Age of Autism applies special pleading & projectionism to "vaccine-injured" cheerleader case

November 5, 2:45 AMNY Atheism & Skepticism ExaminerMichael Rosch

Previous Next

2 comments Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the NY Atheism & Skepticism Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists have been trying to draw a lot of attention to Desiree Jennings, a cheerleader who's developed very unusual symptoms, which the anti-vaccine group Generation Rescue has labeled as dystonia. Generation Rescue has also publicly promised to do everything in their power to help Ms. Jennings.

But Generation Rescue has quickly lost interest in Ms. Jennings as a tool for their anti-vaccine propaganda once experts all agreed that her condition probably had nothing whatsoever to do vaccines, nor is it dystonia. This isn't just the opinion of every medical expert in the field but also of dystonia advocacy groups. Instead, neurological experts believe Jennings' symptoms are more consistent with a psychogenic disorder rather than a true neurological disorder.

Well, not only is Generation Rescue’s unofficial blog, Age of Autism, continuing to promote the lie that Generation Rescue is still actively helping Ms. Jennings despite the fact that they have no medical resources to do so, but they have the audacity to express outrage at the medical and dystonia experts for speculating without having examined Jennings personally while they see no inconsistency in continuing themselves to wildly speculate on her condition to support their ideology despite their lack of medical expertise and obvious conflict of interest. Apparently, the anti-vaxxers see conflicts of interests everywhere except in their own backyards. They also misrepresent what a psychogenic disorder means to suggest that medical experts are claiming it's just all "in her head" when a psychogenic disorder is far more complicated than that.

Sorry guys but the jig is up. No qualified expert in medicine, neurology, vaccines, or dystonia will back you up on this ludicrous conclusion that you by all accounts seem to have simply made up. Desiree Jennings' condition doesn’t resemble dystonia. There’s no history of dystonia occurring from a vaccine. And no reputable news agency will give your wild speculations the time of day. It’s over.