“I will tell you that I had a mother last night come up to me here in Tampa, Fla., after the debate and tell me that her little daughter took that vaccine, that injection, and she suffered from mental retardation thereafter,” Bachmann said.So one uninformed person blames her daughter's vaccination for retardation, and Bachmann takes it on faith and runs with it. I wonder if Michele Bachmann has ever heard that correlation does not imply causation? Does she have any idea how dangerous it is for public figures to discourage people from using vaccines based on unscientific accusations that they cause retardation, autism or other conditions? In reality, there is no evidence that HPV vaccines cause mental retardation, or are any more dangerous than other vaccines, as the linked article points out.
“It can have very dangerous side effects. The mother was crying when she came up to me last night. I didn’t know who she was before the debate. This is a very real concern, and people have to draw their own conclusion,” she said.
It's one thing to question whether vaccines should be mandated for children of certain ages. It's quite another to hear a story or two and jump to conclusions about something without bothering to get the facts. I haven't been a fan of Michele Bachmann anyway, but this incident lowers my opinion of her even further. Fortunately it is unlikely that she will get the GOP nomination.
And from the left, I'll chime in that it's a very cheap shot to criticize Perry for mandating the vaccine, and that it had nothing to do with campaign donations and everything to do with public health.
ReplyDeleteWhen did vaccines become controversial?
Apparently there are a significant number of people that believe vaccines causes things like autism and mental retardation. I put them in the conspiracy theorist category.
ReplyDeleteMy question is: if one of Michele Bachman's kids got mental retardation, how would anyone know?
ReplyDeleteBreg "Ginx" Alan said "if one of Michele Bachman's (sic) kids got mental retardation, how would anyone know?"
ReplyDelete-----------
So the first atheist who wrote this hateful attack misspelled Michelle's first name, and then Ginx screws up by misspelling her last name, even as he condescendingly remarks about "retardation."
The irony is delicious, coming from the left and the godless, both of which always feign intellectual superiority.
"So the first atheist who wrote this hateful attack misspelled Michelle's first name"
ReplyDeleteThanks for pointing out the misspelling. But when you correct other people's spelling you might want to check your own, since you just spelled it the same way I did.
"The irony is delicious, coming from the left and the godless, both of which always feign intellectual superiority."
If you think my post was in any way "hateful," it's pretty clear that I have no need to feign intellectual superiority over you, since it is self-evident. I guess you aren't aware that a significant number of people on the right took issue with Bachmann's vaccine comments.