jeff_duntemann linked to Amy Wallace’s article: An Epidemic of Fear: How Panicked Parents Skipping Shots Endangers Us All, an excellent article about the anti-vaccination movement. Great quote:

I’d met Linderman [leading antivaxxer] at Autism One. He’d given his card to me as we stood outside the Westin O’Hare talking about his autistic son. “We live in a very toxic world,” he’d told me, puffing on a cigarette.

It was hard to argue with that.

What is disturbing is that the anti-vaxxers, unable to come up with rational arguments for their cause (there are none), resort to abuse and threats. See Defending Science Isn’t Always Pretty.

Some prominent politicians have pandered to the antivaxxers:

• John Kerry
• Chris Dodd
• Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

which demonstrates that liberal Democrats can be as hostile to science as conservative Republicans. See also The Huffington Post’s War on Medical Science: A Brief History.