The human papillomavirus, or HPV has been directly linked with cervical cancer, which kills 4,000 women in the United States alone every year. The Gardasil vaccination prevents infection. Over a hundred million doses of the vaccine have been administered, and have shown no link to either short- or long-term health problems.So yesterday Couric played host to a group who say that Gardasil is dangerous - with no proof.
As stated by Phil Plait in his blog today,
"The real problem with this entire segment on the “Katie” show was the false balance: The idea that there are two sides to this story. That is grossly unfair; the evidence is vastly on the side of the vaccine having extremely little risk, and no solid evidence at all that it causes harm. It’s not as though the research on this is split. Dedicating most of the segment to the stories of people who claimed it harmed them is not real balance or responsible journalism."
I hate the people who have strong opinions but then hide behind the cop-out "teach the controversy" when they aren't able support their far-fetched claims; they just use that dreaded phrase to sound impartial. After the infamous phrase is used, the debate just turns to a name calling fight since any rationalization has been lost from lack of facts.
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