TORONTO - in a move anti-vaccine supporters are already claiming as a "triumph" in the war against vaccines, Toronto area homeless man, Jake Williams, known as "Spinner" to his friends and the area teenagers who torment his existence, has come out openly against vaccinations. "The way I see it, if anyone needed vaccines it would be me, a guy who sleeps in dirt many nights and is frequently attacked by raccoons", William said to a man awaiting a streetcar nervously trying to not engage Jake too much with eye contact. "Yet here I am, 40 years old, and I've never had Danish Measles, Bumps, or Rhubarb." "There you have it" said Deborah Stevens, merchandiser at the downtown Toronto Sears department store, "250 years of vaccine pseudoscience turned on its head. I salute the words of people like Jake Williams who risk their professional reputation to opine on the vaccine debate." When pressed to explain her views, Stevens, who has no scientific background, education, or interests, said "there is no evidence for the efficacy of vaccines. None. If you go on the internet you will find countless websites that can explain this to you." Todd Barron, a respected social media guru who passes for an expert in articles like this, has been following the debate on fact sources such as Twitter, Facebook and some website called Google Plus" -- a collection of random articles inside of boxes-- expressed his concerns; "I've seen a lot of the websites that anti-vaxx people cite and it just seems like since anyone can start a website for no money, that that really isn't a sufficient level of rigor on which to base our opinions on. I mean there are some bad bad things on the internet. Likewise, the science of vaccine research is wholly inaccessible and written by people who understand the lexicon of vaccines, and the statistical analysis of infections and efficacy. We are left with overly lengthy Guardian articles and Wikipedia entries. And that's something the connected world has neither the patience nor need to consider. As a web society, we turn instead to mainstream or, in some cases, Z-list celebrities for a processed, digested, and crucially -- uncritical -- view of the events." In recent weeks Similarly, Adding to the chorus of voices going public about the perceived dangers of vaccines, Jake "Spinner" Williams has the web talking. It's a curious form of celebrity for Jake, as he has never used the internet. "Don't let them put things in you," Jake advises, "who knows where that thing has been." Deborah Stevens provided further insight into the significance of Jake's speaking out, stating that "when celebrities speak, there is always a dismissal that it might just be a blatant means to increase publicity or simply the product of a mind that doesn't actually understand math, but when a man with nothing to lose speaks up, the world takes notice. Truly, Jake's message is the most important voice yet on vaccines." Please re-share if you want to get Jake's message out there. |
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