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from the the-upside-and-downside-of-social-media dept.
Papas Fritas writes:
"Measles is spreading in upper Manhattan and the Bronx, according to public health authorities in New York as about 16 cases have turned up, including two that involved contagion in doctors' offices. Outbreaks have also been reported in the Boston area, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Now the LA Times reports that the first signs of a backlash against anti-vaccination falsehoods emerged last week, when that noted scientific authority and spokesmodel Jenny McCarthy, who has been spreading anti-vaccination drivel for years, got wasted by the Internet community when she left herself open to a reaction.
On Thursday, McCarthy asked a question of her fans on Twitter to see what they'd say. What she got was a dose of the reality she helped spawn. The question: "What is the most important personality trait you look for in a mate? Reply using #JennyAsks".
Just when you think that Internet commentary is nothing more than a wretched hive of scum and villainy, a light shines through so strongly it can help restore your optimism about people says Phil Plait as McCarthy received hundreds of replies including "They vaccinate their kids," "Someone who vaccinates, b/c I'd want our kids to survive," "Someone who respects that science isn't on some secret malicious crusade to screw us over and that vaccinations save lives," "What qualities do I look for in a mate? Science literacy and critical thinking skills," and "Ideal mate accepts scientific consensus & considers the elderly, infants & immune compromised b4 spreading baseless hysteria." McCarthy responded with a tweet saying "Thank you to all the haters who tweet my name. You make my Q SCORE higher and higher. It's because of you I continue to work. Thank you! : )" However, she did not address the substance of the tweets directed at her that her advocacy on behalf of the anti-vaccine movement has contributed to a dramatic rise in vaccine-preventable illnesses."
Meanwhile, Appalbarry writes: (somewhat tongue in cheek):
"Jenny McCarthy's anti-vaccination brigades are 'cheering the news' that British Columbia is in the midst of a growing measles outbreak.
In less than a month the number of infected individuals climbed from zero to over one hundred, surely a small price to pay to avoid the (mumble mumble) scourge of MMR-caused autism! (In fact the outbreak originated in the Netherlands, but there is no apparent linkage between wooden shoes and autism either.)"
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 22 2014, @09:32PM
To find an American who has killed more children than Jenny McCarthy, you'd have to look at the Oval Office.
-- gewg_
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 23 2014, @12:20AM
So, was the (fully expected) down-mod for the bimbo?
Now, I did forget to mention Oprah who gave her the platform that reaches millions of twits who are at home in the middle of the afternoon.
Oh, and where was Doctor Whatshisname during this? Y'know, the "scientist".
Bombs, missiles, and artillery shells are indiscriminate killers and children and their mothers HAVE been the largest portion of the casualties of warfare since the first use of artillery.
An air strike on a wedding? Are you fucking kidding me?
Carter was the only Commander-in-Chief I can think of who didn't start some military misadventure somewhere.
(It's not a "war" if there's no declaration of war from the Congress; it's unconstitutional aggression.)
-- gewg_
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 22 2014, @09:52PM
On the other hand she's up against a dirty Billion dollar industry, so...
(Score: 5, Informative) by The Archon V2.0 on Saturday March 22 2014, @10:15PM
* Before she went anti-vax she believed her son's (potentially misdiagnosed) autism was because his aura was crystal [wikipedia.org]. Her aura is a special color too. No history of crazy there.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 22 2014, @10:45PM
Disney revenue: $40 Billion
Big Pharma revenue: $1 Trillion
Guess who's got more leverage?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by efitton on Saturday March 22 2014, @10:54PM
How about we listen to scientist and assume that most scientist are not corrupt?
PS: Big Pharma gets very little revenue from children's vaccines (Adult Flu shots, etc. are a slightly different story but I still get a flu shot). They prefer illness that they can treat for a long time.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by davester666 on Sunday March 23 2014, @04:31AM
Yes, if Measles were a new disease, they would figure out a way to suppress the symptoms so you would have to buy pills/injections your whole life, instead of selling a one-time vaccine.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by number6x on Saturday March 22 2014, @10:27PM
I'm confused...
