After I blogged about my problems with the “health” side of self-help, I came across an excellent video by Michael Specter.  He talks about the dangers in denying science.  He expresses views similar to mine in that modern medicine (vaccines, etc) have saved lives and provide a higher quality of life.  I like the way he differentiates  between not liking something (Pharmacutical companies, the patent system, etc) and attacking the science itself (vaccines don’t work, etc.). Most people who disagree with the science use the former (the fears or dislike of something) to attack the latter.

Personally, I think a lot of these “debates” are manufactured in the marketing room.  Call me cynical but isn’t a little odd that people who push these “debates” are the same people who stand to make money from “alternative” treatments? Heck, the guy that went on trying to link autism and the MMR vaccine? Guess what? He just happneed to have his own “safe” vaccine ready. Of course, before that, he was trying to link the MMR vaccine to Chron’s disease.  It kills people? But it makes for great TV.

A couple of things I liked from the video:

1. Some things are not up for debate: vaccines save lives, genetically-engineered food can feed billions of people and most food we have now is “naturally” genetically-engineered.

2. People who don’t like Big Pharma instead jump in to the arms of Big Placebo.  A classic line!

Watch this and enjoy.