The Huffington Post Disappoints Me

In the past, I have always respected the internet site called The Huffington Post. They have always put forth intelligent articles outlining the left-wing view on politics and current affairs, and most of those articles are researched well and present cogent arguments. But one of their latest articles has me re-thinking my support of and belief in the site.

They have now strayed into the realm of pseudo-science by printing an article from actress, singer and self-proclaimed science expert Jenny McCarthy. She is once again preaching that autism is caused by vaccinating children from many of the dreaded diseases found on our planet.

McCarthy quotes New York Times columnist Nicolas Kristof saying "suspicions are growing that one culprit (causing autism) may be chemicals in the environment." She combines this with the discredited findings of Dr. Andrew Wakefield, who has been punished for ethical medical violations in his native Great Britain, to make the huge leap that autism is caused by vaccines.

This is simply not true! Just a couple of days ago, a three judge panel created to look into the vaccine question found there is absolutely NO EVIDENCE that vaccines cause autism. McCarthy and her kind would like for us to believe that this court is partial to the vaccine makers. Not true. The court has awarded many millions of dollars in cases where it was proven that vaccines caused damage to a child.

But there must be proof! The court looked at what were believed to be the best cases that the "vaccine causes autism" folks had, and could find no proof to verify the claim in any of those cases. To be frank, just because some Hollywood personality makes a claim does not make that claim true. I prefer to put my faith in medical scientists.

Now The Huffington Post will probably claim they were just presenting both sides of an argument. Nonsense! Will they now present articles by creationists or flat-earthers or Bigfoot believers? Those beliefs have just as much basis in real science as McCarthy's autism beliefs.

Maybe they should just stay with politics and current events, and stay out of the realm of science (or pseudo-science) -- especially if they are going to promote ideas like this for which no proof exists.