Via Matt Yglesias, I am sad to say that Barack Obama has joined John McCain in embracing vaccine anti-science:
"We've seen just a skyrocketing autism rate. Some people are suspicious that it's connected to the vaccines. This person included. The science right now is inconclusive, but we have to research it."
--Barack Obama, Pennsylvania Rally, April 21, 2008
This is, to say the least, disappointing. I can't believe that this needs to kept being repeated, but I'll do so anyway: there is absolutely no credible evidence linking vaccines with autism. Scientist have looked into this hypothesis and found it wanting, and no, Hannah Polling didn't change anything (links to studies available in both the WaPo piece and my previous diary on McCain, both linked above).
Every time a celebrity or politician makes a stupid statement like this, public trust in immunization drops another level, and more kids are potentially exposed to preventable deadly disease. Measles outbreaks in San Diego and Britain among the unvaccinated are only the beginning. Vaccination is one of the greatest public health successes of all human civilization, yet it's a victim of its own success, with people nowadays unaware of the scourges of polio, smallpox, and other maladies. "Natural" is not a synonym for "good", no matter what Jenny McCarthy tells you.
I sincerely hope that Obama's science adviser is giving him an earful right now, and that he comes out with a clarification of his comments later this week. I realize he's just being a politician, but to countenance this failed hypothesis at all is to endanger the gains in health that scientific medicine have allowed over the years. We're supposed to be the reality-based community, after all; let the Republicans be the only ones who speak against the scientific consensus.
UPDATE: Via Ezra Klein, Hillary Clinton is just as bad. Can someone in this race not be an idiot?