Now I've seen it all: An anti-vaccine children's book
Posted on: December 14, 2011 3:00 AM, by Orac
I've been so busy writing about things like Dr. Stanislaw Burzysnki's highly exaggerated cancer claims, which have become a new favorite topic of mine despite the fact that Dr. Burzynski himself has been plying his "alternative" cancer treatments for over three decades, and one of my long time topics, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), that I actually missed a couple of vaccine-related posts that would normally affect me the way catnip affects cats. Also, after two days of doing even longer than the usual Orac-ian screeds, one of which required quite a bit of research, it's time for a bit of lighter fare.
And, again, the anti-vaccine movement provides.
It's always mildly embarrassing to me whenever bloggers whose usual areas of interest aren't the antivaccine movement pick up on a particularly loony bit of anti-vaccine hysteria and are all over it before I am, given that I tend to pride myself on having my finger on the pulse of the anti-vaccine movement to the point where I normally am among the first to pick up on these things. Whether or not that is, in fact, anything I should actually be proud of is, of course, another question. Very long time readers might recall that many years ago (well, more than six, to be precise), I came across a book by an anti-vaccine activist who apparently fancied himself a science fiction writer. I'm referring to the hilarious conspiracy novel The Vaccine Aliens by Ray Gallup, which tells the tale of a father whose child develops autism after (of course!) getting the MMR vaccine and then who later stumbles upon the reason why. It turns out that not only does the MMR vaccine cause autism, but that it's a plot by shape-shifting aliens to destroy the human race with vaccines. I kid you not. As I so frequently say about the loonier depths of the anti-vaccine movement, you just can't make this stuff up. At least, I can't, although apparently people like Ray Gallup can. David Icke, had he known of this novel, would have been proud.
However, camp like The Vaccine Aliens, as hilariously inept as it was, is far more amusing than it is dangerous. No one, not even anti-vaccine activists, takes it seriously, with the possible exception of David Icke, who is a crank that many other cranks like to look down upon in order to reassure themselves that, no matter how little respect they get, at least they're not as ridiculed as David Icke. What's not so amusing are books like this one, a children's book by Stephanie Messenger entitled Melanie's Marvelous Measles...
more
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2011/12/now_ive_seen_it_all_an_anti-vaccine_chil.php
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