I thought that she was on the side of a billion dollar industry. The trial lawyers who paid Andrew [cnn.com] Wakefield [washingtonpost.com] to produce fake research falsely linking autism to vaccines. You know, so the lawyers could sue governments and pharmaceutical companies and make money even if it meant more children suffered and died.
If you follow the money, it leads you to the anti-vaccination movement spreading lies and rumors.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by aristarchus on Saturday March 22 2014, @10:48PM
Big Pharma is anti-vaccine! Imagine, a single dose and immunity? Where's profit in that? We need maintenance drugs, twice a day for the rest of your life, like Viragra!
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday March 22 2014, @11:54PM
The recommended dose for Viagra and similar drugs (PDE5 inhibitors) is only one prescribed dose no earlier than every 24 hours. I had a prescription to Levitra, and had to work "hard" to get it because I told the doctor it was about stage fright* rather than ED. With the implementation of Obamacare, which according to my pharmacy tech friend actually cracks down hard on prescription abuse, my prescription was rescinded, and I had to go in for an ED evaluation in order to have my prescription reinstated.
Fuck. Does that mean I'm gonna get a handy or a prostate massage from some dude, and have to slip on a peter-cuff? Anyway, Doc asks me if I can get hard masturbating and I tell him yes. He declines my prescription renewal and I plead that I could just go to a shrink and say I'm depressed and get any pill I want, and how is this situation any different?" Like a skilled Judo practitioner turning my leverage right back upon me, he said, "Well, then I can make an appointment with the shrink and you can solve your issues that way." Shit. I would only find out later about the stringent but not publicized Obamacare overhaul with regard to drug policy, as well as that the problem was out of Doc's domain so he felt it didn't apply to him.
Now, I know you all are curious, so I will explain the effects of the drug. First of all, you can control your erection. The drug puts "ants in your pants" but still leaves the control up to you. That being said, it is extremely effective at helping you to pop and maintain boners instantly and on-demand. You take the dose and within 30-45 minutes you start to feel the itch. The medication causes a drop in blood-pressure, and typical side-effects include a hard-to-desrcibe diminishing of hearing volume and eyesight. Against the advice on the label, I have taken it while extremely drunk -- and not only is that a very bad idea, but it does not cure the infamous whiskeydick. Most men can have sex only once, and then a sloppy second time. With PDE5 inhibitors, you can be rock-hard in a matter of seconds after ejaculating, even after having exerted yourself and being out of shape. It is for this reason that, as an experienced online dater, I have mastered the trade of taking it clandestinely without alerting my date. Timing is crucial. I keep a dose in my pocket where I know I won't lose it, and take it in the restaurant or bar bathroom if I know for certain that we're gonna go back to my place afterward. That they don't know I'm taking Levitra makes me mate like a stud, and even the women who have admitted to hating me have called me back for romps in the sack.
Finally, a funny story about that -- Years ago, my girlfriend came over to visit, and so I popped a pill expecting sex. I really, really cared for this women, and the purpose of her visit was to break up with me out of the blue. So not only was I crying from the hurt, but masturbating because my boner wouldn't go away. It was by far one of the most self-conflicting experiences of my life.
Some people say that using those drugs could be bad due to fostering a psychological dependence, using it as a "crutch." If you are a fairly self-actualized person and do not use it all the time, that point is moot. It is addicting, though, imagine having spent your life walking through the desert and then riding your first motorcycle through it.
* I'm not bad without it, but I had stage-fright after a really high-profile first-date which ended with poor sexual performance on my end, and was determined to never allow that to happen again
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday March 24 2014, @05:16PM
So you're complaining that the doc won't prescribe you an ED medication because you don't have ED. Which you don't.
