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And now a musical interlude …
Apparently Delta Airlines plans to continue showing this video.
Here is a letter from the American Academy of Pediatrics to the President of Delta Airlines:
Dear Mr. Anderson,
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) objects to the paid advertisement/public service message from the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) being shown throughout the month of November on Delta’s in-flight programming. The ad urges viewers to become informed about influenza and how to stay well during the flu season without resorting to the influenza vaccine.
While hand washing and covering sneezes are parts of a larger strategy to prevent the spread of influenza, influenza vaccine continues to be the best way to protect against the disease. It is especially important in enclosed settings where disease droplets can easily spread to passengers sitting in close quarters, especially infants and children and those with special health care needs.
The AAP and many other child health organizations have worked hard to protect children and their families from unfounded and unscientific misinformation regarding vaccine safety. The influenza vaccine is safe and effective.
By providing advertising space to an organization like the NVIC, which opposes the nation’s recommended childhood immunization schedule and promotes the unscientific practice of delaying or skipping vaccines altogether, you are putting the lives of children at risk, leaving them unprotected from vaccine-preventable diseases. Diseases like influenza can have serious consequences. From September 2010 to August 2011, 115 children died from influenza disease, most of whom were unvaccinated.
The AAP’s 60,000 member pediatricians urge you to remove these harmful messages, which fail to inform the public about the safety and efficacy of influenza vaccine. Please do your part to help reassure parents that vaccinating their children is the best way to protect them from influenza disease, particularly during this busy travel season.
Which is worse, being in the basement of a low-lying Nuclear Power Plant during a Tsunami, pulling the trigger on a gun you thought was empty and accidentally killing your 4 year old little sister, being hit by a German Satellite, or being eaten by a shark?
Before answering that question, I’d like to remind you that you need to go here and donate ten or twenty bucks to the Donors Choose program. Then, when you come back, you can read the rest of this post.
Continue reading Fallacy: Something Else is Worse, so Don’t Worry
Well, not really, but it almost feels that good. Michael Mann has been a real mensch, taking it in the neck from the worst of the AGW denialists. A couple of days ago he published an editorial piece in the Vail Daily in response to an earlier piece of drek by Martin Hertzberg. Have a look:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Please read and pass on.
Climate researchers are in need of immediate legal assistance to prevent their private correspondence from being exposed to Chris Horner and the American Tradition Institute who are using Freedom of Information (FOI) to harass researchers. (For context please see: http://wapo.st/pQg0JC and http://wapo.st/oiua7V) The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has recently stated: “the sharing of research data is vastly different from unreasonable, excessive Freedom of Information Act requests for personal information and voluminous data that are then used to harass and intimidate scientists.†The complete AAAS statement is available at http://bit.ly/p04sIq
Please visit the site Scott A. Mandia has set up and donate a few bucks after you read his post.
You will recall that in July a paper came out claiming that clouds, not CO2, caused climate change (I simplify slightly). Later, the Editor in Chief of the journal that published the paper resigned. Well, today, a paper came out that addresses the science side of the original paper. The origional paper appears to have been both poorly done and probably improperly (as in unethically done). The paper that just came out shows that clouds do not cause climate change. Climate science remains intact. Climate change denialism takes another hit.
I’ve written it up here. Deltoid has this covered as well.
In addition, there is some interesting reading here, here, here, and here.
Enjoy.
I just posted a summary of the latest rather startling event in Cloud Gate, the curent scandal in the Climate Change Denialist world:
CloudGate: Denialism Gets Dirty, Reputations Are At Stake
Please go have a look and leave any questions you have. If I can’t help you with the questions, I’ll find someone who can.
Meanwhile, this latest event, which involves the resignation of the Editor-in-Chief of a peer reviewed scientific journal, has created a lot of discussion in a very short period of time. Thus, the link farm to help you keep track:
The Original Paper is here.
Wolfgang Wagner’s resignation … is here (pdf).
Blog posts and press reports about the resignation: