Did she think vaccines were harmful?

Jul 29th, 2016 | By
Category: Notes and Comment Blog

I’m glad I was never tempted by Jill Stein. The Washington Post reports (uncritically) her woo-based ideas:

Did she think vaccines were harmful?

“I think there’s no question that vaccines have been absolutely critical in ridding us of the scourge of many diseases — smallpox, polio, etc. So vaccines are an invaluable medication,” Stein said. “Like any medication, they also should be — what shall we say? — approved by a regulatory board that people can trust. And I think right now, that is the problem. That people do not trust a Food and Drug Administration, or even the CDC for that matter, where corporate influence and the pharmaceutical industry has a lot of influence.”

But a lot of people don’t “trust” the FDA because they’ve bought into a lot of bullshit claims about vaccines and Big Pharma.

Stein’s warning about corporate influence in the vaccine approval process is often voiced by “anti-vaxxers.” In reality, most members of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee work at academic or medical institutions, not drug companies. But for Stein, the fact that people saw corporate and lobbying influence running rampant meant that some skepticism was warranted.

But for reasonable people, that of course does not follow. People can “see” all kinds of nonsense, especially when they get their “information” from woo-peddlers. The fact that some people “see” something doesn’t mean the rest of us should be influenced by what they “see.” Perception can be wrong.

“Monsanto lobbyists help run the day in those agencies and are in charge of approving what food isn’t safe,” said Stein, whose platform calls for a moratorium on genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Ok that’s it. That’s a vote for famine. No we do not need a moratorium on GMOs.

Stein went on to explain that she’d studied the value of vaccines and come out with questions.

“As a medical doctor, there was a time where I looked very closely at those issues, and not all those issues were completely resolved,” Stein said. “There were concerns among physicians about what the vaccination schedule meant, the toxic substances like mercury which used to be rampant in vaccines. There were real questions that needed to be addressed. I think some of them at least have been addressed. I don’t know if all of them have been addressed.”

So, she seems to be saying, be worried about vaccines just in case, and tell other people to be worried about them just in case, and advise people not to get their kids vaccinated just in case.

Shockingly irresponsible.

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