Peet & the Ripple Effect: Actress Intensifies Vaccine Debate, Rather than Quell It

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Peet & the Ripple Effect: Actress Intensifies

Vaccine Debate, Rather than Quell It

Posted July 22, 2008 | 11:55 AM

(EST)

By DAVID KIRBY

I write my Huffington Post blogs in order to spark debate

and commentary from other quarters about what has become - like it or not - the

biggest medical controversy of our time: the potential link between vaccine

ingredients and autism.

In that sense, my last piece, "

Peet vs. the Medical Establishment, " has done its job.

Reaction was predictably swift and furious to this opinion essay - and that's what blogs

are: this is not news reporting.

Many took issue with the title (of all things), not

realizing it was a tongue-in-cheek, somewhat satirical, and deliberately

provocative headline meant to spark the indignant outrage that it obviously

did, (It worked for Swift and that New Yorker cartoonist, too).

These critics balk at considering the US President, or

Senate health committee members, or the Chairman of a House science

subcommittee, or appointed members of the federal Interagency Autism

Coordinating Committee, or many others like them, as part of the " medical

establishment. "

Fair enough. These are the people who, in a democratic

society, control the

medical establishment. They are not part of the establishment, in that sense,

they are above it. They put the " over " in oversight. As a journalist,

I value their opinion. As a citizen, I cannot imagine what this country would

be like without them.

One of the critics was Dr. Novella, academic

clinical neurologist at Yale University School of Medicine and president and

co-founder of the New England Skeptical Society.

In his piece, " Celebrity Smackdown:

Peet vs McCarthy, " Dr. Novella refers to me as " that

reporter who has made a career out of spreading misinformation about vaccines

and any nonsense he can think of. " In the same breath, he dismisses

vaccine-related statements made by CDC officials because, " they were given

in a political and not purely scientific context. "

Dr. Novella takes issue with my characterization of the

recent Hannah Poling case, in which a nine year old girl was compensated by the

US Government for a vaccine injury that lead to a diagnosis of autism.

Now, Hannah's father, Dr. Jon Poling, a respected

neurologist and clinical assistant rofessor, of the Department of Neurology,

Medical College of Georgia, has responded to Dr. Novella, including his,

" criticizing the journalism of Mr. Kirby. "

A copy of Dr. Poling's letter to Dr. Novella is posted at

what ABC

News.com called " the popular blog, Age of

Autism. "

It makes for some good reading, from deep inside the

medical establishment!

PS: Here is a thought meant to spark more discussion: If

parents who do not vaccinate their children are menaces (or parasites) to

society, then what are adults who do not get all the recommended adult booster

vaccines, especially those who travel abroad? Aren't we (yes, that includes me)

just as guilty of putting small children at risk of infection here at home?