Just how stupid are the anti-vaxxers?

[Archae]

I saw a couple posts citing this idiot's writings, once or twice, maybe more.

#1787: Cathy Jameson

Cathy Jameson is an anti-vaccinationist and blogger at the antivaxx websites Age of Autism and The Autism File, where she continues to believe, against all evidence, truth and credibility, that vaccines cause autism and for instance gives advice on how to deal with vaccine “bullies” (or how to try to baffle those who know what they’re talking about with bullshit). And of course, Jameson – like so many antivaxxers – gets bullied everywhere, from the mainstream news who “refuses to offer both sides of the vaccine story” to shills for the pharmaceutical industry (who you can recognize by the fact that they seem to know their stuff and therefore disagree with antivaxxers who don’t – many people are apparently not “aware of the many risks of vaccinating or realize how much money goes into this industry”) to doctors, who continue to encourage vaccines despite Jameson’s delusional rantings (“Why is my doctor bullying me about this?”). She also defends Andrew Wakefield. “Do know the lingo,” is one piece of advice she gives to her readers, and reminds them, with regard to Wakefield’s retracted study, to “[t]ell [vaccine advocates] first that it was not a study; it was a paper.” No, seriously. Here she apparently aims for some kind of record in Dunning-Kruger: The conclusion, at least, is that vaccines don’t work and that the CDC must be in a conspiracy to get you hooked on them for nebulous reasons. Also toxins.

Here is Jameson recommending you to stay away from the flu vaccine by pointing out how she “survived the flu naturally” (which in her mind seems to cast doubt on the “CDC’s over-used scare tactic of ‘36,000 flu deaths per year’ statistic” because she didn’t die and it's all about her), and she proudly described how she felt completely awful for several days. No, there’s no price for discovering the problems with her reasoning. The idiocy is so thick the mind boggles, even remembering that we’re dealing with an antivaxx loon. Oh, we’re not done: “Now that I’m over it, and as my family and I get back on track boosting our immune systems naturally with some vitamins, supplements and essential oils, I believe we’ll be able to get through the rest of the flu (and flu-shot) season unscathed.” Reports that she’s able to operate a doorknob remain unverified. Suffice to say her case for the efficacy of those “natural remedies” isn’t impressive.

At least her screeds are useful for illustrating the religious fervor of anti-vaxx dogmatism and how it contrasts with scientific inquiry.

http://americanloons.blogspot.ca/2017/02/1787-cathy-jameson.html

[randr]

1. Stupid and a threat to other peoples lives

[radical noodle]

2. Most are pretty easily deluded I think

If they see it somewhere and it's alleged to be the real truth about whatever, they're hooked. Maybe she has a child with autism and she's anxious to find the reason.

I don't get the flu shot but not for those reasons, and I never advocate that others do not.

I once asked an anti-vaxxer what diseases she would like her child to have first? Maybe polio? She thought I was being mean. I told her I was being realistic. It didn't make for a good friendship.

[Orrex]

3. Pretty damn stupid. Next question?

k/r

[HassleCat]

4. They're afraid of vaccines but will take poison.

Some of these magical immune boosters, sipplements, herbal remedies, etc are quite nasty. But the anti vaxers will swallow them by the handful because they're "natural." Well, snake venom is natural, too, so serve me up a tall glass full.

[Xolodno]

5. Well....

When you have people who think Ayn Rand's books should be economic doctrine when it was fiction, in a fictional world, unproven by data, think economists are a bunch of liberal elitists etc. vs. actual economists who use data, use scientific methods to predict outcomes, etc.

People who also think the world is 6000 years old and the Bible is absolute fact, global warming is a hoax and the vast scientific community is one gigantic conspiracy out to rob them despite the community not having any real monetary gain for their findings, have ethics to comply by, etc.

It isn't long before these idiots start playing armchair doctor.


And for bonus, you can't reason with them. They won't believe what you tell them, become heavily argumentative, cite "facts" that don't exist, or spin facts that actually defeat their argument as proving theirs, etc. Until they become adverse recipients of the fraud they are perpetuating. In other words...

You can't fix stupid.

[W Mousie]

6. I'd liefer live in an era

I'd liefer live in an era where the intelligent portion of the population believed in hard science, and the rest believed in fairies. Tinkerbell is much less likely to encourage her believers to support calumny and calamity.

[Aristus]

7. Too stupid to bother with.

If I get an anti-vaxxer in my clinic, bringing in his/her children for care (what kind of care? They oppose scientific evidence...) I walk out of the room, and have the front desk re-schedule them with another provider.

I have plenty of patients who will follow my medical advice. I don't want to waste time and effort on patients who won't, and who trust Jenny McCarthy's medical judgement over mine...