"Vaccines are magical and not at all broken"

Most of my time in the car I am listening to either podcasts or talk radio - they are God's gifts to commuters. In my morning commute I listen to the previous night's broadcast of the Steve Deace show. He discusses politics with a Christian, biblical worldview - it has become one of my favorites as the host and regular team have a great sense of humor and penchant for snark. 

They are lovers of truth and as such are aware of the difference between "SCIENCE!" (the idol) and real, genuine science whose purpose is discovering information that is both factual and truthful (truth being far more than mere facts - but facts are absolutely part of truth). As a christian I know that there is not one element of truth that does not flow first and foremost from Jesus Christ - He is the source of all truth.  

One of the regular team is Todd Erzen (@DeaceOnline) and the title of this particular post is a riff off of a snarky, scathingly sarcastic quip he says about journalism, which is his professional background ("Journalism is magical and not at all broken"). I linked to a piece he wrote "Villany, Virtue, and Vaccination" on a previous post (Feb 3, 2015) - the link to that piece is now broken, I will post an update if/when I can get a functioning link. 

The thought that "vaccines are magical and not at all broken" or that vaccines are "safe and effective" would fall within the perview of the statement that a lie repeated often enough is believed to be true (attributed to Goebbels, Williams James, Hitler and/or Lenin).

This past Friday (Jan 28, 2017) he (Erzen) brought up the issue of vaccines (starting at the 1hr:14min mark). It was in the context of "The Deace Group", a take-off of "The McLaughlin Group" where they are making predictions for the coming year. Mr. Erzen is not very optimistic of the odds that the issue of vaccination will get the hearing it deserves regardless of President Trump's views on it - and he has expressed skepticism regarding the flu vaccine in particular and concern that vaccines may be contributing to autism as well. Erzen stated he was glad that Trump is looking into it (as am I). 

At one point (1hr:27min mark) the show's producer,  Aaron McIntire (@DeaceProducer) poses the question "If you could head up any scientific study, what would it be?" - Erzen re-visits the issue of vaccines stating he would do a comprehensive study on the use of vaccination. At this point the Aaron expresses an interest in following up with Erzen for a more in depth discussion about the issue of vaccines. I hope they have this conversation. 
It is clear Erzen's interest in and knowledge of vaccination is not superficial but he does 
not disclose what motivates his interest in vaccines.

I hope Todd Erzen's comments about vaccines caused a few more people to have a greater curiosity about this issue and will move them to give them a much deeper examination. Even better I hope this evaluation will lead more to demand better science (not "SCIENCE!") from our public health officials and even more importantly greater freedom in medical decision making around vaccination. 

Personally, I would refer to greater freedom in the use of vaccines as a return to normalcy - the standard is freedom to decide what, if anything, is injected into your body. Our current state of affairs is a serious, and dangerous deviation from what should be the norm - being able to chose a medical intervention, or refuse it, without consequence to any other facet of your life.