The Facts In The Case Of Dr. Andrew Wakefield

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The Facts In The Case Of Dr. Andrew Wakefield

: tallguywrites; May 18th, 2010

A fifteen page story about the MMR vaccination controversy. As ever, I'm sure a few spelling errors have slipped past me. Feel free to point any out so I can correct them.

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.

I am Darryl Cunningham and this is my main blog.

Read 465 comments — :

( Read 465 comments — Leave a comment )

dracothelizard

2010-05-18 04:57 pm (UTC)

Excellent comic, the only criticism I have is the unnecessary put-down of the Middle Ages. Seriously, can we stop it with the incorrect assumption that all people in the Middle Ages in Western Europe were idiots who hated science? Just an example that they did know their stuff: those massive cathedrals that still stand to this day. Try building those things without proper planning.

Sorry, but 'LOL medieval people were so stupid, like, they thought the world was flat' is a massive pet peeve of mine. It really is a cool comic that explains the situation well!

xshardsx

2010-05-18 05:24 pm (UTC)

You're talking about people whose idea of a fun family gathering was a public execution.

dracothelizard

2010-05-18 05:41 pm (UTC)

If a time period that has public executions should be considered stupid and backwards, we have to consider a large part of the Age of Enlightenment as stupid and backwards as well. Public executions lasted until the 1700s, and the French revolution at the end of the 18th century had plenty of public executions of the aristocrats. You're free to be dismissive of the Middle Ages and its people because they had public executions, but then you should probably be dismissive of later time periods as well.

xshardsx

2010-05-18 06:44 pm (UTC)

Then so I shall! :p
(And actually, now that you point that out, I suppose one could consider the constant support of war and torture via television as public execution too.)

lysana

2010-05-18 06:46 pm (UTC)

Not to mention the substitute bloodbaths known as action films.

dracothelizard

2010-05-18 06:48 pm (UTC)

I am for equal dismissal of ALL periods of time ;)

(Yeah, let's face it, Saddam's hanging was very much a public event as well, even if they didn't show the whole thing :/. Sometimes it's kinda sad how we haven't progressed that much in a thousand years.)

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xshardsx — Expand

muckefuck

2010-05-21 02:18 pm (UTC)

When Ted Bundy was executed, about two hundred people gathered outside the prison to cheer, waving posters with legends like "BURN BUNDY BURN" and "ROAST IN PEACE". If there had been ringside seats for sale, don't you think they would've bought them?

xshardsx

2010-05-22 02:47 am (UTC)

Yeah, I realized that later on in the evening.

spiffystuff

2010-05-18 07:20 pm (UTC)

To be fair, my understanding that the "scientific method" or basing belief about the physical world on observable/repeatable phenomena (rather than on the attractiveness of an idea, etc) is very much a modern phenomina (around 1800s, I think?) and is credible for most all the scientific advances / rapid improvement to quality of life seen since then.
I don't think people pre-1800s were idiots - many were very smart - but it's not a mindset I'd care to return to.

Edited at 2010-05-18 07:21 pm (UTC)

dracothelizard

2010-05-18 07:24 pm (UTC)

I'm not saying that medieval folks were scientific geniuses, I'm just saying that this disdain for the Middle Ages is a bit unfair. Greeks aren't nearly mocked as much for basing their theories on the attractiveness of an idea as medieval people are (Aristotle decided that men have more teeth than women without bothering to count, for one), and neither is the Renaissance period. The Middle Ages have a not entirely deserved bad rep when compared to other periods in time.

ellid

2010-05-23 11:06 am (UTC)

Engineering, which is what the cathedral builders used, is not the same as science.

dracothelizard

2010-05-23 11:08 am (UTC)

It still shows that they weren't idiots.

ellid

2010-05-23 11:44 am (UTC)

Your point? Being able to build a cathedral (some of the time - their geometry did not always work, which is why one reads repeatedly of vaults collapsing because they were too high for the thickness of the walls) does not mean one is rational, free from superstition, or particularly intelligent.

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brightlyiburn — Expand

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ellid — Expand

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brightlyiburn — Expand

shaunotd

2010-05-24 11:27 am (UTC)

If that's true, why did so many of them collapse?

Owen Brady

2014-04-01 12:50 am (UTC)

He isn't being dismissive of their intelligence, but rather what was known at the time as a whole. They didn't have the advances and knowledge that we of the 21st century do.

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