The controversy over the Jeni Barnett show and media irresponsibility continues over at Bad Science.
Here is a brief quotation given there from an interview with a nurse who phoned in to debate the issue on Jeni Barnett’s show:
Yasmin: Well, you’d be surprised. And at the moment we are expecting a measles epidemic and it’s because of people like Ken Livingstone and people like yourself. You talk about young mothers who have a very difficult decision to make and, I agree, they do, and I spend a lot of time talking to them. But people like you don’t really make it any easier for them. And you were just talking about somebody with an ear infection. I’ve been talking to somebody I know who had a child who woke up with the contents of their ear on the pillow and that was down to the rubella virus. So you really need to think about what you’re doing here and why you’re doing it.
I think all responsible environmentalists should give Ben Goldacre there support- worrying as the increase in Measles and Mumps is, this is an opportunity for us to stake a claim for rationality and show that beliefs do in fact have real effects in a real world. The lamentably ignorant anti-science position of all- too-many environmentalists – which has of course more in common with Bush’s War on Science than any progressive environmental vlaues- is hazardous to the health and well-being of real people, in this case children.
The curious thing here is that this misinformation has been propogated by the media’s irresponsibility- which appears to be one of the main sources of fuel for the rise in irrationality and superstition, dragging us back to the 19th century- or beyond.
Since when has the media been a standard bearer for environmental ethics, progressive values of Earth Care , People care and Fair Shares?
It might also be an opportunity for the health and Well-being sub-groups of Transition Towns to make a clear statement on this issue and inform people responsibly about the public health issues surrounding vaccinations.
