Bachmann's medical misinformation, ctd

Michael Specter weighs in:

This is a particularly irresponsible way to speak, in part because it raises the memory of the deadly fiasco caused by the British physician Andrew Wakefield when he asserted that vaccines caused autism. That assertion has been withdrawn, Wakefield has been disgraced, and, after scores of studies, no correlation between vaccinations and autism has ever been found. But vaccine rates plummeted and diseases like measles and whooping cough, once nearly vanquished, came roaring back. The fear Wakefield caused has killed many children. I wrote about the HPV vaccine and the Bush Administration’s opposition to science for this magazine in 2006. What was true then is true now: the vaccine has never been shown to interfere with the mental development of children. There is no evidence—not a study, no data, nothing—to suggest this cancer vaccine causes anything of the sort. 

In adding to yesterday's comments on the issue of Bachmann's medical comments: these people should realise that, in fact, they're not in any position to make comments on issues of science, be it medicine or climate change – and their most ardent supporters should come to this realization too. What's more, it appears even more irresponsible because it undermines the basic reason vaccination works: it needs to be implimented in large numbers to be effective, and this is difficult to achieve when imbeciles of the Bachmann-Wakefield kind persist in creating a climate of fear.