Always something

[ekh_78]

Seems like Penn & Teller is going to send an anti-anti-vaccination moment show. (The clip contain some "bad" language, and I want to comment more, but I'm too lazy to write more.)

Click to view

Comments

[for_u_alone]

*stands and applauds*

[codeman38]

If only they hadn't failed so horribly on their ADA episode, I might be really elated...

[tooimpurenangel]

That just makes me want to head desk. Urrrgggghhhhhh

[codeman38]

I know! I can't decide what the worst part of it was-- I think the "difficulty using the telephone" bit mentioned in the comments was the one that made me headdesk the hardest, given that I can't hear people worth crap over the phone. Second was probably the "total people with disabilities = blind, deaf, and wheelchair users" calculation, when they used someone as an example who wouldn't even fit into that formula.

[falconwhitaker]

I... that is... brb, headdesking forever.

[tooimpurenangel]

Could somebody transcribe the video? My video is acting up.
Thanks!

[falconwhitaker]

I... I think I'm in love :D

[falconwhitaker]

Neeeeeeeeeever mind, just saw the thing about disability, I'm over it -_-

[arathian]

For some reason this guy reminds me an awful lot of howard stern. Who I despise for being an arrogant ignorant crass asshole.

[quercus]

That's not a great argument though, for two reasons in particular

[falconwhitaker]

I always thought that the main problem with Wakefield's conclusions - although I could be mistaken - was that the MMR is given at the same time that autism typically begins to show in children anyway. Proximity =/= causality.

Also, I find that the claim that this vaccine causes autism is just plain inaccurate. If it caused autism, then wouldn't every child who had that vaccine end up with autism?

[quercus]

The biggest problem with Wakefield (and why he was struck off) wasn't his conclusions so much as his methods in carrying out the study. It was an unethical study and he deserved censure for it, although I'm not the only cynic who thinks that he wouldn't have been struck off if it hadn't been such a high profile.

The problem in differentiating "autism caused by the thesis" vs. "autism that would have happened anyway" is a typical problem in medical research. One of the particular problems in Wakefield's was the tiny size of the sample, thus the impossibility of demonstrating any clear effect.