The Huffington Post, a liberal blog/online newspaper, has up until recently been relatively ok. However, as mentioned over at Bad Astronomy, it has been a haven for Antivaxxer nut jobs. They have given room to Jim Carrey, the funny guy who’s movies suck unless he is trying not to be funny, RFK Jr, who is related to politicians, and other similarly non-medical/non-science nuts.
There most recent post, is by Dr. Patricia Fitzgerald. Wow, a doctor, sounds scientific and medical, maybe there is something bad with vacinations…. oh, wait, Huffington Post says:
Patricia Fitzgerald is a licensed acupuncturist, certified clinical nutritionist, and a homeopath. She has a Master’s Degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine and a Doctorate in Homeopathic Medicine.
So, yeah she’s a doctor, but she’s a doctor in a bunch of crazy, made up, potentially health threatening lies. Listening to this lady is like bringing your car to a mechanic who has a doctorate in flying carpets, except she wants to kill or cripple your children.
Someone needs to call out the Huffington Post for supporting the nuts who want you and other people to not vaccinate your children. I don’t care who it is, liberal, conservative, whatever. I also think hosts like Keith Olberman need to stop using commentators from Huffington Post, as it has no credibility if it is willing to run this crap. In fact, Keith should make Huffington Post, or at least these contributors the worst people in the world on an upcomming show.
Remember, these people would rather your kid had measles, mumphs, chicken pox, smallpox, polio, etc, than got a vaccine that has scientifically been shown again and again to not cause autism.
Filed under: Pseudo-Science | Tagged: antivaxxers, Autism, huffington post, keith olberman, vaccinations
way to lose a subscriber.
Because you believe in this woo?
I am wholeheartedly in agreement with you.
Orac has been dissecting posts from HuffPo’s vanity blog more and more frequently due to the proliferation of wooful articles. He can truly make one’s head spin with the way he dissects the woo.
It was pointed out on PalMd’s blog that the appellation of Doctorate of Homeopathic Medicine was incorrect in reference to Fitzgerald. It should have been Diplomate of Homeopathic Therapeutics which is a certification given by the American Institute of Homeopathy. Being referred to is a misnomer which lends itself to granting more respect to her viewpoint than is due.
I was curious about the anti-vax position about autism rates and inquired about them on Orac’s blog. It was interesting to learn that Generation Rescue performed a survey which indicates that in actuality there is a higher percentage of unvaccinated autistic children than vaccinated.
An analysis of the survey found that while 3.01% of all vaccinated children had an ASD diagnosis, about 3.73% of all unvaccinated children did.
source: http://autismnaturalvariation.blogspot.com/2007/09/simple-selection-bias-model-explains.html
I find that HuffPo should be read as entertainment, not as a source of definitive scholastic research.
Hear hear! Also, I just wandered over to tell you that one of my professors from Hamline has you on his blog roll. Life is small and weird