Josh Witten

Bernadine Healy, MD is extremely qualified. A expert even. You could check out the description from her US News&World Report blog, but the Age of Autism 2008 person of the year announcement wields the expertise stick with more verve:

But be prepared to argue with someone your own size -- in fact, someone much more imposing in terms of credentials and credibility. Member of the Institute of Medicine. Former head of the Red Cross. And, most importantly, former head of the National Institutes of Health.

Well, frack me, with credentials like that what are we wasting all this research money for? Just ask Healy, and shots for everyone on the NIH.

Sadly, Francis Bacon and friends didn't ask for Age of Autism's opinion when they were developing the scientific method:

Badges? We don't need no stinking badges!
    -Mexican Bandit in Blazing Saddles

True science cares not for credentials. It cares about evidence. But, when you don't have any of that, we suppose credentials can come in handy.

Speaking of credentials, at times like these, it is instructive to recall the tragic story of Linus Pauling. Pauling could be described by terms including father of molecular biology, father of modern chemistry, two time Nobel laureate (Chemistry and Peace), one of the most brilliant people to ever live, etc. Credentials coming out his wahoo, to get technical. Unfortunately, Pauling also died a crank, convinced that vitamin C was the Philosopher's Stone.

Credentials don't make someone right.

In her article, The Vaccine-Autism War: Detente Needed, Healy calls for appeasement of the anti-vaccine movement by the medical community in three areas:

1: Stop overvaccinating
While there are certainly public health and economic reasons to consider when determining how many vaccines to give, Healy is presupposing that there is an epidemic of negative vaccine reactions that requires explanation. There isn't.

Forgetting the irrelevance of her point, the US has more vaccine doses on the schedule than other developed countries. We probably do that just to line the pockets of Big Pharma at the expense of our children. Of course, other countries set their vaccine schedules without the input of the Illuminati. Differences in schedules wouldn't have anything to do with different disease risks in different countries or reducing costs for universal health care, would it?

2. Be flexible on vaccine schedules
Healy wants more flexible vaccination schedules:

. . .pediatricians might do families a great service if they could work with them to loosen up the schedules to accommodate reasonable concerns and allow more choice.

If Healy considers Jenny McCarthy's vaccine-autism spectrum disorder fears reasonable, we shudder to think what she might consider unreasonable.

Why do we give vaccines? To prevent them from getting diseases. Why do we give them at the times we do? So that children will be immunized before they are exposed to diseases, to prevent them from getting diseases. The vaccines are spaced out to give the adaptive immune system the time necessary to build strong and long-lasting immunity.

But, that is fancy expert talk. And the folks at Age of Autism hate them an expert, unless that expert (or pseudo-expert, Healy is a cardiologist, not a pediatrician or immunologist) agrees with them.

Go tell it to Dr. Healy, Paul Offit. Go tell it to Dr. Healy, Dr. Tayloe. Go tell it to Dr. Healy, all you condescending public health officials who cite your eight or nine or however many studies that "prove" vaccines don't cause autism.
    -Dan Olmstead, Editor of Age of Autism

3. Study genetic predisposition to negative vaccine reactions
There are rare, significant negative reactions to vaccines. Some of these reactions may have underlying, non-random causes. It is undeniably important to develop methods to identify these individuals. Glad Healy suggested that. Someone should get on that. Oh wait, they already are. Of course, having identified people that cannot be vaccinated, we need to do something to protect them from infection.

Normally, herd immunity keeps those who cannot receive vaccinations safe by preventing the spread of disease through the community. The loss of herd immunity due to vaccine non-compliance leaves those without immunity at risk. This may not be a problem if you think avoiding exposing your kid to a non-existent risk is worth exposing everyone else to potentially deadly disease.

Do we think Healy is a dyed in the wool anti-vaccinationist? Certainly, not. But, she has let herself become a rallying point for and given a false imprimatur of legitimacy to the anti-vaccinationists. And that is stupid. And that gets a free ticket to the Festival of Idiots.