Tennessee - Rep.-elect, who's also a doctor, falsely links vaccines to autism at town hall

[spanone]

SAN PABLO, CA - NOVEMBER 05: Empty vials of H1N1 vaccine sit on a table during a drive thru H1N1 vaccination clinic at Doctor's Medical Center November 5, 2009 in San Pablo, California. California public health officials say that shortages of the H1N1 vaccinations may make it imopssible to vaccinate people at risk of contracting the H1N1 flu. County health agencies across California have received less than 45% of the vaccines ordered.

Washington (CNN)Rep.-elect Mark Green, who is also a doctor, falsely claimed at a town hall Tuesday that a rise in autism cases could be linked to preservatives in vaccines, according to a video posted by The Tennessean on Wednesday.

The video shows Green, a Republican from Tennessee, saying he'll confront the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about autism and vaccines.

"Let me say this about autism," Green said. "I have committed to people in my community, up in Montgomery County, to stand on the CDC's desk and get the real data on vaccines. Because there is some concern that the rise in autism is the result of the preservatives that are in our vaccines."

However, Green said after the video was published Wednesday that his comments are being "misconstrued."

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/12/politics/mark-green-vaccines-autism-town-hall/index.html

[3catwoman3]

1. He is also a creationist...

...and gives lectures against evolution, AND thinks transgender is "a disease." (I clicked on the link.)

This guy is a Paul Broun clone - the MD congress guy who railed away about evolution and embryology being "Lies from the pits of Hell."

I am completely unable to undertand how someone who had to study the biological sciences can deny evolution and embryology. IT MAKES NO SENSE!

I've checked a couple of other links, and cannot find out what his area of medical speciality is.

[Bradshaw3]

2. It makes sense if you understand fundamentalist Christianity

Next they will be proposing burning witches at the stake.

[3catwoman3]

4. Then I am doomed to never understand.

For me, willing suspension of disbelief only works when I am reading a book or watching a movie. I cannot live my life based on things that make no sense.

[Bradshaw3]

5. Would that every American felt that way

Our country would be in much better shape.

[3catwoman3]

8. I agree. I am at the point where I think there SHOULD...

...be a religious test to hold office in the US - atheists and agnostics only.

[Bradshaw3]

11. Blashempy!

[3catwoman3]

14. I plead guilty to your...

...charge.

[CottonBear]

7. I once had Dr. Paul Broun, Jr. R-GA as my rep.

He was/is batshit, fundy crazy doctor.

He did not have hospital admitting privileges in our town. He was the Republican congressman who once didn’t attend the State of the Union address, who, instead, sat in his office posting online to his fundy base.

[virgogal]

12. This topic has nothing to do with religion. Nothing.

The vaccine argument goes on in all religions,races and political parties.

[Bradshaw3]

13. It has everything to do with uncritical, irrational thinking

Of which fundamentalist Christianity is guilty of in spades. The fact that others not of that ilk are also guilty of this anti-vax BS doesn't spare religion in the form of fundamentalist Christianity or other similarly irrational systems from being talked about as a cause of this problem. It is a pillar of superstitious thought in this country.

[GaYellowDawg]

6. It happens more than you would like to think.

There's a concept called an epistemic authority - it's a source that someone trusts as a source of knowledge. When that source is accepted as an epistemic authority, an individual will no longer consider new facts, data, evidence, etc., as true if they conflict with that authority. So creationists can go through a degree program and a professional college, learn and even understand evolution well enough to get through tests, and then completely discount it because it conflicts with their prior set of "knowledge." They simply don't want to go through the turmoil that the new knowledge presents, so they ignore it.

Thus, creationist doctors.

[bmbmd]

3. People have lost their licenses

for less. He should be reprimanded by the state board of medical examiners.

[Buckeyeblue]

9. How do people like him have the Intelligence to get through med school

I understand doctors aren't the smartest people in the world. Many of them are a mess financially but you do have to be smart to get through medical school. Spouting off these types of ideas makes me think you're not very smart.

[haele]

10. What do they call the person who graduated ranked last at Podunk Red State Med School with an MD?

...Doctor...

Not that Podunk Red State Med school is necessarily bad, it's that PRS Med School doesn't typically have up to date research information, or maybe some of the best research and training facilities available to students.

Haele