Measles outbreak in Minnesota linked to anti-vaccination fake news.

Courtesy of Live Science:  

A recent measles outbreak that has thus far sickened dozens of Somali-Americans in Minnesota — nearly all of them children — can be traced to anti-vaccination campaigns that targeted Somali-Americans and suggested that vaccines are linked to autism, health officials said. 

On Friday (May 12), the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) announced that it had confirmed 54 measles cases, 51 of which were in children age 17 or younger — and the majority of those infected were unvaccinated, according to an MDH report published online.

Just a reminder that misinformation has real world consequences, and can even lead to death.

And just in case you were wondering, yes Donald Trump is also an anti-vaxxer.

Autism rates through the roof--why doesn't the Obama administration do something about doctor-inflicted autism. We lose nothing to try.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 22, 2012

Yet another reminder that we need smart, scientifically literate people running our country.

Donald trump supporters are nuts.

Courtesy of PPP: 

There's been a lot of recent coverage of Donald Trump's embrace of various conspiracy theories, so we asked about a bunch of them on this poll to see which ones his supporters believe and which ones even they say are a bridge too far. Among voters with a favorable opinion of Trump:

 -65% think President Obama is a Muslim, only 13% think he's a Christian. 

-59% think President Obama was not born in the United States, only 23% think that he was.

 -27% think vaccines cause autism, 45% don't think they do, another 29% are not sure. 

-24% think Antonin Scalia was murdered, just 42% think he died naturally, another 34% are unsure. 

Apparently they did not jump on every conspiracy theory however.

 -7% think Ted Cruz's father was involved in the assassination of JFK, 55% think he was not involved, another 38% are unsure.

Really? Only 55% think Ted Cruz's dad was not involved in the murder of JFK?

Yeah, good luck reasoning with these people.

This my friends is the America brought to us by reality television.

So who better to lead them than a man made famous by reality television?

New study of 95,000 children finds, once again, no link between measles vaccinations and autism.

Former Playboy model Jenny McCarthy making another salient point about autism and measles vaccinations.

Courtesy of Vocativ:  

In a study of 95,000 children, researchers were unable to find any association between the measles, mumps rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism. The researchers also examined whether each child had a family history of autism; even for children within this high-risk category, they found no association between MMR and autism. 

Not that we needed this study to prove it—there has never been a single high-quality scientific paper to suggest a connection between vaccines and autism. Yet, over the past 15 years, numerous studies have examined vaccines and their ingredients, and consistently found them safe and effective. 

But just in case you were unable to hear the past decade of solid science over Jenny McCarthy’s shrieks, we’ll recap. Back in 2004 the Institute of Medicine examined a large body of epidemiological evidence and confirmed that the MMR vaccine did not cause autism. In 2011, the same group reviewed another eight major vaccines and found, once again, that vaccines don’t cause autism. Two years later, the CDC tracked 256 children with autism and investigated whether they had received the MMR vaccine—no connection. And we stopped even counting pro-thimerosal papers after nine studies from several countries proved that the mercury-containing chemical was entirely safe.

Okay can we FINALLY put this "controversy" to rest?

Children are dying due to misinformation about this topic, and it is vital that the truth gets out there.

Anti-vaxxer mom has a change of mind, but not soon enough to prevent her seven children from catching the Whooping cough.

Courtesy of the CBC:  

An Ottawa mother of seven "defected" from the anti-vaccination movement, but then her youngest — a 10-month-old son — contracted whooping cough before she could get all of her children their shots. 

Tara Hills told CBC News that since all her children, aged 10 and under, were showing symptoms of the contagious disease, they have been advised to take antibiotics and stay inside their Kanata home for five days. 

Her first three children were partially vaccinated, she said. But she decided to stop after the fourth was born because she was suspicious of the medical community. 

"I just got scared. I got spooked. I thought, 'There's a lot of smoke, there must be fire.' We stopped vaccinating," she said. Three of Tara Hills's seven children peer out the window of their Kanata home in Ottawa, isolated as they get over whooping cough.

Hills said she had recently started rethinking her position on vaccinations. Before her youngest was diagnosed with whooping cough, she said, she met with her family doctor to put together a "catch-up vaccination schedule" for her children. 

