…In 1994, a song written by a jam band called Blues Traveler came out and was played in clubs and on radios across the nation. It made the top ten charts and remains one of the most memorable songs from the 1990’s. That song was entitled Hook and the lyrics of the song assert that even if what a singer sings about is effectively meaningless, listeners will keep coming back to it so long as it’s articulated in a way that makes listeners feel “some inner truth of vast reflection” is being conveyed. Most listeners didn’t even pay attention to the lyrics, but sang along anyway. Well, folks, that’s exactly what’s been happening recently with an article on vaccinations that’s been making the rounds lately. Welcome to information age, where a blog post can be shared all over cyberspace and receive over 10,000 “likes” on facebook and say very little that is actually useful.
Entitled “Dear parents, you are being lied to,” Jennifer Raff lists all the vaccination-related arguments she’s heard over the years from (presumably) those who choose not to vaccinate (she simply addresses a collective “they.”) What makes this article so appealing is that she doesn’t bog us down with details. She simply lists her points statement-rebuttal style and includes a few links to her pro-vaccination statements. The problem with this is that when you take the time to dig down into the details, you soon realize she’s wrong. By exaggerating the information cited in each argument, she makes what is (judging by the popularity of the article) an apparently compelling argument to those unwilling to dig deeper, but is essentially a straw man once the surface is scratched….
…JENNIFER RAFF SAYS OUTBREAKS OF MEASLES ARE ON THE RISE
“In light of recent outbreaks of measles and other vaccine preventable illnesses, and the refusal of anti-vaccination advocates to acknowledge the problem, I thought it was past time for this post.”
“Recent outbreaks” according to the linked article: 189 (out of roughly 300,000,000) people in 2013.
To put this in perspective, that’s 1 out of every 1,500,000 (1) in the United States. That’s hardly an epidemic.
http://blog.rinamarie.com/