They just came right out and said it, and the world didn’t stop turning:
The Academy released this statement late Tuesday, joining the list of people rebutting Bachmann’s comments, and the theory that vaccines cause brain damage:
“The American Academy of Pediatrics would like to correct false statements made in the Republican presidential campaign that HPV vaccine is dangerous and can cause mental retardation. There is absolutely no scientific validity to this statement. Since the vaccine has been introduced, more than 35 million doses have been administered, and it has an excellent safety record.
“The American Academy of Pediatrics, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the American Academy of Family Physicians all recommend that girls receive HPV vaccine around age 11 or 12. That’s because this is the age at which the vaccine produces the best immune response in the body, and because it’s important to protect girls well before the onset of sexual activity. In the U.S., about 6 million people, including teens, become infected with HPV each year, and 4,000 women die from cervical cancer. This is a life-saving vaccine that can protect girls from cervical cancer.”
False statements. Made in the Republican presidential campaign. So blunt. So true. Like music to my ears. We’re not going to be forced to have a stupid, endless “some say” debate.
Wouldn’t it be great if all professions and professional/expert groups started doing this?
Maybe it has to be something urgent with immediate negative repercussions that Republicans are lying about, like public health.
Arclite
I’m glad they’re starting to do this. One point though, this error is so egregious that even the hard right blogs are stomping all over Bachmann. I mean, when you piss off the Ace of Spades, you know you’ve gone to alien world. So this really wasn’t a hard call at all. I’d really like to see global warming scientists and orgs start pushing back against the astroturf orgs and Inhofe’s ilk. Then I’d be really impressed.
On a separate note, here are more Doonsbury comix about Sarah Palin’s leaked book.
The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik
Bah. Science Academies. What do they know? They’re probably in league with Al Gore with that Academia-fed Green Fascism.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Considering the damage walka loons like the anti-vacc crowd have done with their lies they have no choice but to tear into Bachmman.
MeDrewNotYou
Poor naive Kay. Don’t you remember that Republicans abhor all those pointy-headed experts and intellectuals in their ivory towers?
Seriously, though, the response to the HPV vaccine when it was introduced floored me. I knew that they hated/feared/wanted to control women before all that; I mean it’s just plain obvious. But when they started rooting for women to get cancer, I got a visceral understanding of how deep the slut-shaming runs.
danimal
My 12 y.o. daughter has received the shots. So far, she has avoided sexual license, but she has complained about the shots stinging. I truly wonder why conservatives think their daughters are going to turn into ravaging sluts after an immunization?
b-psycho
@danimal: Maybe their daughters are already ravaging sluts & they’re in denial about it?
FlipYrWhig
@danimal: Just the same way getting tetanus shots makes you leap into piles of rusty nails. Now it’s risk-free!
Amir Khalid
It’s a pity the American Academy of Pediatrics statement doesn’t actually say “Representative Michele Bachmann is lying.” They have every justification to say that.
JCT
@FlipYrWhig: Exactly!
Morning M&M conference today was a peds case and the pediatricians were *all* bitching about this. Dumbass Michele.
ppcli
@Amir Khalid: To be lying, she’s have to know that what she was saying was false. I think she comes by her lunacy completely honestly.
Amir Khalid
@ppcli:
Then I’d amend that sentence to “Representative Michele Bachmann is either ignorant or lying.”
There. Even better.
ppcli
@Amir Khalid:
Ah, a definite improvement. Though I also am attracted to:
Representative Michele Bachmann is either a mind-numbingly dense pinhead loon who in a sensible world would not be allowed out in public without a drool bib and a warning label or she’s that and in addition lying too.
Whaddya think?
MarkJ
I think several economists have come out an basically said Republicans are lying. The problem is in the social sciences things are less clean cut and there’s always some wingnut “expert” on the subject who undermines the real professionals and muddies the waters for people who want to believe what they want to believes. Sometimes these charlatans even work at prestigious academic institutions *cough* Mankiw! *cough* which makes matters worse because it makes these charlatans seem legitimate.