"It's very sobering and it's very raw because we had just made a more fully informed decision about vaccinations. We had just defected from the anti-vaccination camp," she said. 

"It was too late. It's so ironic and I'm not beating myself up for it. I just hope we can use this very painful experience to encourage other people like us to maybe re-examine the issue."

Whooping Cough is no joke, as this poor woman has learned the hard way:  

My youngest three children were coughing so hard they would gag or vomit. I’d never seen anything like this before. Watching our youngest struggle with this choking cough, bringing up clear, stringy mucus – I had heard of this before somewhere. My mom said I had it when I was a kid. I snapped into ‘something is WRONG’ mode.

So thanks to the ignorance of this mother her children are forced to suffer.

Kind of sad that this woman was so slow in realizing that vaccinations are not something evil the medical community inflicts on our children,  but rather something positive that they provide to protect all of us from harm.

But that is the result of people spreading false information on places like Facebook and Twitter to an impressionable populace who have been conditioned to panic by media outlets like Fox News.

Jimmy Kimmel's Message to the Anti-Vaxxers.

Not only very funny, but very, very true.

Yeah this about sums it up.

Jeb Bush breaks from the GOP pack on vaccination fears to position himself as the only viable candidate against Hillary Clinton.

Courtesy of Mediaite:  

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush could only avoid the vaccination debate for so long. After watching potential 2016 Republican presidential primary opponents Chris Christie and Rand Paul face criticism for their less than enthusiastic embraces of vaccines amidst a measles outbreak, Bush did his best to skirt controversy on the issue during a speech before the Detroit Economic Club on Wednesday. 

“Parents need to make sure their children are vaccinated,” he said definitively to applause from the crowd in attendance. “Do we need to get into any detail of that?” he asked. 

“I’ve said things that are misinterpreted or partially interpreted and then heads explode and all source of media just create all this controversy,” Bush continued, perhaps in reference to Christie and Paul. “I think it’s better just to say parents have a responsibility to make sure their children are protected, over and out.”

This of course is the kind of definitive statement that fellow Republicans like Rand Paul, Chris Christie, and others have failed to make. And it is smart politics especially in light of Hillary's no BS statement on vaccinations.

The science is clear: The earth is round, the sky is blue, and #vaccineswork. Let's protect all our kids. #GrandmothersKnowBest
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) February 3, 2015

Not only that but it appears that of all of the GOP potential candidates who can seriously challenge Hillary in the all important swing states. Jeb Bush comes out way ahead.

This courtesy of CNN: 

Clinton has double digit leads over each of her would-be GOP foes for the presidency in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, with the exception of ties in Florida when matched up against the state's former Gov. Jeb Bush and in Ohio against current Gov. John Kasich, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday. No candidate has won the presidency since 1960 without winning two of those three crucial states. 

Other native sons didn't fare as well against the former secretary of state, with Clinton still topping Florida's Sen. Marco Rubio 49% to 39% and also leading Pennsylvania's former Sen. Rick Santorum by 10 points in his state. 

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie flopped to Clinton by double digits in each of the three states, according to the poll, including in neighboring Pennsylvania where he caps at 39% to Clinton's 50%, according to the Quinnipiac survey of 881 voters in that state.

As I have been saying for quite some time now I think there is virtually NO doubt that our 2016 choices will be Hillary Clinton vs Jeb Bush.

And once again in my opinion if we have Hillary, they HAVE to go with Jeb, and if they have Jeb, we HAVE to go with Hillary. Any other choice will be steamrolled.

So any complaints we have about political dynasties, aggressive foreign policies, and Wall Street kissing up, we might as well air now, because in the end we are NOT going to get the squeaky clean super liberal that many of us want, and the Right is not going to get the Fundamentalist, big government hating, constitutional conservative that they want.

I think at this point the only thing that could stop the inevitable is a serious health problem, or a heretofore unknown scandal big enough to shock the electorate.

While in England Chris Chirstie cancels several media appearances after saying stupid things about vaccinations.

Courtesy of Reuters:  

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a possible 2016 presidential contender, cancelled three scheduled media appearances in the UK on Tuesday, amid a controversy over his comments on measles vaccinations. 

