[BPSDB] Just when you thought that after 10 tedious years the MMR Hoax was finally dying a death, no less an authority than the Science Museum have managed to screw things up again. As reported over on Thinking is Dangerous, the Museum's staff have taken it upon themselves to recommend anti-vaccine campaigners JABS as an appropriate source of advice for concerned parents. If you haven't heard of JABS before and don't know why this is such a big deal, check out this Guardian piece on them.

So in the best British tradition I've written them a stern letter, which you can see below. First, here's a list of other bloggers writing about this. If you're a blogger and you've written a piece on this or a letter of complaint, please send me the link and I'll post it here. I also urge people to write to the Science Museum about this - you can e-mail them at feedback@nmsi.ac.uk.

Also at:
Thinking is Dangerous
JDC325

(HT: Duck and Tristan on the BadScience.net forums)
- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Dear Sir

I'm writing concerning a serious problem with your pages on "The MMR Files", particularly this URL, in which you advertise JABS, a group which claims to be a "support group".
(http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/antenna/mmr/cip4/128.asp)

I suspect that you haven't seen their website, or actually looked at the advice which is given to parents in JABS' support forums, because if you had you would realise that promoting these people is a grossly irresponsible - downright dangerous - act. You are placing the health of children in jeopardy by sending parents to them.

I strongly suggest at the JABS Forum (http://www.jabs.org.uk/forum) to understand just how bad this is, but I'll give you a couple of examples of the typical "advice" given to parents by JABS members.

Topic: BASICS TO KNOW ABOUT VACCINATIONS
"Vaccines are toxic. Vaccines contain substances poisonous to humans... Vaccination (injecting vaccines) depresses and disables brain and immune function. [...] The high rate of vaccine damage reactions is being ignored and denied by the conventional medicine."

Topic: SHOULD I VACCINATE MY CHILD?
"Vaccines are purported to work by triggering immunity. It is 'thunk' by the experts that by exposing our immune system to weak or dead infectious agents, such as measles or a flu virus, that it creates the appropriate immune defense. This logic has been used to defend the use of every vaccine to date. Yet, each vaccine has proven that the theory is nothing more than mental masturbation for nerdy scientists"

These are not unusual examples, they are typical responses from long-term JABS members to parents looking for support. To repeat, I strongly suggest you go and have a look at these people that you are promoting. JABS may have a reasonable-looking website, and they have been very good at getting publicity for themselves, but they are emphatically not an appropriate place to send parents for support, and I strongly suggest that you remove them from your site.

Yours,
(Me)