Reply #48: First of all, the phrase 'vaccine worshippers' is offensive

[LeftishBrit]

'Vaccine defenders/ promoters/ supporters' or 'pro-vaccine people' is appropriate. (In fact I am anything but a 'worshipper' of the seasonal flu vaccine for example; I think it needs a great deal of development and improvement.)

Secondly, I did not say that ALL who object to vaccines are right-wing. I said that it was commoner on the right than on the left, as indicated by the many anti-vaccine campaigners on the right, from the Daily Mail, to Judicial Watch, to various religious and 'teabagger' groups.

But here's a deal: you stop accusing vaccine defenders of being linked to Big Pharma unless they say so, and I'll stop pointing out the right-wing links to vaccine criticism, except when such a site is explicitly quoted.

ETA: I actually agree that the expressions at the beginning of the article were inappropriate and unhelpful: 'Yet there’s one smug subgroup whose sense of entitlement endangers the rest. No, not poor Medicaid moms or Social Security grannies. The treacherous group is those parents, predominately those of some financial means, who refuse to vaccinate their children.' The author could have made the point about the dangers of anti-vaccine ideologies without using such terms as 'smug' and 'treacherous'.