The Republican governor said on Monday parents needed some choice on whether to vaccinate their children, drawing criticism from political opponents who said such a policy could threaten public health. 

His comments came a few hours after President Barack Obama said parents should have their children vaccinated, saying the science was "pretty indisputable." 

Christie cancelled two question-and-answer sessions and a press statement he was due to make after meeting UK finance minister George Osborne. 

"We just decided we're not going to have availability today," said Maria Comella, Christie's head of communications, after the last scheduled appearance was cancelled.

Oh yeah they just "decided" suddenly to have no press availability when the sole reason Christie was in the UK was to talk to the press and get his name out there before launching his bid for the GOP presidential nomination.

Here is how he responded to one reporter who did not get the memo about Christie not taking questions and continued trying to do his job.

When I asked Christie about ISIS and his UK meetings, he said, "Is there something you don't understand about 'No Questions'?"
— Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) February 3, 2015

Yeah what part of "I said something embarrassing on foreign soil making Americans look like nitwits and now I'm trying to lay low do you not get?"

Okay so should we consider the fact that the Christie team recognized that the vaccination response was ignorant to be progress on behalf of Republicans?

Here let me answer my own question.

Nope.

Courtesy of TPM:  

Yesterday, first Paul tried to get to the right (or perhaps just to the crazy) of Chris Christie by going further than Christie on Vaccine Choice. Then he came out a bit later in the day with his claim that vaccines can cause "profound mental disorders." Now it comes out that back in 2009 Paul told InfoWars channel 'Prison Planet TV' that mandatory vaccines could lead to "martial law".

Well okay then, it looks like the whole GOP clown car is now filled mostly with anti-vaxxers.

Good to know.

Another Republican Reality Star/Congressman comes out as an anti-vaxxer. Hang on I'm to go check my calendar and make sure it is REALLY 2015.

So Republican Sean "I can't live on a Congressman's salary" Duffy was on MSNBC this morning talking about Obama's new budget, when host José Díaz-Balart introduced a "gotcha question" about vaccination children.

Here is more courtesy of TPM:  

"I want that to be my choice as a parent," Duffy, a father of seven, said said during an appearance on MSNBC's "The Rundown With José Díaz-Balart." "I know my kids best. I know what morals and values are right for my children. I think we should not have an oppressive state telling us what to do." 

The Wisconsin congressman explicitly defended vaccine critics, saying: "I think a lot of parents who are smart, well-read — they're the ones who are choosing not to vaccinate. And oftentimes, those who may not be as well-read — they are vaccinating. So to say you just have a bunch of crackpots who are choosing not to do this to their children, I just don't think that's actually true." 

Duffy, a former attorney, said that he prefers to "pick and choose" which vaccines his children receive. 

"I vaccinate my kids on most things, but then there are some things where I'm like, 'This may not work for me and my values and my family,'" he said.

I have to wonder exactly which "morals" and "values" conflict with vaccinating his children?

Is he afraid that the vaccinations might make them live too long? Or perhaps he is simply worried that they may not be free to infect others if they are not allowed to catch the measles, small pox, or mumps?

I mean that would be a shame.

For instance does anybody remember the good old days before we had the polio vaccine?

Boy those were the days weren't they?

I have to admit I am completely flabbergasted by this sudden argument over vaccinations.

I used to work in an office at a child care facility and I remember that there was simply no discussion tolerated. No vaccinations, meant no childcare. Period!

And if you were late with a booster shot you were turned away at the door until you had an updated shot record in hand. There was no argument entertained, and there was no pass given to those whose "values" prevented them from inoculating their kids.

It is not fucking about you and your paranoia, it is about all of us.

Source

And all of us are going to kick your ass if your kid makes our kids sick.

P.S. By the way for all of you confused about my reference to reality shows in the headline, Duffy was indeed a participant in The Real World:Boston.

Which just goes to show that the line of separation for Republican politicians and reality shows is pretty thin. Either they come to politics from reality television, or they end up there after their political careers crash and burn.

Right Sarah?

Just something for the anti-vaxxers to keep in mind.

At least one doctor has had enough.

And yet there are still some who simply do not get it.

Sign seen in pediatrician's office.

This is becoming the new norm.

