Paranoia strikes deep in today's society

Allowing reason and logic to fly out the window in the face of a political agenda is a sad thing to witness.

In many cases it is relatively harmless, but in others it can have devastating consequences.

One of the long-term examples of this has been the repeated claim by some that "global warming" is a myth.

On more than one occasion, we have heard someone say (on a particularly cold day in the winter), "well I guess Al Gore was wrong."

In an instance like this, the point with such an observer isn't whether global warming is fact or fiction. It comes down to this -- if Al Gore said it, it can't be true.

For those who doubt the reality of global warming, we merely ask you to look at the readily-available photos of the shrinking polar ice cap. The photos in themselves destroy any politically-motivated nonsense one often hears on the subject.

Fact: the summer polar ice cap has shrunk by 20 percent since 1979 and conceivably could disappear altogether by the end of the century. We won't go into all the negative implications this has for our planet, but we can assure you they are numerous and far-reaching. We invite you to do some research.

This entire situation is largely an example of ignoring facts in favor of an ingrained political agenda. Why so many want to go down this illogical path is perplexing, but the reality of their influence is all around us.

One of the latest examples of this phenomenon is the furor over the safety of vaccinations.

Let us first say we know there are many parents and other members of our society who genuinely have concerns about safety for themselves and their children and are merely searching for information to help them make an informed decision.

But it is clear there also is a particular "branch" on the political tree using this to help fuel what can only be called anti-government paranoia in our society.

What better way to do it than to raise fears about vaccines?

In an article in a statewide newspaper, Arthur Caplan, a professor of bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, does his best to convince readers of the relative safety of vaccinations.

He does not directly address where a lot of the bad information is coming from concerning a possible link between vaccines, mercury and autism. He calls it an "urban legend" that is being spread throughout the nation.

"If there has been a more harmful urban legend circulating in our society than the vaccine-autism link, it is hard to know what it might be," he writes. "At a time when vaccines may be our last best hope in facing some of the greatest challenges we and our children face, this legend needs to be put to rest. Vaccination, not vaccine-bashing, is what this nation needs."

The myth is wrong on two counts -- first, scientists have never bought the mercury-autism link and, secondly, thimerosal/mercury has been removed from vaccines in this country and others for many years.

It is, of course, true that vaccines cause problems and side effects or deaths in a minute number of cases, as would be expected with virtually any medical procedure. But vaccinations are critical to the future health of our citizenry, especially the very young and the very old, increasingly so in this age of flu epidemics and prospects of bio-terror.

There are a significant number of our citizens looking for any reason to question and castigate science, reason and "the government" to advance their own political or philosophical agendas. It's a shame the critical area of vaccinations has been incorporated into their bag of tricks.

--REK