Liofnit

...which is tinfoil backwards, which is what I was thinking of when I read this post over at Black Triangle. Naturally, the MMR debate has attracted it's fair share of Kooks, just like Sep 11, Robert Maxwell and the like. And ? Anthony rages against 'Anti-vaccinators, anti-war groups, the far right and other extremists all have a "special insight" into a hidden world, where they can see the real motives for actions which the media and government conspire to hide from ordinary people.' . Indeed, but that is hardly all, or even most, of the anti-MMR [emphatically not the same as 'anti-vaccine'] campaigners. To try and claim all the critics of the scientific establishment are mired in the fever swamps of ZOG spotters and the like is merely to demonstrate the self-same paranoia with a sign change.

In another post, Anthony quotes a poster to an anti-MMR website, who says 'Hi everyone just received my long awaited letter from my m.p. should have guessed it really, the usual rubbish about there being no link,and all the usual poorly done studies eg brent taylor and elizabeth miller, infact i bet you know it word for word. Seriously though no mention of why my son has a huge abdomen and not thriving as he should, no mention on why blair won`t increase faith in the mmr by admitting to leo, no mention of parents being accused of munchausens when they complain of vaccine damage.' Anthony expects us to find this self-evidently absurd, but it's hard to see why.

I don't know anything about the poster's son, but there are questions to be asked about the other two issues. As far as the Leo-MMR story goes - yes, it matters. If the directors of BT are all dumping stock or the head of Air France flies BA, then you're entitled to question if they know something you don't. Gummer force feeding his kid a hamburger looks more and more like a model of leadership conpared to Blair. As for Munchausens, what can you say ? Here, bogus diagnosis were used to destroy families and the scientific community did nothing. Even today, there's a notable contrast between the hatred directed at Wakefield and the deafening silence about Meadow. Are there no lessons to be learned about this fiasco ? It's no argument in favour of self-regulation, and the news that Munchausens was used as a stick to beat MMR families is an accurate barometer of just how low these people can go in their attempts to destroy opponents. As ever, they can claim that it's 'just politics', but it sure is a funny way to behave when you claim to be defending the integrity of science.