‘…‘Big pharma is evil,’ goes the line of reasoning, ‘therefore homeopathy works and the MMR vaccine causes autism.’ This is probably not helpful.’
No, indeed that line of reasoning isn’t helpful; but it does fortify the original reason I gave for not reading Goldacre – I told you I used to read his regular column in the Guardian (pretty sure it was the Guardian) and I was not impressed.
He has set up a straw-man argument, and an extremely poor one at that. None of the doctors or parents in the articles and videos I linked use that argument.
They give solid reasons for what they claim, including parents who noticed a dramatic change in their babies/children immediately or very shortly after vaccinations.
I’m really surprised you gave me such a sloppy bit of ‘reasoning’ to show Goldacre’s ‘wisdom’.