Amir Khalid
@ppcli:
Hmm. Just a wee bit over the top, I think. But I do like the intent.
kay
MarkJ,
CPA’s and tax lawyers could do it, though.
Here’s how taxes work..like that.
The association of state officials who administer birth records, ending the fake-controversy over the birth certificate, and saving us all 2 years of moronic lies.
I think it has real possibilities. Bring in the experts!
Lurking Canadian
Bah! What do a bunch of pediatricians know about the medical treatment of children?
What’s next? We should listen to geologists’ opinions about the age of the planet?
Phoenician in a time of Romans
Would a shareholder in one of the companies producing the vaccine have standing to sue?
It might be cheaper than most political ads, especially if they made it known that the damages being sought were one dollar and a mutually agreeable public apology.
piratedan
@Amir Khalid: I dunno, I would be partial to the following statement from the Peds folks….
“what group of morans elected this dumbass biotch?”
Jebediah
@Lurking Canadian:
Who you gonna believe, a buncha rockhuggers or the baby Jebus?
debbie
Someone needs to stand up and shoot down these Republican lies, one by one, over and over. Point out how what the Republicans accuse the Democrats of doing is what they themselves are doing (class warfare, nonstop political campaigning, etc.).
Someone with easy access to microphones everywhere. Someone who isn’t worried about their chances in the next election cycle. I nominate Bill Clinton.
Triassic Sands
Wouldn’t it be great if the media reported this and other scientific issues honestly? You know, if they got rid of the idea of “controversy” and just reported what scientists really think and didn’t “balance” them with a handful of professional liars feeding off the Republican welfare machine (aka the Right Wing “Think” Tanks).
The honest story is very simple: Republicans believe (or pretend to believe) a bunch of moronic nonsense; scientists disagree emphatically and overwhelmingly with the Republican morons; the only controversy is whether the Republicans should be jailed or hospitalized for claiming such bizarre nonsense.
MeDrewNotYou
@debbie: Projection reveals so much about the right. If a Republican accuses their Democratic opponent of sacrificing orphans and drinking their blood, you can be damned sure that he’s got a nice little Satanic alter sitting in the basement.
I find it especially fun when the Religious Right accuses liberals of all sorts of nasty, evil, and kinky perversities…and then turns out to be a meth head frequenting male prostitutes. Or Utah having the highest rate of porn consumption in the US.
Triassic Sands
HPV vaccine? C’mon, what responsible American parent wants to protect a daughter from at least some of the risk of getting cervical cancer? Where’s the fun? You’d have to really hate your daughter to want to cheat her out of the opportunity to take a little unnecessary risk.
Same thing goes for all those other evil vaccines. Why take away the excitement of watching a tiny son whoop himself to death or die horribly from tetanus? Of course the risk is actually zero for Bachmann whose children have all been protected by the ultimate vaccine — the Baby J.
I’ve long felt that Bachmann is smarter than Palin (but crazier), however this stuff makes me wonder. Of course, it may have nothing to do with intelligence — Bachmann may know what’s real, but opts for the nonsense because it appeals to her constituents. I just can’t figure out how any of this crap is possible in the twenty-first century. We’re doomed.
S. cerevisiae
@Triassic Sands:
This is so good it needs to be repeated. See also Merchants of Doubt” by Oreskes and Conway.
S. cerevisiae
Blockquote fail – I blame the luminiferous ether.
Delia
Some say that joining the Republican Party causes brain damage. Others say it merely causes terminal dishonesty. Who is right? I say we must study the controversy.
mclaren
If we eliminated the false statements from Republican primaries, all the Republican candidates would have to stand around mute doing charades for an hour and a half.
Sock Puppet of the Great Satan
“Sometimes these charlatans even work at prestigious academic institutions cough Mankiw! cough”
Shame about Mankiw, his Macroeconomics textbook is quite good. Not detailed, but an easy read. Shame Brad Delong’s wasn’t out when I was doing macro, though.
Funny this is, in Mankiw’s textbook he notes that the economy grows faster under Dems than the GOP. Really.