That should be enough buzzwords to upset the altmed crowd, for the rest of you - hello and welcome to my little piece of virtual real estate! I'll be trying to post regularly and will attemot to keep things of a vaguely scientific and skeptical nature. Though I might post pictures of kittens every so often, who knows?
Without further ado, away we go. Earlier today I came across the photo below on Twitter.
If like me, you think 'That seems a bit unusual for a Dr to say...' it might be because the Dr quoted never said such a thing. How do I know? Well, lets go through the ground rules for checking Internet quotes: did the person exist? Is there another source for the quote? Is it their quote? Is the quote/evidence believable? Is it true?
A) Did the person exist?
Yes, here's the good doctor's obituary. And yes, he did work at the National Institutes of Health, though never had a specific interest in vaccinations
B) Is there a non-Internet based source for the quote? Or a credible Internet based one?
Ideally, I'd try to contact the person to ask if the quote is theirs, and if it was, is it still in the correct context. By my previous use of the word obituary, you may have guessed that this isn't possible in this case.
Not to worry, a quick Google search for James A Shannon turns up three links that appear to mention the quote. The first appears to have the words 'sheeple', 'psychic warfare' and 'breaking the Jewish money power' on the front page so I'm edging towards non-credible. The second is from Snopes, and is no help in finding anymore about where the quote arises. The third is another forum post, who annoyingly has done exactly what I'm doing in this post. Only she got there 4 years earlier. Bugger.
So nothing credible via his name, how about the quote itself? Ah...no. Search results show me hits from such brilliant sites such as TheLibertyBeacon, NaturalHealthExplained, VaccinesUncensored, VacTruth, NewsWithViews and GodLikeProductions. I won't give the sites hits but if you're desperate you can search yourself for them. Not one gives a printed source, or even something as simple a date, for the quote. They also start sourcing one another. After all, incestuous crackpottery is best crackpottery.
C) Could the quote be someone elses?
This is always possible but even if true does not excuse the use of it next to Dr Shannon's name. I can't find the quote next to any other name so I find it unlikely.
D) Even if I can't find a source, is it believable?
This is where the terrified blondy comes in as context becomes absolutely key
Imagine you're a doctor who's been asked about whether vaccines are always safe. No, you explain, all vaccines have potential for side effects so the 'only safe vaccine is a vaccine that is never taken'. You'd then add something to the end explaining how the benefits far outweigh the risks and how vaccines rid the world of smallpox. All in all, pretty sensible and rational.
Now put the quote next to a terrified child and suddenly we're into Twilight Zone levels of sinister. Add in the lack of context and explanation, and you've got a fairly misleading quote.
Not to say that this is actually what happened.. Given that I can find no evidence Dr James A Shannon said anything remotely close to the quote above ever, it's entirely possible it is entirely fabricated.
E: Are the words true even if Dr James A Shannon didn't say them?
Well, technically yes. But only so far as the only totally sage way to live life is to not do anything. And you could still die in your sleep. The quote totally ignores the benefits of doing the action, which might be more important than the inherent danger of the action.
'The only safe coffee is one that is not drunk' - But you never get to have coffee over looking the Italian Lakes
'The only safe car journey is the one not taken' - But you can never drive an awesome road trip
'The only safe vaccine is the vaccine that is never used' - But you can never have the protection from horrible diseases such as polio, mumps, Hepatitis B, rubella, whooping cough, yellowfever, rabies and measles and might die young of a really preventable disease.
All in all, there is NOTHING of substance to support the link between Dr James A Shannon and the words attributed to him. In all likelihood, the quote was invented by an anti-vaccine campaigner years ago and has been misattributed ever since. If by some miracle the good doctor did say the quote, I'd be frankly amazed if it hadn't been taken out of context in fairly immense fashion.
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