Shared Illusion...

The issue of vaccines administered to young children used to be a favorite hobby-horse of Don Imus before he was jerked from the air. Despite the definitive findings to the contrary of the Institute of Medicine, some parents and their advocates insist that the mercuric preservative thimerosal is the causative agent in autism. As with other types of scientific findings, the action of collective human belief, particularly where it relieves fear or uncertainty, appears to carry at least equal weight with some.
As Paul A. Offit writes in The Boston Globe,

"Now, vaccine makers are again threatened. Lawyers will argue that either the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine or a mercury-containing preservative (thimerosal) in vaccines or the combination of the two can cause autism. This theory has been advanced on television shows such as 60 Minutes, in popular magazines like Time and Newsweek, and on national radio programs such as Imus in the Morning. Most prominently, the mercury-causes-autism theory has been advanced by a parents advocacy group called Safe Minds -- a group now at the center of the litigation."

Thus, simple media exposure creates belief, and belief in the hands of any group of people -people backed by tort lawyers- is enough to counterbalance definitive scientific proof, if only twelve people on a jury can be convinced.

Then, there is evidence that while mercury is certainly capable of causing debilitating conditions or even death, there is no evidence that autism is one of them:

"Certainly there is plenty of evidence to refute the notion that vaccines cause autism. Fourteen epidemiological studies have shown that the risk of autism is the same whether children received the MMR vaccine or not, and five have shown that thimerosal-containing vaccines also do not cause autism. Further, although large quantities of mercury are clearly toxic to the brain, autism isn't a consequence of mercury poisoning; large, single-source mercury exposures in Minamata Bay and Iraq have caused seizures, mental retardation, and speech delay, but not autism."

Finally, anyone with a sixth-grade education ought to be able to understand the argument that if mercury is withdrawn from a vaccine, yet the incidence of autism is not only unaffected, but increases, then there is NO connection!

"Finally, vaccine makers removed thimerosal from vaccines routinely given to young infants about six years ago; if thimerosal were a cause, the incidence of autism should have declined. Instead, the numbers have continued to increase. All of this evidence should have caused a quick dismissal of these cases. But it didn't, and now the court has turned into a circus. The federal and civil litigation will likely take years to sort out."

The track record of vaccines is clear, particularly in young children. The use of vaccines has a track record that is clear, going back to Edward Jenner's inoculations against smallpox in the eighteenth century. I can sympathize with any parent having to deal with a condition as serious as autism, but that does not, and should not preclude the access to vaccines, which our current system of litigation threatens to do. Risk is a part of life, and the risks of being vaccinated are without doubt enormously less than not being vaccinated.


And yet, curiously, we are threatened with the possibility -and out of pure belief- that vaccines might become a thing of the past, or manufactured completely under government ægis in order to block litigation that can place drug companies in receivership. The demand of the vast majority, supported by evidence that vaccines are safe is curiously sidelined by a group of about 5,000 people supported by their attorneys. My demand that my children and my grandchildren have vaccines available is therefore validated only if I sue in their behalf- evidently.

If anyone believes that contemporary mankind is necessarily more clear-headed and rational than our predecessors, this sorry business should quell that argument. We ARE the same ancestors who believe that "bad air" caused malaria, and that necklaces of flowers could protect against the Black Death, and who burned old ladies at the stake when epidemics occurred. Or, put more succinctly:

"I reject your reality and substitute my own."

- Adam Savage

Rocket Mail

June 8, 1959. I'm for it. Where is cool stuff like this today?

Tom Swift, Where Are You?

Noticed this excerpt today at Green Car Congress, in an article entitled IATA Director General Calls for a Zero Emissions Future for Aviation. An excerpt is instructive:

Technology: The aerospace industry must build a zero-emissions aircraft in the next 50 years.

I challenge the US, Europe, Canada, China, Brazil, Russia and Japan to coordinate basic research on a zero-emissions aircraft and then compete to develop products based on this research. Clean fuel is also critical. Governments have cut alternative fuel funding while oil companies are busy counting the US$15 billion in increased refinery margins that the airline industry is now paying. The first target is to replace 10% of fuel with low-carbon alternatives in the next ten years. And the second is to begin developing a carbon-free fuel from renewable energy sources. It’s time for governments and the oil industry to make some serious investments.

Hmmmm. "-make some serious investments." That's one way to put it. Another way would be "Come up with a completely new set of scientific principles." Wait, that's right, all we have to do is contact Star Fleet Command and they'll give us all the technology we need.

Zero emissions aircraft? First think "completely new physics & chemistry textbooks." At our level of knowledge, might as well wish for levitation, oh, hell, make that teleportation and have done with it.
We are faced here with what we can only hope is a fading attitude that science is bound to come up with ways to preserve our way of life, if only we make the proper investments and invoke the proper phrases at the Scientific Temple of Cant. No one is even willing to fantasize yet about Living With Less. But they will.

How Far from Moonbat?

There was the guy who wrote the letter to the editor in the paper tonight, stating that Congress simply must lower fuel prices, citing a giant conspiracy of oil companies and whoever to stage the Iraq imbroglio to (somehow) provide a pretext for higher fuel prices. At least this guy is obviously qualified for a tinfoil hat and a set of those special night-vision binoculars for spotting black helicopters. No problem; he's a loony, he's been quite honest in laying that out for us, and as far as I'm concerned he's got a right to his opinion....and his rubber room.
But how far removed from him are Big Automotive's 3 CEOs, who together with the UAW make special pleas to further postpone increases in the CAFE standards for motor vehicles? Take away the blatantly crazy rationales of the guy in the previous paragraph......not so much. Who really believes this kind of stalling can help, as the inevitable looms ever closer? Evidently they can, but who can believe that it's anything but their bottom line talking?

That's Synergy!

In a new entertainment sensation, "Dance Dance Immolation" (and, nooo, I am not making this up) evidently combines all the best features of modern technology with an auto-da-fe to combine a fun night on the town without the mess and inconvenience of body waxing or other depilatory regimens beforehand, bring your own onions and mustard.

I don't know why I can't think of these cool innovations first.....

Paris Goes to the Pokey

It's a beautiful day in East Central Illinois, made just that teeniest bit nicer by the fact that Paris Hilton actually did have to go inside, if only for 23 days, which is what she'll supposedly get for good behavior. I was wrong, I admit it, and I'm glad!

Upheld....

Ill. ex-Gov. Ryan loses pension appeal

© 2007 The Associated Press

CHICAGO — A judge upheld a state board's decision to strip former Gov. George Ryan of his entire $197,000-a-year pension because of his conviction last year on federal racketeering charges.

I'd like to think this'll stick, but I liked the idea of Paris Hilton going to jail when it was first announced....and you saw what happened there. It's easy to be cynical about these things, but is the progression: Perception of differential justice -> acceptance of such treatment -> social classes?