Hmmm, maybe I need a "sarcasm" tag for this blog.
1) Thanks, creationists!
A book is coming out with geologists taking on Intelligent Design. Yay! It’s not just for biologists anymore. Or the odd astronomer or two.
2) Thanks, Jenny McCarthy!
There has been an unprecedented rise in measles in the UK. And it’s not in London, it’s in a place where people are not giving their kids MMR vaccines. [Update: I've been told that Thursday night's episode of the show Private Practice took on antivaxxers, and did it pretty well. i don't watch the show, but feel free to discuss it below.]
3) Thanks, homeopathologists!
A study was published saying that 1/3 of people taking homeopathic treatment felt better in the long term, and Reuter’s posted a supportive article about it. However, according to Way of the Woo, there was no control, and no explanation offered. So he rephrased the study’s conclusion, noting that 32 people died using homeopathic treatment.
That’s all the nonsense I can handle for the moment. Maybe I’ll post a unicorn picture next as a palate cleanser.
January 9th, 2009 at 11:35 am
I honestly believe that anti-vaxxers are going to cause a major epidemic. It is only a matter of time.
Then they will have blood on their hands.
January 9th, 2009 at 11:37 am
You mean like this one?
http://i43.tinypic.com/wgt2ys.jpg
got that off digg
January 9th, 2009 at 11:37 am
Sweet! One of your best blog posts EVER!
BTW, thx.
January 9th, 2009 at 11:39 am
Have you considered that the rise in measles in England is due to the huge rise in immigration from Middle Eastern and other countries where health standards are not as strong?
January 9th, 2009 at 11:39 am
No, they won’t have any blood on their hands. These people are already being irresponsible with their children’s (and everyone elses) health. What makes you think they’ll take responsiblity when the worst happens? They will find another scapegoat.
January 9th, 2009 at 11:42 am
On a tangential note, I just heard that a group of FDA scientists at CDRH have written a letter to the Obama transition team complaining about how FDA managers and executives are corrupt, coercing the scientists to change their conclusions so that product will appear more approvable.
While I agree, based on my grad studies, that corruption is a big problem among the higher-ups at FDA, my fear is that news like this gives more ammo to the woo-woos to criticize anything the FDA (or the medical industry) says or does.
January 9th, 2009 at 11:51 am
I’m convinced that many in the creationist group are, if not just ignorant and in need of some education, compensating for some psychological issue manifesting some “need” for a creator. That is, if they’re not ignorant (curable), or stupid (incurable), they’re nuts. No surprises there, but if in the latter category, its kind of pointless trying to work with them (the arguing with a pig thing…you only get dirty, and it annoys the pig).
Aside from the Darwin & geological arguments, the recent study of human DNA patterns & distributions presents a very interesting story that combines evolutionary & geological & archeological factors. A fun & educational little summary is available at:
http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/journey/
January 9th, 2009 at 11:53 am
“Maybe I’ll post a unicorn picture next as a palate cleanser.”
Click my name for it. Cow Unicorn. Very mythical. Even made it up on Drudge earlier (no shock).
January 9th, 2009 at 11:55 am
@Cheyenne
There are orbs in that picture, too, proving that there are fairies flying around the unicow.
January 9th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
OK, so with the rise in cases of measles there should be a correlating decrease in the number of Autism cases due to fewer vaccinations then right? Right?
Oh well, it’s not like they would care about actual data.
January 9th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
Are you saying unicorns are real?
January 9th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
I meant aren’t real…
January 9th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Accroding to me there is a typo in this post.
January 9th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Hmm, I’d probably get into trouble if I sent that book to my brother. He’s a petroleum geologist but is married to a young-Earth creationist. Maybe I’ll just get it and be reading it next summer when I’ll see him.
January 9th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
I liked that the BBC article on the measles outbreaks mentions the non-fatal complications associated with the disease. Hmm…if there is an epidemic, I wonder if there is some way to hold Andrew Wakefield and the lawyer that paid him responsible…
January 9th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
The other day I saw a TV commercial encouraging parents to vaccinate their kids for Meningitis. It show mothers holding pictures of their kids that died from it as well as kids who had to have their limbs amputated. I just hope that the message get through.
January 9th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
Have there been any mumps outbreaks, or just measles due to the lack of MMR vaccinations?
I’ve never had, nor been vaccinated against mumps. (The vaccine did not exist when I was a child.) So the antivaxers may be directly endangering me. I don’t like that.
January 9th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
As for the unicorn:
http://i43.tinypic.com/wgt2ys.jpg
January 9th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
Read the article, the causes are known, children are not receiving the MMR vaccination. It doesn’t matter from what country someone originates, “not vaccinated” is “not vaccinated”.
