Science, Dystonia and Swine Flu Vaccinations

I want to share these links that were emailed to me today. This is in regards to the media's fascination with the cheerleader who claims to have gotten dystonia from a flu shot (video here). The dangerous anti-vaccine crowd, led by Jenny "I'm a doctor because I have kids" McCarthy and her boyfriend Jim Carrey were exploited her to push their dangerous pseudoscience like the zealots they are, and the media, always craving sensation and reporting it as though it were fact, went right along with them.

Now that science has had a chance to look into this case, we can see what's going on. Steven Novella has looked into the case and found a lack of journalistic integrity, the quickness of the zealots to prove their point regardless of facts, and medical opinion that this woman doesn't actually have the disease she claims to have, but is suffering from something else entirely that couldn't have been the result of a vaccine. In a second piece, he discusses the feelings actual dystonia sufferers have to McCarthy's organization, Generation Rescue, jumping on this case without understanding... well, science, really.

(There's another good post at ScienceBlogs, and the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation has a statement here which says, in part, "there has never been a validated case of dystonia resulting from a flu shot.")

I've talked about these anti-vax people before, and I can't disguise my contempt for their contempt for public health concerns and the self-righteous way in which they've aided diseases through their ignorance of medical science. My opinion certainly hasn't changed. Read the linked posts. And thanks for sending them my way!