Granted, I'm not exactly sure what the "correct" use case is for Viagra to begin with...allowing people who have ED to be able to reproduce much more cheaply than via artificial insemination? Or are we just giving up on all pretense of this being a necessary drug and just stamping "hedonism" on it? Not that there's necessarily something wrong with that, but your whole argument that you have a right to Viagra in order to bang your date every time seems pretty blatantly hedonistic rather than medical.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 22 2014, @09:52PM
"Thank you to all the haters who tweet my name. You make my Q SCORE higher and higher. It's because of you I continue to work. Thank you! : )"
If that is true, then that says a lot about how media hires people. And if hiring people like that can bring in viewers, what little faith the responses to her question gave me about people went out the window.
I gotta admit, Jenny used to be hot - even with her peg legs and fake boobs. And well, to photoshop a hot chick, you have to something to work with.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by lajos on Saturday March 22 2014, @10:34PM
These morons should be thrown into jail. For endangering the public. Probably more so than terrorists.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 23 2014, @12:24AM
"vaccine good infection bad" is an oversimplification. I'd get information about the particular vaccine composition and accurate stats about the illness, then judge. Anyway I don't see why a tv personality's opinion should have any particular weight in the debate.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by NullPtr on Sunday March 23 2014, @01:36PM
The going rate is 300,000 deaths per year in the USA attributable to obesity. Over 800 per day. Graph that, and add in the 9/11 death-toll. It's a blip. Noise. I don't see a war on McDonalds; perhaps if he were muslim things would be different.
(Score: 1) by tathra on Sunday March 23 2014, @11:07PM
seriously, why isnt jenny mccarthy being charged with criminally negligent manslaughter?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by efitton on Saturday March 22 2014, @10:47PM
It amazes me that people listen to her. It scares me that because of these crackpots my own daughter is at increased risk. Bonus grumpiness, just waiting for Polio to come back to the USA.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by moo kuh on Saturday March 22 2014, @11:09PM
IIRC, measels can cause mental retardation and other long term effects. If we stopped vaccinating people for it, I would be willing to bet the number of people afflicted with measels related problems would be much greater than the supposed autism rate. As bad as this will sound, I hope someone close to her gets a disease there is a vaccine for to shut her up. I realize most people know that she is wrong, but there are enough idiots that will listen to her that will put infants too young for mmr at risk.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Sunday March 23 2014, @12:32AM
> I hope someone close to her gets a disease there is a vaccine for to shut her up
It's too late. If she saw the light tomorrow and renounced all of her bullshit live on Oprah and the Superbowl ad break, the antivax message wouldn't die. It's grown beyond her control. I mean when Not-a-Doctor Andrew Babykiller Wakefield was publicly discredited and defrocked the antivaxxers didn't even blink, they just moved the goalposts, memorised some new bullshit and carried right on.
The sad truth is that some people make poor choices, although I'm not sure why. It has something to do with crappy education, something to do with celebrity worship, a big dose of anti-intellectualism and who knows what else. Fixing it will probably take at minimum a generation or two and a serious shift in education and western culture. In that context I almost can't blame airhead babykiller McCarthy for all the suffering she's caused.
Almost.
Bitch.
(Score: 1) by The Grim Reefer on Sunday March 23 2014, @02:29AM
So does this mean she does get tetanus vaccinations? Perhaps she will get lockjaw and finally shut up.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by nwf on Sunday March 23 2014, @03:01AM
Pretty much all of the diseases we vaccinate against have pretty serious long term effects, or we wouldn't vaccinate. However, with improving medical technology, I imagine that we can mitigate some of them. I read about a number of kids getting measles and the like, but nothing I've seen about the kids being debilitated for life. Of course journalism in this country is a joke, so who knows. Not that I'm advocating skipping vaccines, my son gets them all, but this is the logic some will use. Of course, that's a very short-sighted view, since herd protection is one of the key benefits of vaccines, since none are 100% effective. If most children were vaccinated for the flu, most adults wouldn't get the flu (as I read in one science magazine) even though that vaccine is like 50% effective after a month.
