments to find the causes of autism, including possible environmental causes like vaccines.”

Orac now gives us an update on the situation. About Hillary he writes:

And when asked if she would support a study of vaccinated vs. unvaccinated children, she said: “Yes. We don’t know what, if any, kind of link there is between vaccines and autism – but we should find out.”

A month ago I praised Obama for having a scientific statement about vaccines on his website. But now he has descended into pseudoscientific pandering, stating:

“We’ve seen just a skyrocketing autism rate. Some people are suspicious that it’s connected to the vaccines. This person included. The science right now is inconclusive, but we have to research it.”

There appears to be no science-friendly candidate left, at least on this issue. The current disconnect between science and politics is very disturbing.

Addendum: This video of Obama making the above comments clearly shows that when he said, “This person included.” he was not referring to himself but someone in the audience. However, his later comment about the science being “inconclusive” is inaccurate.

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Note: On Wednesdays I also post over at Science-Based Medicine.

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