Oh fuck off, TV.

[logansrogue]

You know, John Deed isn't high quality TV at the best of times, and now it's tackling the "Immunisation means AUTISM" issue.

Which is making me clench my teeth for various reasons. First of all, they have a black actress playing the emotionally fraught mother trying to stop their child from having their shots. Which is pretty bizarre, because the most vocal anti-immunisation people I've seen have all been rich white women. I'm not saying it's impossible that black women could have this view on the issue, it's just that the actress they chose is odd to me because it's not representative of the usual section of society that I've seen complain about vaccinations. That's all I'm going to say on the race issue since I don't feel comfortable going into it, I'm just pointing it out. (I'm worried I'll represent it badly).

Then there's the "Big Pharma" angle, which I'm really uncomfortable with. I know large pharmaceutical companies can be less than scrupulous, and downright evil, but in this particular issue, there is more than money at stake. There are children's lives, so I'm really, really leery about using the issue for drama value and forwarding pernicious narratives and myths about immunisation. I'm leery about this being seen as a David and Goliath issue. It's not.

Of course, if anyone wants to disagree with me, I've got a whole bunch of photos of me at 3 suffering from the measles. I'm in tears! It's painful! Really, it'll be fun! (Mum lagged with the immunisations with us kids, and she did regret that, as did I!)

ETA: John Deed is such a fucking stupid show.

Comments

[purrdence.livejournal.com]

Didn't they get the message about the Lanclet publicly disowning that 'MMR causes Austim' paper?

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

Clearly not. Got any good links for me? I like to be educated about shit.

[purrdence.livejournal.com]

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18447-damning-verdict-on-doctor-who-linked-mmr-and-autism.html

And here is an article about shit:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17231-satellites-spot-new-penguin-colonies-by-their-poo.html

*teeheehee*

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

That is some seriously edumacational shit right there.

[purrdence.livejournal.com]

There were lots of articles to do with poo on the New Scientist website! *hah!*

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

Poo is the stuff of learned gentlefolk.

[nephron.livejournal.com]

But don't you know that the Lancet are in the pockets of Big Pharma and and just conspiring to discredit poor Dr Wakefield who was exposing the evils of Big Pharma?

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

BIG PHARMA, BIG PHARMA.

[nephron.livejournal.com]

The whole ranting about BIG PHARMA in relation to vaccinations pisses me off. I'm pretty skeptical about big pharma (not that medications never work, but they're not released to fix problems, rather to increase profits) but vaccinations are one thing that is shown to be effective (and cost-effective).

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

The problem with a lot of medication these days is that they're having a really hard time navigating the placebo problem. I don't remember rightly where I read about it, but it is causing problems researching new drugs.


But yes. Vaccines = good.

[nephron.livejournal.com]

The other problem with medication at the moment is that pharmaceutical companies would rather wait until a patent is about to run out on a drug, then make minor changes to the drug to create a new patentable medication (escitalopram vs. citalopram, paliperidone vs. risperidone, desvelafaxine vs. venlafaxine) or create a slow-release version, that is also patentable- Max profits, minimal input.

Also they're busy marketing lots of new health conditions that desperately need their treatment.