Irony, Thy Name is Barbara Loe Fisher

Monday, January 11, 2010


This REALLY had me scratching my head, and I'm happy to let noted Skepchick and new expatriate Rebecca Watson express my own thoughts on this. The eradication of polio has been one of the greatest achievements of science in the last century, and for an anti-vaxxer to try and use FDR as a means to achieve their anti-vax NONSENSE is the height of irony.

::snort::


I'm going to be a busy, busy human this week, due to a variety of meetings as well as about 5873728579027 hours of required professional training that I have to complete by May 15th. Okay, that figure may be an exaggeration. It's actually 584 hours. No, I'm not kidding. No, really - that's the figure.

So my time is going to be at a premium for the first part of this year, since I'm also bravely tackling my statistics class with a stout heart. Fair warning, and all that.

6 comments:

mfheadcase said...

The truly dark and depressing irony here is that polio hasn't quite been eradicated yet. It is still endemic in some areas due to a mix of anti-vax hysteria and the spreading of conspiracy theories that the vaccine causes sterility.

We happen to be fighting in one of those countries. Since vaccines are not 100% effective, all it takes is one soldier or aid worker with a asymptomatic case coming home while still shedding the virus for this nasty fucking disease to buttfuck again.

I'm sure that the odds of this are slim, but they are non-zero. Jenny McCarthy just may be able to find out first hand whether polio is really preferable to autism.

Never mind the minor detail that there has never been a proven causal link between any vaccine and autism.

Hope you manage to get your training hours in without ending up in a clock tower with a good rifle, bad intentions and a few thousand rounds. Not sure that I could manage, but I have seen indications that you are much more disciplined than myself.

Janiece said...

Jenny McCarthy needs to contract polio. She needs to contract polio NOW.

I don't usually actively wish others ill, as I don't believe it's good for my mental health, but in her case I am SO going to make an exception...

mfheadcase said...

That entire organization of hers needs to learn.

But with my luck, even if i manage to go all Evil Overlord and arrange it, the adults would end up with asymptomatic cases, while their unvaccinated kids would end up with worst case infections.

Even when my mood is at maximum evil, i can't risk doing that to kids.

These assholes though, put their kids, and everybody else's at similar risk,and see themselves as the heroes. Go figure.

Eric said...

Janiece, it wouldn't matter if Jenny McCarthy contracted polio--she'd blame it on a lack of vitamins or the PVC in her plumbing or something else.

If she were amenable to reason, it's not like things haven't been explained to her, repeatedly, by various people with degrees who have met her in person for TV panels or responded to her in print with articles of their own.

Ilya said...

584 hours is 73 working days. Which is roughly three and a half months in business days. We only have roughly 4 months left until May 15th. If you need to be in training for 3.5 of those, when are going to... you know... work?

Janiece said...

Ilya, you know, the same thought had occurred to me and my team-mates.

As in, "In other news, every team has missed their number!"