January 9th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
I was excited when I found out that Danny Wallace’s Yes man was being made into a film. Then I found out it had Jim Carrey in the starring role and had to boycott it. I couldn’t live with the thought that a single one of my pennies might find it’s way into Jenny McCarthy’s pockets and help her insane crusade against reason and evidence.
Bring on the geology vs ID book though, that’s going to make its way to the top of my list. Well, after I have the money to buy a certain book about potential end-of-the-world scenarios anyway
January 9th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
There’ve been outbreaks of mumbs in the past few years, at least.
Bath Uni had to offer vaccinations when I was there in 2005.
January 9th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
If you and your family got vaccinated then you shouldn’t have anything to worry about. If the few people who didn’t get vaccinated get the measles, then that’s their problem.
January 9th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
@ Trebuchet
According to data from the HPA Mumps have been on the decline and cases of Rubella have remained steady over the past few years.
(for the England & Wales areas anyway)
January 9th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
@ J
Except kids don’t get much of a choice — their parents make the call on what shots they get. Call me nosy, but I hate to read about a five year old suffering from something that could easily be avoided but wasn’t, because his or her parents are ignorant, regardless of if the five year old is my family member or not.
And babies don’t get MMR vaccines until age 1. Ideally, they shouldn’t be around a population where they can get MMR, but if we have crowds of children and adults without vaccinations.
January 9th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
I happen to watch Private Practice and wrote a post about last night’s episode on Teen Skepchick: http://skepchick.org/teen/?p=646#more-646
January 9th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
If only it was just their problem, J. It’s not just the anti-vaxxers that get the measles, it’s also ones too young to be vaccinated, or that can’t be vaccinated for medical reasons.
January 9th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
And in another sign of how out of hand this anti-vaxx thing has gotten
http://channels.isp.netscape.com/news/story.jsp?floc=ne-story-9-l9&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20090109%2F1824677862.htm&sc=1500
January 9th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
Anti-vaxers already have plenty of blood on their hands already. Without the anti-vax movements in Nigeria and Pakistan, polio would be eradicated or very close to it already. Instead, people are still being crippled or killed by it.
January 9th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
“. . .32 people died using homeopathic treatment.”
This implies that they died because of homeopathic treatment. I’m no fan of homeopathy, but BA’s research here especially on 2nd hand stories (like the recent abstinence pledge story) has been rather shoddy. So, I read the relevant pieces.
What is actually said at Way of the Woo is this:
. . . which actually means nothing. C’mon–”some?” “likely?”
The actual study was an observational prospective cohort study, which doesn’t require (necessarily) a control group. They started with 3709 patients; at the end of an 8 year follow up period, 32 patients were found to have died. There is no mention of the causes of death in this group, or if they were in any way related to either their homeopathic treatments or the reasons for which they sought homeopathic treatment.
The Reuters article was not rah-rah supportive at all. One of the study authors is quoted as saying “This observational study design does not allow (us) to determine any causality between the improvement and the given homeopathic remedy, nor does it exclude the placebo effect.” Moreover, the authors say that it’s not possible to tell whether the homeopathic treatments bestowed the benefits, because many patients also used other types of alternative care, as well as conventional medicine.
So basically, it’s a kind of useless study, that BA has made much ado about nothing.
January 9th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
A geologist did take on the creationists back in 1994. Australian Prof Ian Plimer wrote Telling Lies for God: Reason vs Creationism. Well worth the trouble to track down a copy. No you can’t have mine.
January 9th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Are there astronomers who aren’t odd?
January 9th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
There are astronomers who are odd
some of which maybe called todd.
There are astronomers who are strange
sometimes you can find them on the range.
There are astronomers who are a normal
and some that are actually tall.
There are astronomers who are bald
but they actually very old.
January 9th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
David D.,
The headline of the Reuters article says “Homeopathy Patients Often Say Health Improved”. When combating anti-science, one should look at how the media does their reporting. Besides the headline, the first 2 paragraphs are uncritical of the study’s findings and source Claudia Witt, a proponent of homeopathy. Her saying the study does not allow for determination of causality between homeopathic treatments and well-being does little to minimize the impact of the headline. The upshot of the whole study is that, 8 years after initial complaint, people felt better. The Reuter’s article and the study leads you to believe that it was due to their homeopathic treatment. They could just as easily have reported that people who wore blue jeans on their first visit to the clinic were found to have reduced or no symptoms after 8 years. So the whole study, specifically because it had no control group, is meaningless – as was my more precise headline that some people had died after being treated. I also do not make any determination of causality between death and any homeopathic remedy.
The news here is that BMC published a useless study in the first place, and that Reuters followed up with an article – both lending legitimacy to a form of alternative treatment which has been shown to be no better than placebo. That was the whole, sarcastic point of my blog post, and Phil happened to give it a wider audience.
I appreciate the criticism, but I’ll stand by what I wrote.
