Well regardless of where she came from, I agree she and other snake-oil salesmen like her need to be called to task.

I mean, I get the whole dont-trust-the-establishment attitude, I'm fairly paranoid myself, but just because the CDC said it doesn't automatically mean it's a OMGCONSPIRACY and untrue. There really isn't any evidence that the MMR vaccine causes autism, and just because kids typically start showing symptoms around that age isn't proof. People don't seem to understand that correlation does not equal causation no matter how much you try to drill it into their heads

But in the case of McCarthy etc a lot of times you're dealing with something more akin to a religious dogma than anything resembling science. You can't shut those people up with reason, because they'll cook up some excuse, logical or not, to refute everything you say. It's like trying to deal with creationists.

At the end of the day all you can do is educate the public and HOPE some of it sinks in. Personally I think science programs in public schools are where the battle really needs to be won, most average people just don't really understand how science works because they simply are not taught the scientific method in any easily graspable way, and it takes on a kind of nebulous magical quality that's very easy for people to just dismiss.

Blah blah ramble ramble. I think I'll shut up now, miss_s_b is probably getting fed up with me flooding her comment page with my drivel by now. :P