Do you think vaccines are related to autism? That is the question that the Today Show has posed in an online poll.
The Age of Autism has called for a Poll Mob via Twitter:
http://bit.ly/a69a4X Take NBC poll, do you think there is autism vaccine link. So far 54% yes.
Well, in the two hours since they posted that, the “yes” answer has gone from 54% to 44%.
If you have the time and the inclination, let them know what you think. Do you think vaccines are related to autism.
Left Brain Right Brain 
Had you thought of appealing for help to the master of the skewed internet poll himself?
http://www.scienceblogs.com/pharyngula
St. Thomas, it has been done.
Oops, you already did
As of now, it’s 84.3 % NO.
Clay,
With Orac and Pharyngula on the case, there is no way AoA could compete. This isn’t the first time AoA tried to mob a poll just to find out that, hey, a bunch of people who read science blogs disagree with them on a question of science. Go figure. It was at 54% when AoA put out their tweet, and it had dropped by the time I blogged. That’s before Orac and Pharyngula blogged it.
StThomas,
thanks for the suggestion. Seems they got the idea already!
I wonder if this would constitute evidence that AoA has become a liability to their own cause.
Unfortunately, some early comments at Orac describe how to vote multiple times, so the AoA folks can always cry foul.
David N. Brown,
and, of course, the readers at AoA would never vote multiple times, right?
I doubt too many people spent the time it would take to vote multiple times (from either side). In the end, it isn’t a matter of “foul” but a statement of how out of touch the AoA world is. I don’t think they realize how bad it really is. This just gives them an excuse. “No, it isn’t because the real world disagrees with us. It’s just some bloggers”
In just the last few minutes, “no” votes went from 85.5 to 85.7.
Just be careful venturing into the comments section. I made the mistake of saying that I was an autistic adult who doesn’t believe that vaccines cause autism & was pounced upon by one woman who thought my statement was meaning that individuals with severe autism don’t matter and shouldn’t exist.
There is a lot of anger in those forums with parents seeking somebody to blame for their child’s autism and today’s target is the vaccine industry and anyone who doesn’t agree with them are against them and their children.
I voted “no” in the poll.
Because guess what? While I was vaccinated, I showed signs of autism long before I got the MMR or any vaccine. I also had hyperlexia to go with it; I was reading before I could talk and read at a 5th grade level in Kindergarten.
Some people just seem to care. Sad, really.
Actually, it’s quite striking how few anti-vaxxers there really are. When you consider that there were 5,000 plaintiffs in the failed omnibus lawsuits, not 5% of that number seem to be involved in anything.
Visitor,
There’s definitely exaggeration of their numbers; see Sullivan’s post on NAA.
Unfortunately, I suspect that the initial poll results were not far off for the site’s core demographic, ie mothers (and not improbably smaller subsets of white, upper class, etc.) What subsequent developments likely represent is nothing more or less than the wider world taking an interest. It COULD serve as a reminder that anti-vax mothers aren’t a representative sample of the population.