January 9th, 2009 at 9:44 pm
@K:
I’ve been thinking lately that the anti-evolution impulse comes from the “black and white” thinking that religious fundamentalists tend to have: you’re either good or you’re evil. You’re with us or against us. You’re a patriot or you hate America. Etc. (Not saying that others don’t have this kind of thinking, but fundies are big on it.)
Evolution suggests that the differences between individuals and species isn’t a matter of rigidly-defined kind, but of degree, which is harder to pin down. It means ambiguity and uncertainty. It forces one to think about one’s ethics and makes it harder to judge and condemn others. Religious fundamentalists prefer things to be clear-cut: men wear blue and are dominant, women wear pink and are submissive. Women are either virgins or evil whores. X is always right, Y is always wrong.
January 9th, 2009 at 11:46 pm
When I was a kid I had the mumps. At the time I didn’t know it. The only thing I remember was I was on vacation and we made as far as Dodge City when we came down with it. My Grandma insisted to my Mom that my sister, brother and I wore red scarfs.
Talk about quarantine. I can still remember sitting on that swing on the top of the hill. Just east of Dodge City and I do mean up that hill just above where the cattle pens are.
January 10th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
Thanks Jenny McCarthy? What?
Phil, what has Jenny McCarthy, an American ex-playboy bunny and now well publicised American antivaxxer, got to do with the antivax situation in the UK? I know this is a little tongue in cheek but, wouldn’t people in the UK get their antivax information from .. UK based antivaxxers? What has McCarthy got to do with it? Is this a vague connection you are making based upon your obsession with McCarthy?
It’s the other side of the world. You seem to be making out she is solely responsible for the entire world antivax movement. … huh ?
Nowhere in that BBC article does it even mention her name. Mate … I know you have issues Jenny McCarthy .. but come on. This is bad journalism. Pointing out the BBC news report would have been enough on its own. The way you did it just makes you look like you have an obsession with her.
January 10th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
Also there could be other social reasons why people are not getting vaccinated other than just listening to anti-vaxxers. Maybe the government is not advertising it enough? Or maybe more people these days with their hectic lifestyles compared to years ago are just …. lazy ? There could be a bunch of reasons why this is happening.
I support vaccination 100% and feel the government in all countries needs to advertise its importance more efficiently and explain the benefits more readily. I know in Australia there is practically no government based media on the subject. I can’t think of the last time I saw an ad on TV regarding the issue. Actually I was in the doctor’s office the other day and recall not seeing any posters on the wall regarding anything other than getting a tetanus shot.
Maybe we could point the finger at the government, rather than some hack celebrity. I mean … ask who Jenny McCarthy is here in Australia and I bet you get maybe 80 – 90% of people going .. “huh .. who?”
Let’s take the focus off these anti-vaxxers and promote vaccination itself and its benefits more readily.
Negative advertising is still advertising.
January 10th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
thank you for blogging against ignorance!
January 10th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
I wonder if part of the reason that some people are not getting their children vaccinated, in addition to false fears about vaccination causing autism or other disorders, might be simple complacency. It might be that the very success of vaccinations has had the ironic effect of making younger generations of adults who are now having children much less aware of or concerned about diseases like measles and mumps. Decades ago, diseases like measles, mumps, and polio killed or incapacitated enough people, especially children, that they were genuinely feared by parents and by children who were old enough to understand the consequences. This must have been a huge motivator for parents to get their children vaccinated as soon as a vaccine became available. Even if some people worried about possible side effects, this concern was usually drowned out by the more immediate concern of protecting children against diseases that were a real threat. Today, though, most parents grew up vaccinated themselves and surrounded by children who were vaccinated, so these diseases seem like a distant part of history rather than a real threat. Since many think (wrongly) think that these are no threat at all anymore, they are also inclined to give more weight to worries about possible side effects, even if there isn’t much evidence for it.
January 11th, 2009 at 2:48 am
Greg, just substitute “Jenny McCarthy” with “Wakefield” and “Jackie Fletcher”.
Happy now?
January 11th, 2009 at 2:58 am
@Paul S. I agree with that view. There are so many other reasons why it could be becoming more of a common problem other than just the anti-vax movement, but all the other reasons are not celebrities, so maybe they don’t get focus because .. they are boring?
January 11th, 2009 at 3:50 am
Presumably the rise in measles has been offset with a reduction in the diagnosis of autism?…
Thought not.
January 12th, 2009 at 9:35 am
If you need a unicorn, here’s one that you can even wear.
http://shirt.woot.com/Friends.aspx?k=5338
January 13th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
When I was 11 my parents tried to treat my ruptured appendix with homeopathy. Luckily for me, my grampa talked some sense into me and I demanded my parents bring me to a hospital. I very well could have been a +1 added on to those 32.
Are their laws against the subjection of children who cannot possibly know this information to protect them from their parents insanity?