A while back Kev wrote a piece, Age of Autism Abandon Pretence, pointing out how they are drifting away from any real connection to the autism communities in favor of attacking the vaccine program. It wasn’t shocking then to anyone who reads the Age of Autism blog. It isn’t shocking now.
In her piece, Dr. Mayer Eisenstein’s New Book Merits Close Attention, Anne Dachel wrote:
These are people I’m in touch with everyday and who’ve written on autism and on vaccines. Some I’ve had on my threads for years. And as someone who’s been active in the national autism community for a long time, I’ve seen tremendous changes. More and more people are speaking out. We are now an organized and united group, thanks mainly to the power of the Internet. Our message has severely eroded confidence in the cornerstone of health care: THE CHILDHOOD VACCINE PROGRAM. (And keep in mind that there are many more experts writing about this, people I’ve never been in contact with, all challenging the unwavering safety claims of our health officials.)
Bold added by me.
Previous comments on the Age of Autism blog include:
With less than a half-dozen full-time activists, annual budgets of six figures or less, and umpteen thousand courageous, undaunted, and selfless volunteer parents, our community, held together with duct tape and bailing wire, is in the early to middle stages of bringing the U.S. vaccine program to its knees.
True vaccine safety advocates don’t resort to attempts to bring “… the vaccine program to its knees” or eroding “…the cornerstone of health care”.
Left Brain Right Brain 
Well said.
Let’s be honest here.These people are not only about destroying the vaccine industry,but,as Kim,Orac,and too many others point out over and over again,these people have also declared an all out war on science at large,medical science,and otherwise.
There has always been a decidedly right wing,anti scholar undercurrent to the antivaxers,with the likes of Alex Jones,and Sherry Tenpenny pushing the antivaxer line for years.This is just a continuation of the anti-intellectualism,that has run rampant in the American right since at least the days of Joe MCarthy. Sixty years ago,you were no good commie,now “pharma shill” will do just as well.Only now it’s becoming more and more blatant. Republicans have run for office,and won,with antivaccine planks in their platforms,think Massachusettes.In the last few weeks we have seen comments on AoA about how great Glenn Beck is,and how anybody who believes there is a genetic element to autism openly admires Hitler.This is geting uglier,and uglier,and we would do well to recognize these people for the greater threat they are.We may see threats of violence on anybody who they see as an agent of “big pharma”.Remember the murders of abortion doctors?Rogue elements of the antivaccine movement may do the same,because they also believe they are “saving the children”.Who is to say there isn’t a Joseph Stack,or even a Timothy McVeigh hiding in their ranks,who is nutty enough to do something just as drastic?
I may be all wrong,but this idea needs to be put out there,people need to consider this.
I love that she gives a list of the “real authors” she knows who have books on Amazon and misspells Wakefield’s name as “Wakfield.” The Freudian slips over on that blog make it read like The Onion sometimes:
“I never thought I’d ever personally know a lot of real authors-people with actual books that I could find on Amazon. Incredibly, I currently do. Here’s my ever-expanding list of names: David Kirby, Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, Bob Sears, MD, Dr. Todd Elsner, Dan Olmsted and Mark Blaxill, John and Stephen Oller, Andrew Wakfield, MD, and Kim Stagliano.”
Wow. Why is endangering people’s health (& lives) something of which to be proud?
And they pretend they’re doing it for the children or something.
I can never quite figure out whether they’re deluded, wilfully ignorant, or just outright malevolent…
@ Emily – I wrote a note there last night, saying that she had misspelled Whackfield’s name, but it didn’t get printed.
@ Edgar, who wrote, “I can never quite figure out whether they’re deluded, willfully ignorant, or just outright malevolent…” – It isn’t an either/or proposition, but all the above.
Hm.. you are just noticing the pervasive right-wing, social conservative tendancies of the anti-vaxxers and curebies?
http://www.graphictruth.com/2006/12/give-clue-this-christmas.html
Except, the core representatives of the “anti-vax” movement (egregiously Jenny Mccarthy) are, if not necessarily politically leftist, then social liberals of the “New Age” movement, etc. I think the most sensible conclusion is that anxieties about childhood vaccinations resonate on a fundamental enough level to provide common ground for otherwise radically different individuals.
Urgs, I think the good name of “social liberal” has just been besmirched! There has to be something else to call New Agers. I’d say the bunch of them (anti-vaxers) are closer to Fred Phelps than anything else. If you can prove that Jenny McFarty voted for Obama, I’ll eat your shorts! 😉
Authoritarian is probably a better word. Militantly authoritarian people who have an idee fixee that they are so convinced of (as a matter of faith) that all who oppose the idea must be purged as being evil. The thread through all the worrisome ones are appeals to fear, and justifications of radical, violent actions that will obviously impact and/or harm others.
Sometimes it’s supposedly “right wing” sometimes “left wing” (Pita and militant eco-terrorists come to mind) but they are always supremely confident in their misinformed self-righteousness.
When people become perfectly willing to lie for “the greater good,” I stop listening to them.
“There has to be something else to call New Agers.”
“Religious pluralists” has crossed my mind.