And this is not the only place that anti-vaxxers are unwelcome, they are also being asked to stay the hell away from the happiest place on earth:

It may be the happiest place on Earth, but California health officials are warning people to stay away from Disneyland unless they're vaccinated.

I myself am somebody who has avoided the flu vaccination for the last twelve years, relying on my own good health and strong natural resistance to see me through the season. And so far so good.

However as somebody who caught both measles and chicken pox as a kid I made sure my daughter got all of her shots and booster shots right on time. Because I love her.

As Americans we are famous for our independent spirit, but when our personal choices put others at terrible risk we have an obligation to put our stubbornness on hold for the good of everybody.

Simply put there is simply NO real scientifically proven connection between vaccinations and autism, despite what disgraced British doctor named Andrew Wakefield and Jenny McCarthy might have you believe.

We put chlorine in our pool water to fight bacteria, pasteurize our milk, and vaccinate our children. And we have never been healthier or safer.

And those are the facts.

Michelle Bachmann claims that she defeated her liberal foes using "evidence based arguments." Wait, what?

Courtesy of Raw Story:

Bachmann told World Net Daily, which referred to her as a “GOP legend” in the headline, that she had become a media target because she had basically outsmarted her liberal foes. 

“I took them on, and their agenda, and I went to the heart of whatever it was they wanted to advance, and tried to take it apart through evidence-based arguments, and they don’t like that,” Bachmann said. “When the left argues, they argue from emotionalism.” 
  
“That’s the best way to defeat them, by the way — defeat them with evidence and defeat them with their false premises, and I did that,” she said.

“The Republican Party always gets a bad rap because there are not as many women that are in elective office, but it’s a tough business,” Bachmann said. “It is public humiliation, public ridicule, constant criticism when you’re in public office – if you take on the left.”

Yeah, I don't think the ridiculing had anything to do with her gender.

Let's revisit some of Michelle Bachmann's "evidenced-based arguments" shall we?

These are courtesy of the Daily Kos:

Accusing members of Congress of being "anti-American:

The news media should do a penetrating expose and take a look. I wish they would, I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out are they are pro-America or anti-America. 

Claiming that the Obama Administration was going to be forcing Americans to attend re-education camps:

The real concerns is that there are provisions for what I would call re-education camps for young people, where young people have to go and get trained in a philosophy that the government puts forward and then they have to go to work in some of these politically correct forums. 

Claiming that actor John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa, when instead it was serial killer John Wayne Gacy:

What I want them to know is just like John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa, that's the spirit that I have too. It's really about not being ashamed of America. It's embracing America. 

Terrifying parents by relaying an unsubstantiated story from an anti-vaxxer:

There’s a woman who came up crying to me tonight after the debate. She said her daughter was given [the HPV] vaccine. She told me her daughter suffered mental retardation as a result. There are very dangerous consequences. 

Claiming that earthquakes and hurricanes are messages from God about reining in big government:

I don't know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We've had an earthquake; we've had a hurricane. He said, 'Are you going to start listening to me here?' Listen to the American people because the American people are roaring right now. They know government is on a morbid obesity diet and we've got to rein in the spending.

There are more, in fact the Daily Kos lists 40 altogether, but I think we get the point. 

That my friends is the kind of "logic" that Michelle Bachmann used to "defeat" us.

Gosh, I guess we never had a chance.

Measles outbreak traced to mega-church where televangelist preaches that vaccinations cause autism. Probably just a coincidence.

Courtesy of Dead State:  

Texas health officials have zeroed-in on a megachurch — which has a history of preaching against vaccinations — as the point of origin for a measles outbreak. 

According to a report from ABC’s WFAA 8, a congregant contracted the virus while visiting a foreign country and then attended a service at the church before he knew he was infected. This Thursday, the Tarrant County Health Department announced its 11th measles diagnosis traced to the man, making it the 16th case to emerge statewide. As a result, the Texas Department of Health and Human Services issued a measles outbreak alert — an unprecedented development given that the virus has nearly been eradicated by vaccines for decades. 

Meanwhile this Sunday at Eagle Mountain International Church, Pastor Terri Copeland Pearsons was forced to dedicate most of her sermon to the fact that 11 of the 16 measles cases had been linked to church attendees. 

