Anti Vaxxer at CBS to Receive Award From Fringe Group at CPAC
Science Writer: Attkisson Is “One Of The Least Responsible Mainstream Journalists” Covering Vaccines and Autism. Science writer Seth Mnookin, author of The Panic Virus: The True Story Behind The Vaccine-Autism Controversy, wrote on his website: “For years, CBS News’s Sharyl Attkisson has been one of the least responsible mainstream journalists covering vaccines and autism. Again and again, she’s parroted anti-vaccine rhetoric long past the point that it’s been decisively disproved.” Indeed, in three articles on CBSNews.com this year, Attkission has suggested that there is a major “debate” in the scientific community over whether vaccines are connected to autism, despite the lack of evidence for the supposed link. Mnookin told Media Matters that he found it “shocking that her vaccine reporting is featured on a major news” site. [SethMnookin.com, 3/31/11] [Phone conversation, 2/6/12]
Children Who Are Not Vaccinated Are At Risk Of Serious Infectious Diseases. Vaccination rates in certain areas of the United States are decreasing, coinciding with a rise in measles cases. As Dr. Steven Weinreb wrote in the New York Times, “For each year between 2001 and 2008, the median number of [measles] cases in the United States was 56. In the first six months of this year [2011] alone, there were more than 150 reported cases — the most since 1996. A vast majority of those who were sickened had not been vaccinated or had uncertain vaccination histories.” [New York Times, 12/27/11]
Attkisson: A “New Scientific Review” Shows The “Austism-Vaccine Debate” Is Not Over. More than a year after the formal retraction of the main study upon which theories connecting autism to vaccines were based, Attkisson wrote: “For all those who’ve declared the autism-vaccine debate over - a new scientific review begs to differ. It considers a host of peer-reviewed, published theories that show possible connections between vaccines and autism.” Mnookin criticized Attkisson’s article, noting that the author of the “new scientific review,” Helen Ratajczak, had only “been the primary author of a published study” twice in the past decade, and it was “only the fourth study she’s been associated with in any capacity during that time.” Dr. David Gorski further broke down the “pseudoscience” cited in Attkisson’s article, and concluded by wondering why CBS “tolerate[s] Attkisson’s horrible reporting on vaccines and other scientific issues.”