Thanks Stephen, this is an excellent article; I am going to consider using it for my intro psych class as I use other good Newsweek articles as well.
I will send it on to my true believer. Sadly, after graduation, she went the holistic health / alernative medicine route as a massage therapist and is very lost to reality.....As history, and I think this is so common, she had just started down the massage therapy path, and was still very empirical in her thinking, when she became extremely ill followed by discovery of mold in the walls of her home she was renting. She was very sick for at least a year, and then still 'felt sick' for a couple of years afterwards. I think some of this was real illness and some maybe a bit exaggerated. As she went to court on a lawsuit against the owners of the home she rented (and won big against their insurance company) I think she may have convinced herself of how very sick she was. Anyway, throughout that illness she moved more and more to alternative medicine because she said mainstream medicine wasn't doing anything to help her. Ironically, she has never fully recovered. I don't know how m! ! uch of this is a true sequela of the mold infection. I see this need to blame someone for our misfortunes as typical of people who end up going the holistic / alt med route; or people who do have an illness that traditional medicine is not very good with, such as fibromylagia. There are illnesses that traditional medicine just can't help much. Unfortunately, the alt med route, like some cults and "religions" draws in people while they are weak, and they seem to lose all of their objectivity. Sigh. THAT to me is the phenomenon worth researching...how going through a tragedy can alter our good sense. Annette Annette Kujawski Taylor, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology University of San Diego 5998 Alcala Park San Diego, CA 92110 619-260-4006 [email protected] ---- Original message ---- >Date: Sat, 07 Mar 2009 08:46:42 -0500 >From: [email protected] >Subject: [tips] vaccines "cause" autism???? >To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <[email protected]> > >On 3 Mar 2009 at 8:57, [email protected] wrote: > >> Here is an email a former student (who argues with me constantly about >> all kinds of psychobabble) sent me. She has been adamant for years that >> vaccines cause autism and will not listen to any of my evidence. >>> >> I don't for one minute believe there is evidence to support the >> contention that vaccines cause autism, but leave it to wiser folks to >> pick this one apart > >Student's e-mail: >------------------------ >> Read the latest stories in the Huffington Post written by David Kirby >> and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. featuring the Banks family who recently won a >> landmark case against the government<snip> >----------------------------- > >Both Paul Brandon and I replied to this query both suggesting that the >student was sadly misguided (big surprise). I did discuss in my post two >recent cases involving the US government "vaccine court", the Hannah >Poling case, and the results of three test cases on behalf of more than >5,000 parents of autistic children. But I didn't know about Banks. > >Now I do. It was a positive decision in favour of Bailey Banks, whose >family claimed that he was harmed by vaccination. The case was decided in >July 2007 but for procedural reasons wasn't announced until late in >February, 2009. Naturally, the anti-vaccination nutters saw conspiracy >in this delay. > >Decision at: >www.uscfc.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/Abell.BANKS.02-0738V.pdf > >But the case hardly gives comfort to the vaccines-cause-autism true >believers. For one, the injury was acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, >which in turn produced what was diagnosed as pervasive developmental >delay. This is a broader classification than autism. What happened to >Bailey Banks is an extremely rare reaction to vaccination. > >In all the excitement of the true believers in celebrating this win, they >somehow fail to mention that in the main event, the three test cases on >behalf of 5,000 parents alleging that vaccination caused autism in their >kids, the three judges of the court issued strongly- worded statements >totally dismissing the claims. > >My primary source for the Banks information is an informative essay in >Newsweek by the respected journalist Sharon Begley at >http://tinyurl.com/b429p9 > >Begley also has an excellent long historical review of the controversy in >an earlier Newsweek piece at http://www.newsweek.com/id/185853/page/1 > >This would be the perfect place to send Annette's student. Except that >true believers won't listen. > > >Stephen >----------------------------------------------------------------- >Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. >Professor of Psychology, Emeritus >Bishop's University e-mail: [email protected] >2600 College St. >Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 >Canada > >Subscribe to discussion list (TIPS) for the teaching of >psychology at http://flightline.highline.edu/sfrantz/tips/ >----------------------------------------------------------------------- > >--- >To make changes to your subscription contact: > >Bill Southerly ([email protected]) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
