Obviously Bill Maher did not heed Jed Lewison's advice as he continued to spout his utter paranoid ignorance about vaccinations on tonight's episode of Real Time:
Maybe there are some occasions where an inoculation is a wise thing to do. I hope not. I hope I never would never have to have one. Because, to present it just as this genius medical advancement, it is actually a risky medical procedure that begs long term cost-benefit analysis.
Bill, Dr. Edward Jenner performed the first inoculation in 1796. Louis Pasteur, who was no slouch in chemistry or medicine advanced the science in the 1880s. Do you really think that in 213 years that no one has bothered to do any "long term cost-benefit analysis" on inoculation? Does the fact that just 60 years ago each year worldwide tens of millions of people were stricken with diphtheria, measles, mumps, rubella, smallpox, and polio (like FDR) with tens of thousands dying, yet today these diseases have been eradicated or barely exist, mean anything?
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My brother who lives in Europe likes to give me the same nutty lines about inoculation. The difference is that my brother doesn't have a soapbox where he can preach crazy to millions of people each week.
They said I was crazy in the New York Times on Monday and yet I saw an article in there today on the front page that said "Swine Flu shots revived a debate about vaccines." So I was crazy on Monday, but now there is a debate on Friday. Good, we should have a debate, so let me clear up a few things that people have been writing about me that are not true:
- I am not a germ theory denier I understand that germs and viruses cause diseases. I may have been a little cocky about it because i discovered from first-hand experience that i can stave them off better with proper nutrition, as opposed to how I used to do it, with NyQuil™.
- I also would like to say that i do understand the theory of inoculation. Yes, you give somebody a little bit of disease and it fools your body into providing antibodies which fight it—Brilliant! Bravo! Maybe there are some occasions where an inoculation is a wise thing to do. I hope not. I hope I never would never have to have one. Because, to present it just as this genius medical advancement, it is actually a risky medical procedure that begs long term cost-benefit analysis. I mean if you don't believe me look on the CDC website as to what is in the swine flu vaccine—you know aluminum, insect repellant, formaldehyde, mercury. You know that is right on their website, don't take it from the talk show host.
Okay, Bill I have to stop you right there? Where exactly is that info on the CDC website? I've looked at Key Facts About 2009 H1N1 Flu Vaccine, nope not there. I've looked at 2009 H1N 1Influenza Vaccine (live ,attenuated): What you need to know, nope not there. I checked the NIOSH Safety and Health Topic: Formaldehyde, nope no mention of the Swine Flu. I checked their page on Mercury and Vaccines which goes a little into the controversy about Thimerosal, but was last updated on February 8, 2008, 12 months before anyone began to panic about Swine Flu. Yes, I know that formaldehyde is sometimes the chemical agent used to kill a virus in order to prepare a vaccine. I also know that aluminum is sometimes used as an adjuvant to boost the effectiveness of vaccines. But insect repellant? Just because Safety Tips for Summer Camp mentions "insect repellant" does not mean insect repellant is in the H1N1 vaccine. Why, why, why Bill would you tell a bald-faced lie that is so easily fact checked? Are you jealous of Lou Dobbs and Glenn Beck and desirous of joining them in the depths of wingnuttery?
Oh wait, Bill continues to insert foot in mouth...
Maher: I had all the vaccines, did you? You were saying, we were all the same age, in the 50s, anything went. I had horrible allergies as a kid, was it because I was vaccinated as an infant? I don't know, maybe it was all the mercury they drilled into my teeth. Did they drill mercury into your teeth?
Alec Baldwin: Yes, that's why I became an actor.
Chris Matthews: What the hell are you talking about?
Maher: They drilled mercury into our teeth when we had cavities, they didn't do that to you?
Gov. Martin O'Mailey (D-MD): I had three of them, I think they are silver.
Maher: Yeah, well they do some stupid things and you're not a nut for asking about them.
No Bill, you're a nut for making dangerous pronouncements to millions of people that stoke needless fear and paranoia that could get people killed.
Maher: You know a lot of people have said well Bill, you know, there are people now who are dying of swine flu who are in good health. By whose standards? Hospitals serve Jell-O™.
Huh? People should avoid the swine flu vaccine because hospitals serve Jell-O™? Isn't that the same twisted logic that gives us doozies like "Since Hawaii issues 'Certificates of Live Birth' instead of 'Birth Certificates' Barack Obama was born in Kenya."
Maher: They have fast food franchises in their lobby. The report on Michael Jackson, the autopsy report, came back and said he was in good health. Okay, to me, he looked a little pale. So, you know, I don't agree with what Western medicine always says means good health.
Matthews: So how come every time you go to a country whether third world or first world or whatever, you have to have a shot? Is every country wrong? All over the world they have rules that you have to have shots to go to those countries. Al they all wrong?
Maher: What I know is what Western medicine likes to do is close the debate.
Matthews But these are all other countries around the world, not just [ones that practice] "western medicine".
Maher: I said sometimes inoculation may be a smart thing to do, but you know most people go by the model of polio. They think, "well you know we had polio, and we had the vaccine, and it wiped out polio." Read up on the history…
Mathews: So why are you doing all this? Why are you fighting this fight?
MaherJust to say we need a debate about it. The science is not settled. I was attacked for saying we should look into this, and I don't believe in this, and lots of people feel the same way. This is not a settled science like global warming. That's what they are trying to say, "it's as crazy as fighting global warming or evolution."
* Diarist bangs head *
Yes, inoculations are not perfect. Some people can have an allergic reaction to them or experience other side effects. Or a batch could be contaminated. I will agree that the H1N1 vaccination, having been on the market for a whopping two weeks, has no track record for safety (or danger). Occasionally people will be crippled or die because of vaccines. But on an annual basis those cases can be counted in the dozens as opposed to the tens of thousands who died of these diseases before vaccines became widespread.
Yet as many as 1 in 7 children died each year from smallpox before inoculation became widespread.
Mathews: Bill you're like Tom Cruise saying "I don't believe in therapy."
Ah, now I see the point Bill Maher is a Scientologist.