[Sudetenland]

You can't argue with belief, no matter how many facts you provide to support your argument. Belief is an emotional act and--as anyone who has ever argued with a liberal/greenie should know--you can't beat emotion with logic.

These folks are no different than the "climate change" true believers or "truthers."

In the end, it always boils down to "I just KNOW it's true."

Oh yeah, and anecdotal/personal observation and surmise always trump scientific facts.

Some folks just need someone or thing to blame. It makes them feel comfortable to believe that there is some big amorphous entity out there conspiring to kill us all and hide the fact that they are doing it.

Argument is futile. Disagreement is futile. Resistance is futile. LOL!!!

[AppyPappy]

Autism is genetic. The reason it wasn’t prevalent in the 60’s was that it wasn’t diagnosed. We didn’t have ADHD and Aspergers back then.

When I see an autistic child, I usually see an autistic parent. The university is full of them. The autistic kid in the Boy Scout troop has a dad that is eat up with it. Computer engineer who writes cell phone apps.

[Notary Sojac]

Just wait until a few thousand people start having personal observation of seeing a child die from measles or pertussis.

I will not enjoy being in the "I told you so" brigade on that day.

[Slings and Arrows]

Agreed. Fanaticism is an ugly thing.

[Springfield Reformer]

Not necessarily. Beware the Skeptic’s Fallacy as well. Many of our most important advances began as a suspicious collection of anecdotes, common sense correlations that ordinary people were making that were inconsistent with the scientific orthodoxy of the time. Yes, there is a true believer syndrome. But as the Skeptic’s Fallacy informs us, it is error to ignore all reports of trouble simply because some such reports may be attributed to poor analysis. The truly open mind is not put off by either false positives OR false negatives, but remains open to continuous improvement of understanding.