Friday 19 September 2008

An interesting take on genetics

"Rosemary" is a frequent poster on JABS. She apparently has a seriously disbled son who has a genetic degenerative disease. For that she has everyone's sympathy.

However, she's absolutely convinced that his condition is caused by viruses. Sometimes it's a retrovirus, sometimes it's a "stealth" virus that a nutter in America writes about (and no-one else has ever identified), and sometimes it's Simian SV40 virus (or just Monkey Viruses). They alter DNA, apparently.

She posts great long lists of content - anything that mentions viruses (virii?) makes it onto the page - which frequently shows the opposite of whatever it is she's claiming and/or is full of pseudoscience. What science is in there, she clearly doesn't understand.

She is, in short, quite, quite mad.

Half of all autism cases are caused by 'NEW' MUTATIONS !
NOT inherited from parents !!!!!!!!
So the next step is to look at WHAT EXTERNAL FACTORS are causing these 'NEW' MUTATIONS to occur ?????????????

As I said :Are these 'NEW' mutations caused by chemical mutagens,or parasitic organisms like viruses or bacteria?

Since 'MEASLES' is a VIRUS there is a high probability that a virus can cause a genetic mutation especially a 'NEW'MUTATION !


[BPSDB]

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Poor Rosemary.
Not only does she have a severely disabled son, she has to put up with cybertigger hitting on her.

She has discovered the existence of ERVs-endogenic retroviruses -bits of viral DNA that have become part of human DNA. She has decided that these bit s of viral DNA in humans must be from vaccinations!!

Where else could they have come from?

Rosemary -flunking out of the University of Google.

PhD scientist said...

Do we know if "Rosemary" is Rosemary Kessick? If so she was one of the "original" vaccine lawsuit parents, and would have at least a decade of anti-vaccine belief behind her - see e.g. the BBC Horizon programme (transcript here) from a few years back.

Becky said...

I don't think so. JABS Rosemary claims her son developed his condition after a booster at the age of seven (IIRC).

Unknown said...

Its a different Rosemary.

JABS rosemary claims her some has vaccine induced polio -which may well be true-as well as another severe neurological condition.

She obviously has a severely handicapped child and should be accorded some sympathy for that.

Becky said...

Absolutely. She has my undying sympathy. That's tempered by the fact that she seems to spend her waking hours looking for someone to blame, and passing on ludicrous information to other parents, rather than looking for ways to care for him and to improve his quality of life.

PhD scientist said...

That highlights one of the worst things about all the anti-vax conspiracy looniness from my point of view - it starts by reinforcing the idea in the parents that something they chose to do (or at least "allowed the doctor to do") - e.g. vaccination - harmed their child.

Of course, all of the little that is known about autism causation (and probably true for the other disabilities lumped with it) tells us that the causation is largely genetic, and that medical intervention has nothing much to do with it. The best way to look at it would be "genetics plus random bad luck".

Anyway, by selling people this "the vaccines did it" message, what you are selling them first is "your worst fear is true - it was something you did to your own child". I cannot imagine anything worse for a parent to have to deal with.

Then, stage two of the brain-washing, you tell them:

"but it was not your fault - it was those evil doctors / scientists / drug companies / big business / governments - THEY did it. THEY lied to you. It is not your fault. It is theirs"

And...since you have now "saved" parents from believing they (albeit inadvertently) harmed their own child, it is no surprise that a lot of them cling to this belief like a drowning person to a lifebelt. They believe this, because the only alternative that they can see is the unthinkable.

Of course, the fallacy here is "the only alternative". In reality, it was not the parents' actions that caused what happened in the first place. Not their actions, or anyone else's. Just sheer lousy luck.

I think this is the single thing that makes me angriest about the anti-vaxxers. Under the guise of "empowerment", what they are really selling the distressed parents is blame - to avoid blaming yourself, blame someone else - when really there is no blame to apportion. The years and even decades people then put into this blaming shows just what a pernicious and evil trick the whole thing is.

Becky said...

*applause*

Cybertiger said...

*applause*

The end is nigh: if that is truly the lowly homily of a PhD scientist, then I dispair, well and truly dispair. Tit!

PhD scientist said...

Have I attracted your ire, ShabbyTabby?

As I have said before, to be labelled a "tit" by you is rather like getting a campaign medal.

PS I think it is "despair" (as I do whenever I see any of the JABS cabal massaging their conspiracy theories).

And by the way, shouldn't you be off somewhere ranting about David Southall?