06 February 2009

Today's irresponsible tripe courtesy of Jeni Barnett

Global Radio and LBC, who employ actress Jeni Barnett, are threatening to sue Dr Ben Goldacre after he posted an excerpt from her radio show and pointed out what a dangerous spew of woo-crazed drivel it was. Ben's taken the mp3 down because he wants to keep his house, but some other naughty internet people have put it back up again elsewhere. Here's a transcript of part of it (minutes 20-22):
Jeni Barnett: So what would you say – I mean, it’s not my job to say to people don’t do it, it’s not my job to do any of that, but you’re allowed to have your say. What would you say to people – as a mum of eight little lives that you are deeply responsible for – what would you say to people who are in two minds about it?
Caller: Er… I would never recommend having children vaccinated, and people think I’m very strange, but all my younger children that haven’t been vaccinated have been very very healthy. The youngest had measles about three months ago and he was fine, he wasn’t very well for about a week, ten days, and then he was fine and none of my others picked it up. So I think they must have a certain amount of natural immunity and I’m far, far happier for them to have developed that natural immunity than to be constantly being filled with artificial substances.
Jeni Barnett: Well thank you so much, my darling. That’s Amanda in Hayward’s Heath. “Just was listening to your show. If people actually took the time to look at what’s in vaccines, they would think twice about giving them to their children. As well as not being 100% effective, they also have cancer-causing agents. Also, a child’s immune system takes approximately 2 to 3 months to fully get up and running from birth. Also, if we look at the countries who have the highest populated vaccinated, you will notice that they have the most allergies. I’m not totally against immunisations, but we should be giving children at least a year to develop their own immune system to deal with the onslaught.” I didn’t say that. I wish you’d given me your name.
Three things that really grind my gears about this are:
1. Babies are not epidemiology qualifications. (Tara, who has both, would no doubt agree.)
2. Blah blah all we want is a chance to debate the evidence blah blah big pharma has all the money blah blah take down that criticism or our team of highly-paid lawyers will kick your arse.
3.

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6 Comments:

Anonymous Baz said...

If it were up to me, she'd have her licence to breed revoked. In fact, I'd never have granted it in the first place.

1:39 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Babies are not epidemiology qualifications" - brilliant, I've been trying to think of a good way to sum this up. I got as far as: "Being a parent doesn't make you a paediatrician any more than owning a car makes you a mechanic". Yours is better.

2:58 pm  
Blogger Ariane said...

Argument by "everyone is the same as me". Excellent. My eldest got a mild dose of measles from the vaccine. I got measles 3 times naturally, leaving me with a turned eye and permanently affected vision. I have a natural immunity to chicken pox - I didn't do anything to earn that. What I learned from my personal experience is that everyone is different, and that at least I knew my child wasn't going to infect anyone else when he had it. Nothing else applies to anyone else.

Of course, I did have to trust those evil epidemiologists that he wasn't going to infect anyone.

9:35 pm  
Blogger Geosomin said...

The more I read about this woman the more annoyed I get.


"Also, if we look at the countries who have the highest populated vaccinated, you will notice that they have the most allergies"
*sigh*
Yes...it's the vaccines.
*sigh*

1:10 pm  
Blogger richardgaywood said...

Have you seen this?
The Times claims the MMR-autism link used falsified data.

You couldn't make this up! Well, unless you're Andrew Wakefield.

I've blogged about this myself here.

9:53 am  
Blogger class-factotum said...

"the highest populated vaccinated"

They also have the most fire hydrants. Coincidence?

I think not.

1:13 pm  

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