Victory! Age of Autism's Smear Campaign Against Blogger Ends

by Brie Cadman · 2010-12-10 09:23:00 UTC
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The Age of Autism (AoA) is an anti-vaccine group that propagates the unfounded notion that vaccines play a role in autism.  As covered on a previous post, AoA, in conjunction with Safe Minds, another anti-vax group, recently tried to put a sponsored public-service-type announcement in AMC movie theaters across the country. The PSA warned about the "dangers" of the flu vaccine, right in the middle of flu season.

But Elyse Anders, a Skepchick blogger, mom and vaccine advocate, rallied her supporters to email AMC asking them to drop the PSA. After recieving hundreds of responses, AMC did the right thing and dropped the PSA. But AoA decided to start a smear campaign against Anders, putting her Facebook picture on their wall, accompanied by threats, insults and general nastiness.

Despite reports of abuse, Anders wasn't initially able to get FB to remove the picture, even though the comment stream listed her full name, place of employment and personal threats. So, Anders recruited her legion of Skepchick followers, and a Change.org petition asking FB to remove the picture gathered over 800 signatures in just two days.

And it worked. The picture and vicious comments are gone from AoA's wall.

It's a victory, but in all likelyhood, it's not a stand-alone incident. As noted on the blog Respectful Insolence, which frequently covers anti-vaccination groups, the Age of Autism's "modus operandi has always been, when confronted with criticism or resistance to their anti-vaccine message, to attack the messenger, something they are quite accomplished at."

The anti-vax groups will continue to assert, with no scientific backing, that vaccines are the cause of autism and other ills, and sway others into forgoing prevention tool that has saved countless lives. So it was necessary, indeed crucial, to speak out against the rampant spread of misinformation and the personal attacks.

A big thanks to all those who signed the petition and stood up for the commonsense logic of vaccinations in particular, and science-minded thinking in general, around the web.

Photo Credit: apdk

Brie Cadman is Change.org's health editor. Previous professions include biochemist, clinical trial coordinator, indoor air pollution researcher and farm hand. She earned her Master of Public Health from U.C. Berkeley.
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