Quickies
Skepchick Quickies, 9.13
- Doctors warn over homeopathic ‘vaccines.’ (From Dave.)
- Family to receive $1.5M+ in first-ever vaccine-autism court award.
- Howto: stop worrying about female brain hard-wiring and get smarter.
- Pandora’s box. (From cerebus40.)
Argh. You win some, you lose some, I guess.
While the CBS News report gives some time to the CDC unequivocally stating that vaccines do not cause autism and that the Poling case is judiciously specific, the reading public at large and organizations like Age of Autism are gonna latch the fuck onto this like a barnacle of stupidity and fear-mongering on the boat of public ignorance.
Why couldn’t they headline the article as “vaccine-mitochondrial disorder court award”?
Grumble. “Time Magazine summed up the relevance of the Poling case,” versus “Then-director of the [CDC] Julie Gerberding … stated.” Is one side of the he said/she said here be given more weight than the other?
The only way we physicians can avoid exacerbating a mitochondrial disorder is to screen for it. There is no routine screen presently in place for infants such as there is for Tay Sachs, PKU, thyroid disease, etc. Since vaccines are given to 99% of the population, perhaps the best answer is to create a cost efficient screen.
Well, at least it’s not going to be a precedent for all the other autism-vaccine cases awaiting trial, as this ruling had nothing to do with the (clearly non-existent) autism-vaccine link.
If men are so good at 3D rotation, why can’t so many of them fold fitted sheets?
I’m also good at the 3D stuff, and I can explode/unexplode a diagram in my head with ease. In my early youth, no one ever told me that women weren’t “good” at that, just that men were “better” at “spacial relations”. Given that I had a hazy idea of what that was – perhaps, I thought, they are better in first-contact scenarios, whatever – that assertion didn’t affect my perception of my own abilities. Still doesn’t; see initial comment above.
Re: Pandora’s Box: It’s so nice to know that everything bad is always the woman’s fault. Such power! We are, apparently, the Evil Overladies!
“Homeopathy” and “vaccine” don’t belong in the same sentence.
@DominEditrix: I hope you’re not saying that emn are worse than women at folding fitted sheets. I have fitted sheets to fold.
I accidentally scrolled down to the comments on the Poling article. I would advise not doing that–there is a permanent desk-shaped dent in my head now.
@im_robertb: I don’t remember ever seeing an emn fold anything. Mostly, they just hang upside down in the attic, transmitting random excerpts from The Maury Show to Omicron Ceti. [Oh, maybe that was ets. Whatever.]
Seriously, no man I have ever shared dwelling space with has been able to fold fitted sheets. It doesn’t matter their profession, physical prowess or political stance. They all ended up balling the sheets into a lump and stashing them at the back of the linen closet. My cats can do a better job, and they don’t have opposable thumbs.
halincoh, testing for mitochondrial disorder requires a muscle biopsy. That will not become routine any time soon.
Orac is a good starting place:
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2010/09/cbs_news_resident_anti-vaccine_propagand.php
@DominEditrix: We’d rather fold time and space.
@James Fox: COTW
@halincoh: You’re taking the article on face value while it is a merely a strong of bold face lies from a vaccine-autism activist. She had a condition that could be exacerbated into encephalopathy (what the payout was actually for) by stress, generally caused by flu or other childhood illnesses. She had a serious ear infection which was probably the true culprit but because the time line matched the vaccine, there is a plausible reason why the vaccine could exacerbated the illness and because the standard of evidence is much lower in these special vaccine courts the government decided to settle. As the illness is much more likely to be exacerbated by childhood illness than vaccine it is probably more important for kids with these conditions to vaccinate.
@DominEditrix: Allow me to be the first to welcome our new Evil Overladies!
Oh yeah, I can fold fitted sheets, but it takes several tries and/or an assistant. I tried teaching my little brother, but it was hopeless. Even the “just stand here and hold this” method didn’t work. Here’s anecdotal proof for yah.
I can not fold fitted sheets for the life of me, but I’m good with visualising 3D in my head. Go figure.
I am a male, and I can not fold fitted sheets. There, I said it.
I also have a horrible time folding anything. This is not a good thing in the army.
If I ever get to TAM, perhaps I should give a how to fold a fitted sheet workshop.
I’m not sure what fitted sheets are? Is it those sheets with the elastic at the edge that fit over the matress? If so, I fold those with ease. I just collect all the corners and it all sort of falls into place from there.
Yes, and that is the correct answer.