The reference links for the strip are in the next blog entry.
Now! Let's have a heated debate!
2013 update. Since I wrote this blog entry, this cartoon strip as well as many others on such subjects as homeopathy, chiropratic, evolution, and the supposed NASA Moon hoax landings, have been published in a book: Science Tales in the UK (Myriad Edtions) and How To Fake A Moon Landing in the US and Canada (Abrams). Here's the link to my main blog.
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Things like this, I think, have the potential to be very educational and spread the word in a visually engaging format that will catch the eye of people and keep them reading. I especially appreciate it for that.
This is terrific.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/darryltoon/4618761462/
You misspelled immunization.
I am going to send this link to every single damn person who still tries to tell me my son's autism was caused by his vaccines. Thank you thank you thank you. This lays it out all so perfectly.
Re: This is terrific.
may i use this in my science classes at school?
secxx
Marry me?
Seriously, though, this is fantastic. Thanks for sharing it. If the anti-vaxxers can't/won't understand something as direct and as clear as this, then I'm giving up on 'em... (not that I'm not close to it, already...)
Thank you!
There is a latin saying "Post hoc ergo propter hoc". "After it, therefore, because of it". This is rarely ever true and many people don't seem to understand that a correlation (event x came before event y) doesn't imply a causation (event x CAUSED event y).
What interests me is the dilemma parents are (or were) in. I think parents make some sort of probability cost/benefit analysis, for instance, that there's a 5% chance that Wakefield is correct, and that becoming autistic is more than 20 times worse than maybe getting measles. So they act rationally, but wrongly, with the information available to them.
Beautifully done, both the content and the format.
(Here via a Facebook link.)
Plus you make a great point: Newspapers need people with real expertise writing the articles, not those that know how to generalise incorrect data and use a hyperbole to make something sound scary.