“We’re going to talk about some things affecting our church. And as we go through it, we remain steadfast that Jesus is more than enough,” Pearsons told the congregation. “There has been a […] confirmed case of the measles from the Tarrant County Health Department. And that’s a really big deal in that America — the United States has been essentially measles-free for, I think it’s 10 years. And so when measles pops up anywhere else in the United States, the health department — well, you know, it excites them.”

Here's the kicker Copeland Parsons is the daughter of televangelist Kenneth Copeland, who has been warning his flock about the dangers of vaccinations and promoting the idea that they are linked to autism, while promoting the power of faith healing.

In short Copeland's ignorance about science, and his proclamation that faith can overcome anything, has put his daughter's congregation in danger and forced her to essentially cover for his stupidity.  

And this my friends is why we get our health information from doctors and scientists and NOT from Evangelical preachers.

Deranged Fox News host claims that Jim Carrey has killed more people than "all rifles combined." Wait, what?

I actually almost missed this inflammatory charge hidden in the midst of "The Five's" Greg Gutfeld's caterwauling and hair pulling over Jim Carrey's brilliant take down of the gun culture. (If you STILL haven't seen it you can see it here. And seriously, why haven't you seen it?)

Here is what he said the other day:  

GUTFELD: “He is the most pathetic tool on the face of the earth. And I hope his career is dead, and he ends up sleeping in a car the way his life began. This video only made me want to go out and only buy a gun. He thinks this is biting satire and going after rural America and a dead man. Let’s talk about Charlton Heston. Charlton Heston was one of the first actors to be behind the civil rights movement and march. What did this jackass Jim Carrey do? He was behind the anti-vaccine panic. There are what, 165,000 people that died from measles last year, according to the World Health Organization.” 

“Jim Carrey has killed more people than all the rifles combined,” Gutfeld continued. “He is a dirty, stinking coward. He is a moral coward.

"165,000 people that died from measles last year?" Gee you would kind of think that a statistic like that would have made huge news and that the nation would essentially be in a panic over such an epidemic. Why haven't we heard of this?

Oh, because it is bullshit.

What Gutfeld is all in a tizzy over is Carrey's 2008 statement's suggesting there was a link between vaccines and autism in this country, a belief that is fairly widely held, especially among parents with autistic children.

Now the science on that proved to be false, and was largely based on a now discredited study conducted by Andrew Wakefield.

However clearly Jim Carrey believed the connection was real and, believing he was doing a public service, used his fame to warn others.

Now did this cause an uptick in measles cases? Well perhaps, but it was nowhere near the number that Gutfield claims. This from the CDC concerning last year's numbers:

Each year, on average, 60 people in the United States are reported to have measles. But, in 2011, the number of reported cases was higher than usual—222 people had the disease. Nearly 40% of these people got measles in other countries, including countries in Europe and Asia. They brought the disease to the United States and spread it to others. This caused 17 measles outbreaks in various U.S. communities.

As you can see only a few hundred caught the disease, many of them while overseas, and no one apparently died from it.

Speaking of overseas, THAT is apparently where Gutfeld went to get his data:

In 2011, there were 158 000 measles deaths globally – about 430 deaths every day or 18 deaths every hour. 

Now the idea of connecting some articles on Huffington Post written by an American actor, as having contributed to thousands of deaths around the world seems like a bridge to nowhere in my mind, but hey this is Fox News, why would they be bothered with researching any of those pesky "facts.?"

However if they had, they might have learned this:

More than 95% of measles deaths occur in low-income countries with weak health infrastructures.

Yes, the outbreaks primarily happen in countries that do not have the luxury of surfing the internet to read Jim Carrey's opinion on vaccinations. Sort of hard to blame them on him, don'tcha think?

So has Jim Carrey actually "killed more people than all rifles combined?" Well unless there have been a whole lot of unreported cases of people laughing themselves to death at his movies, than no, of course not. And anybody who thinks so is an ignorant douchebag. Or watcher of Fox News, assuming there is a difference

Which brings up the question of whether this Greg Gutfeld is the MOST ignorant douchebag over at Fox News?

Well he DOES have some stiff competition....

...but I would say that right now that yes, yes he probably is the biggest douchebag at Fox News right now.

And considering the company he keeps that is really quite an accomplishment.