Health

xchrom

(108,903 posts) Tue Jan 8, 2013, 08:03 AM Jan 2013

When preschool entertainment and vaccination controversy collide

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/brain-flapping/2013/jan/04/vaccination-childrens-tv-cbeebies-complaint

***SNIP

One episode involved one of the children getting the MMR jab. It explains in simple terms the mechanism of vaccines, and even includes explanations of how injections work, including groundbreaking revelations like 'this might sting for a moment'. Because, you know, it does. Imagine that, telling children the truth about a medical procedure! Who could possibly object to that?

Antivaxxers could, and did. There have been official complaints made about the episode by those whacky anti-vaccination funsters at the Arnica UK Parent Support Network, who promote "natural immunity" (Google it, I'm not sharing any traffic with them).

The ludicrous nature of the complaint, and some of the responses by Dr Ranj and the BBC, has already been expertly documented on the Skepticat UK blog. Suffice to say, those opposed to vaccination have interpreted an entertaining and well-thought-out programme featuring puppets as an all out assault on the well-being and health of children.

Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that antivaxxers have suffered a complete humour fail. After all, humour leads to laughter, laughter is the best medicine, and medicine is A TOOL OF BIG PHARMA!