I have two more posts on my trip to Princeton and Hartford, but I have to interrupt the narrative with a couple of political news items.
First, whether you’re a fan of John McCain or not, you need to know that he has recently come out in favor of the completely nonsensical position that thimerosal, an additive in a few child vaccines, causes autism. There is, to date, NO evidence that this is true! In fact, there is gobs of evidence that it is not only not true but completely absurd! If you’re looking for a reason to not vote for John McCain, how about: He ignores scientific evidence when it is staring him in the face.
Second, if you happen to live in Florida (or even if you don’t), you may be interested in this editorial in the St. Petersburg Times about attempts to tear down the wall between church/state to start handing out taxpayer money to religions. I spent 20 minutes emailing all of the members of the Florida Taxation and Budget Reform Commission, encouraging them to not go down that road. I don’t have a problem with people being religious and with most religions, but I do have a problem with my money paying for their religions (which it already does enough of considering religions aren’t taxed). They are voting on these issues Thursday, so, if you are going to email them, do it soon!
And now I’ll step down from my soapbox…
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Hi Mike,
I hadn’t seen that article. But I did turn to the person whose reasoned explanations convinced me there is no connection and he has. Here is Steven Novella’s response:
https://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/has-the-government-conceded-vaccines-cause-autism/
Steven Novella is the president of the New England Skeptical Society and a neurologist at Yale University. I’m not sure that makes him uniquely qualified on this subject, but he has written about it extensively and seems to know what he’s talking about. I hope his explanation helps.
-Ryan
I wonder what you and Debi make of a case in Georgia, reported in the Atlanta newspaper:
I don’t know the details of the case, other than what I read in the news, and when it comes to things like this I’m not inclined to simply gulp whole whatever the news offers me. Any thoughts on the merits of the case? Just curious what someone more knowledgeable than I am thinks about it all…
🙂
Cool. I knew you’d have a pointer like this. Excellent!