I think the most significant source of anti-vaccine pseudo-logic comes from chiropractors. I've had several arguments with a few of them, and most of their "points" can be refuted with 30 seconds of googling. However, people figure that they helped them feel better, so clearly they know what they are talking about. Basically, their founder DD Palmer, didn't understand vaccines or biology and figured they must be bad since every disease came from issues they could treat. Of course, he was into magnetic healing, so one shouldn't be too surprised.
(Score: 1) by moo kuh on Sunday March 23 2014, @09:55AM
If I could, I would mod this up +1, interesting.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Sunday March 23 2014, @03:26AM
If this hasn't stopped her (and considering her publicist no doubt subscribes to a 'clipping service' that catalogs all references to her, she could hardly avoid knowing about it) then nothing will:
http://jennymccarthybodycount.com/Anti-Vaccine_Bod y_Count/Home.html [jennymccar...ycount.com]
It certainly would be justice, tho, if she herself came down with something nasty, preventable, and permanently debilitating.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 22 2014, @11:40PM
Is Pappas Fritas an alias of Hugh Pickens?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 23 2014, @01:09AM
Think twice before posting this "papas" flamebaits.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by hendrikboom on Sunday March 23 2014, @01:57AM
I follow the links. I can find no evidence that anti-vaccination brigades are 'cheering the news' that British Columbia is in the midst of a growing measles outbreak.
While it's an amusing inflammatory quip, I can find no evidence for it.
Can SN please restrict itself to things that are actually apparently factual?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Open4D on Sunday March 23 2014, @02:15AM
In case anyone missed it, an epidemic in Wales last year had 1455 notifications. 1 death. Total cost apparently $700,000. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Swansea_measles_ epidemic [wikipedia.org] (N.B. A notification is just a suspected case.)
I think the vaccination rate there is still low, so it could happen again.
The question of whether that outbreak can be blamed on a series of articles from 1997 by the South Wales Evening Post is covered at the BMJ [bmj.com], although we only have access to read the first 3 paragraphs. It may provide some insight about the extent to which Jenny McCarthy can be blamed for any cases in her sphere of influence.
(Score: 1) by ArhcAngel on Sunday March 23 2014, @03:06AM
Even if you agree with Papas Fritas opinion on this story the submission should not have been his journal entry verbatim. Let's try and elevate ourselves above beta shall we?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 23 2014, @01:52PM
If this Hugh Pickens bullshit is starting here, then I am long gone.
(Score: 1, Funny) by NullPtr on Sunday March 23 2014, @01:29PM
Q as in Quack, presumably.
(Score: 1) by DrMag on Sunday March 23 2014, @05:37PM
Ridicule is the worst form of education. She may have wrong ideas about the effects/benefits of vaccination, but no one would be willing to reconsider their position in the face of such abusive behavior.
(Score: 1) by Rousay on Monday March 24 2014, @02:54AM
In reading the BC outbreak story, I came across this: "many in his congregation of 1,200 are unvaccinated, preferring to leave the matter in “God’s hands.â€"
I'm betting "many" don't include him, or that he's had it before. I hope someone coughs measles right into his children/grandchildren's mouth, and leaves it in "God's" hands. WTF.
I'm betting it's the same situation as Gandhi - when his wife's sick he's all "no no we refuse to accept western medicine that can cure us as we have faith" - then he gets the same illness and bam, "give me some of that f'n medicine NOW!".
Perhaps there isn't any way to make it illegal to have vaccinated celebrities (read: retards like McCarthy) spread obvious bullshit that increases the likelihood of health hazards in people who believe the nonsense of someone who is not at all qualified but has some fame from spreading their poison, but maybe we can do something else - come on hacktivists - make their digital lives hell so they want to hermitize themselves from all things digital and help save the children!