by Ann Herren, May 1
State Senator John Milkovich (Dem/Shreveport) opened his mouth and ignorance spilled out all over the Senate Floor. What’s more, nobody there was willing to clean up this easy mess.
On Monday, Senator Milkovich (Shreveport, you have some explaining to do) objected to a bill to expand a voluntary statewide immunization database brought forward by State Senator Regina Barrows (Dem/Baton Rouge).
Here is some of what he said when he had the floor–this time. I’m pretty sure this can’t be the first time home skillet here has spewed ignorance all over our great state.
“Many of you may know some of the leading researchers in America say that autism is a result of vaccination,” Milkovich said. He further claimed that “autism did not exist” when he was growing up.
“Did you know that vaccines use aluminum which is shown to be a neurotoxin? Did you know vaccines in America is preserved often with mercury, which is beyond neurotoxic?”
“Did you know tissue from aborted babies is now used in vaccines?!”
“Did you know that the childhood vaccinations that we now require are multiple, many times the vaccinations that were required 40 years ago?” (snicker. my favorite. Uh, yeah. That’s why we don’t have all those deadly diseases anymore?)
Y’all. This dude just took the whole Senate floor sideways- and they let him! Since we all are smart people here and believe in proven medical studies (science!) and also know that once somebody claims one crazy made-up falsehood that it becomes our burden as ‘non-rabble-rousers and spreaders-of-hysteria’ to fact-check everything that comes out of their mouths, we know bat-shit crazy when we hear it.
For those that need the heavy-lifting done for them (thought you’d never ask) I’ve broken it down here.
- The ‘Let’s Pretend it’s all Smoke and Mirrors’ Defense “Autism didn’t exist” when we he was diaper-boy.
Well, yes it did. A cool doctor named Leo Kanner first used the term ‘infantile autism’ in 1943. Mind you, he coined it then- it wasn’t the first case ever of autism, even then. Since then, the diagnosed prevalence has increased between now and then (as it now it has a name and description, although it’s always been higher for boys. Reasons for it ‘increasing’? Well, it hasn’t, really. The key is it is more clearly understood, defined, and recognized. The criteria for how it’s defined has expanded and changed a great deal over time (imagine 300 years ago if suddenly the definition of ‘people’ included blacks and women, WHOA- population explosion overnight!). The number of people recognizing it has changed, such as teachers, parents and even pediatricians who, with an America Academy of Pediatrics policy change in 2006, started routinely testing for it with patients ages 18–24 months. 1991, Autism was added by the Dept. of Education as Special Need- that also increased diagnosis. But most of all, general understanding and awareness of ASD (autism spectrum disorder) among parents increased the number of diagnoses.
Interestingly, the two things that have been linked to an increase in autism are premature births (which have dramatically increased as medicine has improved and these nuggets can be saved) AND age of sperm. As in old sperm. I’m looking at you, Malkovitch- you could single-handedly be the problem. Lol. Kidding. No one is implying you would have kids at such an advanced paternal age, especially trying to hold down an important job as Senator. Frankly, I can’t imagine you any more frazzled and confused.
To learn more about autism numbers and how they’ve changed, here is a link to the CDC ‘s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network.
2. The ‘Yeah, but vaccines CAUSE AUTISM’ defense said Mr. Late-to-the-Game-of-Facts. “Many of you may know some of the leading researchers in America say that autism is a result of vaccination.” and this, “Did you know that vaccines use aluminum which is shown to be a neurotoxin?”
Dude, if by ‘many of us’ you mean you, then maybe yeah. But if you mean the rest of out here with science, no. No leading researcher says that, or ever has. I’m going to lump these two statements together, as they are both saying the same thing- vaccines cause autism, bc of Thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative used to prevent contamination of multi-dose vials of vaccines. Research shows that thimerosal does not cause ASD. Also, as a point of interest, the only vaccines that use trace amounts of thimerosal today (safe) are flu vaccines. Because we all know the autism and vaccines theory has long been debunked and based on nothing but straight-up lies, thus wreaking havoc in our society, I’ll just leave this proof here and you go down the rabbit-hole as much as you want.
3. The ‘Dead Fetus’ theory. “Did you know tissue from aborted babies is now used in vaccines?!”
Ah, now this is a good one, buddy. You hit a few people in the solar plexus with this misleading gem. Well-played, dragging abortions into your apparent hate of facts. So, to set the record, there are two thing things to note, science-wise and religious-wise. Two are on me (facts) and one is on you because you own how you feel, no one else ( I believe religion is personal, should be respected, and never thrown on others, which is actually quite disrespectful).
Back in the early 1960s there were two abortions, one in Philly, one in England. (Neither late-term, btw) and tissues from those fetuses were used to grow vaccines. We wouldn’t have these vaccines if it were not for this part of science. These days, third generation plus growth from these two (and ONLY two) fetuses are still used to grown vaccines. So, two things to note here- There is no current abortion underground to create vaccines. Nor was there ever. Nope. and these new tissues are generations removed from the the original, so they are actually NOT the same tissue. They are NOT the tissues of aborted fetuses. That would be like calling your daughter your mother. They are different people, although they can be similarly annoying. There is a lot of interesting science behind all this, and this information on the history of vaccines is one of my favorite rabbit-holes I went down to learn more.
If you’re worried about how the Catholic Church stands on the use of these descendant cells of the two fetal strains, this is a good site to visit as it addresses it directly, The National Catholics Bioethics Center. To give you the crib notes, it’s a) ok and b) here is a letter from the Vatican saying, no worries, parents, you do your thing to keep your kids safe, vaccinate them.
So, I hope this all helped. I’m still not done with my mouth hanging open incredulously by the fact that Senator Regina Barrows showed a complete lack of wherewith-all, back bone, and commitment to let this fool just ramble on and never once defended her bill. She literally said she said she decided not to speak up against Milkovich’s comments because she couldn’t remember the specific data that debunked his comments. Regina, GIRL. NEXT TIME that happens just stand up and say, in your loudest ‘I’m a Senator that understands the bills I propose’ voice, “SCIENCE.”
You can leave it at that. Or spew facts. Shame on everyone there, btw, for letting that ignorance and hatred take over our Senate Floor for the love of sanity and not say a word. We’re talking our children, here. OUR KIDS. Lives saved –or not– because of the willfull ignorance of idiots like this.
Do you have friends in Shreveport? Business partners? Call them. Talk to them. They should feel embarrassed. Let’s not let the world of stupidity make our familial decisions. Especially when our kids lives are at stake.
This is my opinion, and as a personal opinion piece does not that reflect that of Fleur De Lis Publishing or its staff.