The journalists at CBS This Morning on Tuesday promoted anti-vaccine activists, highlighting their outrage over the Surgeon General appearing in a Sesame Street segment with Elmo to encourage childhood vaccinations. Co-host Gayle King huffed, "Vaccine critics don't see anything cute about this video after the controversy over of the measles outbreak."
Citing the National Vaccine Information Center [NVIC], a group that still promotes the debunked notion of a connection between autism and vaccinations, King alerted that the organization "tells CBS This Morning, quote, 'It is inappropriate for the federal government to market pharmaceutical products directly to children who have no concept of the risk.'"
NVIC is an antivax group, plain and simple. Despite hugely overwhelming tsunami-level amounts of evidence showing no link between vaccines and autism, they still think there is one. They go on and on about “vaccine injuries”, yet actual severe side effects from vaccines are very rare, especially when you realize that many millions of vaccines are given every year. The NVIC relies on anecdotes of injuries as evidence, but that's very dangerous thinking. Stories and personal observations are a good place to start—it’s how you might notice a connection between two things—but it’s not where you end. You must apply rigorous testing to your ideas, so that you can make sure you’re not seeing a connection where none exists.
On the February 10, 2015 CBS Evening News, reporter Jim Axelrod wondered how the anti-vaccination movement got "any traction at all." Perhaps it was reports such as the one on Tuesday's CBS This Morning that promote unwarranted fears.
According to the Media Research Center's Sean Long, the networks promoted anti-vaccine hysteria with 171 stories on the debunked link to autism.
On Tuesday, CBS This Morning's Norah O'Donnell introduced a separate segment on Dr. Oz and the claims that the television doctor promotes "quack treatments." Certainly, CBS is in no position to judge on that complaint.
A transcript of the April 21 CBS This Morning segment is below:
7:51
GAYLE KING: America's new surgeon general will get a ceremonial swearing in today, but Doctor Vivek Murthy faces a real fight over his new partnership in a campaign to get kids vaccinated, Elmo.
VIVEK MURTHY: Just like an umbrella protects you from the rain and a helmet protects you from hitting your head, a vaccine protect you from germs.
ELMO (singing as he gets vaccinated): 'Cause the players gonna play, play, play and the haters gonna hate, hate, hate.
KING: Elmo may be very happy to shake it off while getting a shot, but vaccine critics don't see anything cute about this video after the controversy over of the measles outbreak. The National Vaccine Information Center tells CBS This Morning, quote, "It is inappropriate for the federal government to market pharmaceutical products directly to children who have no concept of the risk." So there.
