Thursday, February 25, 2010

Autism Debate continued

An article in Time magazine about Jenny McCarthy, former Playboy model turned anti-vaccine crusader.

1 comment:

John Latto said...

I've nothing against ex-Playboy models, wait, there's a joke there somewhere.... but Jenny McCarthy exemplifies a point that is, I think, made in the Wired article you read. That is that in an increasing number of debates, particularly in science, being an expert is grounds for suspicion and the opinions and views of the non-experts are accorded more weight precisely because they are 'outside' the mainstream.

You see this frequently in the vaccine debate where the views of experts are dismissed because they have worked on vaccines or taken money from Pharmaceutical companies. Hello? If you want an expert on vaccines shouldn't you look amongst people who are experts on vaccines - most of whom work on vaccines?