Next on the Google U Curriculum: YouTube Vaccine Videos
December 7, 2007 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
It’s been oft-quoted that New York Times bestselling author/autism mother/celebrity Jenny McCarthy got her education in how to help—recover; cure—-her son from autism from Google U. (See page 11 of Louder Than Words: A Mother’s Journey in Healing Autism: “I decided to start doing some research—and by research. I mean Google. By the end of the book, you will see that I should have a doctorate in Google research……..”)
Besides those Google-D.’s, it seems that it is now possible to fulfill some core curriculum requirements towards that degree via YouTube, especially if what you seek is a (science) course in anti-vaccination views. Though I’d have to add a caveat to the erstwhile student, as far as learning “history” (unless it’s the New McCarthyism that you seek).
Ah, but YouTube is a breeding ground for the opposite as well: Its “posautive” group has numerous “anti-curebie” videos.
The nice thing about getting advanced degrees from Google U is that you can eventually uncover lots of different viewpoints, if you are willing to spend the time sifting through all the junk!
The December 5, 2007 Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) contains a “Research Letter” detailing a study of YouTube videos concerning vaccination.
The authors identified 153 YouTube videos that dealt with vaccination. Somewhat amazingly, 73 were considered “positive”, 49 were considered “negative”, and 31 were classified as “ambiguous”.
Not so surprisingly, of the 14 that dealt with “Thimerosol-Immunization”, 12 purported that “Thimerosol can cause autism”
Joe
Thanks for the stats—-I continue to stick with more traditional sources in my own classroom.