Chuck Norris Doesn’t Need Facts

Last week, Chuck Norris in his column at the World Net Daily* claimed that the rise of allergies is linked to the use of vaccines. He even quoted physiologist, Dr. Charles Richet who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for his ground breaking research on allergies (anaphylaxis).

Only problem is that Dr. Richet’s work took place at the turn of the 20th century. He won his Nobel Prize in 1913. 

Does that mean Chuck couldn’t find any scientific research done on allergies or vaccines in the last 101 years?

Or did he conveniently ignore it?

*Sometimes this publication's title is misspelled as the World Nut Daily.

Bad News for Fans of "The View"

CREDIT: Kevin Winters/Getty Images

Despite just last week saying there would no one new joining the women on The View, Barbara Walters announced today that Jenny McCarthy will be joining the talk show.

Jenny is an anti-vaxxer. She willfully rejects modern science in favor of fear. Here is a comment she made in 2009.

Autism is not primarily a genetic disorder, but caused by vaccine-related toxins (including mercury, aluminum, ether, anti-freeze ,and human aborted fetal tissue) and pesticides.

As Science-Based Medicine notes:

• Genetic changes in the DNA that codes for neuronal cell adhesion is associated with autism.
• Mercury and aluminum has been conclusively shown to have nothing to do with autism.
• Ether, anti-freeze, pesticides, and fetal tissues are not in vaccines.

The View is not just a talk show. It like Oprah in the past is a influential source of news.  Having Jenny McCarty on is dangerous to everyone's health. Do I exaggerate? Tell that to the parents of Dana Elizabeth McCaffery.

More on Jenny McCarthy and her anti-vaccine views.

More on vaccines in general.

Medicine Would Have Worked

Here are the parents of an 8 month old baby they allegedly allowed to die.

CREDIT: NBC 10 Philadelphia

This is not the first child of Herbert and Catherine Schaible to die.  They had a 2 year old that died in 2009 from pneumonia.  That death led prosecutors to charge them with involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment.  Found guilty, the Schaibles were serving a 10 year probation sentence in which they were to required to seek medical attention whenever any of their children - and there are now seven left - fell ill.

Why didn't they see a doctor?  They don't believe in medicine.

"Don't believe in medicine" - What a crock.  No one needs belief in science-based medicine. All that is required is doubt, skepticism, and experiment. I don't believe that viruses, bacteria, and toxins cause disease, I have reason.

And we have reason to put these two in jail.  Allegedly.

Stupid People Killed This Baby

This is Dana Elizabeth McCaffery.  She lived for 33 days.  She contracted pertussis, also known as whooping cough.  There is no treatment for whooping cough.  

How did this beautiful baby catch pertussis? 

All children should get the series of DTaP shot that protects from diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis. The first in the series come at 2 months.  Four other shots come later.  There's another vaccine Tdap that's meant for people ages 11  to 64.

What should have protected Dana is herd immunity.  When a sufficient number of people in a community are resistant, the few who are susceptible are protected from the disease, because the probability of a susceptible person coming into contact with an infected person is small.

To be protected from pertussis, at least 94% of the community needs to be vaccinated.  Dana had the poor luck to be born in a community with one of Australia's lowest vaccination rates.

Why are people not being vaccinated?  The only answer I have to that question is - stupidity.

Vaccines may be the second most important advance in medical science, second only to proper sanitation.  Vaccination has eradicated smallpox.  Polio is unheard of.  As a child, I had the measles, mumps, and chicken pox (with the scars to prove it).  What child gets these once common diseases today?  The MMR vaccine was introduced in the United States in 1971, and the varicella (chicken pox) vaccine was developed in 1995.

But thanks to stupid people like Jenny McCarthy, the National Vaccine Information Center, and Andrew Wakefield, there is a decline in the number of vaccinations.  Andrew Wakefield started this nonsense with a paper published in the British medical journal, The Lancet, that has fully retracted the paper and called the paper "false."  The British organization responsible for maintaining medical standards, the General Medical Council, found that Wakefield acted with "callous disregard" toward children and with "dishonesty."

I'm inclined to be a but more tolerant of Jenny McCarthy, because she's a mother who truly has the health of her child in mind.  But my tolerance goes only so far when her anti-scientific opinions endanger the health of an entire community.

The anti-vaccine National Vaccine Information Center's tag line is "Your Health. Your Family.  Your Choice."  I wonder what Dana's parents feel about "your choice."

I encourage anyone to investigate the science of vaccines.  Here's a few recommended sites:

Science-Based Medicine (vaccines),

Science-Based Medicine (herd immunity),

A DTaP pamphlet for the Center for Disease Control,

An Open Letter from Dana's Parents.

If science doesn't convince you, then see if you can watch this video of a 7 week old infant suffering from pertussis.