Post : How Jay Gordon On Bill Maher Helps Explain Our Anti-Vaccine Problems
URL : [link removed]
Posted : November 4, 2019 at 11:04 am
Author : Vincent Iannelli, MD
Tags : #SaidNoDoctor, alternative vaccine schedules, Bill Maher, celebrities, Doctor Contrarian, fear, hiding in the herd, Jay Gordon, Jenny McCarthy, misinformed consent, Peter Hotez, risks, side effects
Categories : Vaccine Misinformation

Jay Gordon has been on TV a lot in his career.

> “Parents from around Southern California choose Gordon for his outspoken and controversial stance on vaccinations, driving from as far away as Santa Barbara and Long Beach.
>
> They know he will lend a sympathetic ear to their concerns about the possible adverse side effects of childhood vaccinations — even though several large scientific studies have failed to find a connection.
>
> His openness to alternative approaches has earned him an avid following. With thousands of patients, his practice is so busy that he no longer accepts new patients.”
>
> Los Angeles Times on Doctor Contrarian

Often described as a celebrity pediatrician, partly because he sees many of the kids of Hollywood celebrities ( [link removed] ) , the Los Angeles Times once named him Doctor Contrarian.

How Jay Gordon On Bill Maher Helps Explain Our Anti-Vaccine Problems

Jay Gordon has become a bit of a celebrity in his own right too, with appearances on Good Morning America, with Cindy Crawford ( [link removed] ) , the Ricki Lake Show, the Doctors, and he was even a regular on ABC TV's Home Show back in the 1990s.

[link removed] #SaidNoDoctor, except Dr. Jay Gordon, who made this statement about the HPV vaccine on the Ricki Lake Show. How many kids ended up getting HPV because their parents listened?

Although he claims he is not anti-vaccine ( [link removed] ) , Jay Gordon ( [link removed] ) has made many other statements over the years that had vaccine advocates shaking their heads.

His main idea is that vaccines should be given on a slower schedule ( [link removed] ) , just one or two at a time and that some shouldn't be given until kids are "developmentally solid."

[link removed] To clarify my statement, a severe reaction ( [link removed] ) isn't a reason to stop vaccinating a child all together.

Of course, giving vaccines later ( [link removed] ) just leaves these kids at risk to get a vaccine-preventable disease while they are waiting, without any extra benefit of fewer side effects.

Sure, we would see fewer reactions associated with vaccines ( [link removed] ) , because the same conditions would be occurring, but the kids would not have gotten a vaccine to be associated with it.

[link removed] His "front lines" are parents in Southern California who don't want to vaccinate their kids...

Is Jay Gordon ( [link removed] ) an expert on vaccines?

[link removed] Jay Gordon lists all of the credentials of Dr. Hotez, none of which he has, and then tells him he is wrong!

It should be clear that he is not.

> "I talk much more quietly, because I have no proof."
>
> Jay Gordon

Talking on TV is not exactly talking quietly...

But let's take a quick look at some of his statements on Real Time with Bill Maher to help those who might think that he is.

> B. Maher: I'm just saying vaccines, like every medicine, has side effects… So let’s not deny that or pretend it doesn’t happen. Which ones? How much? How do we manage this? This is not crazy talk.
>
> Jay Gordon: We don’t do it the way we should do it. Manufacturers don't put... We don’t manufacture vaccines as well as we could. We have a schedule that is invariable for every single child, one size doesn't really fit all. The polio vaccine that I would get as a 180 lb. man is the same that I give to a 12 lb. baby. We could do it a lot better. I don't want to bring polio back. I don't want to bring measles back. Measles is a nasty illness.
>

No one denies that vaccines have side effects ( [link removed] ) . The thing is, vaccines do not cause each and every thing that anti-vax folks claim that they do. They don't cause autism ( [link removed] ) , SIDS ( [link removed] ) , most non-febrile seizures ( [link removed] ) , eczema ( [link removed] ) , diabetes ( [link removed] ) , MS ( [link removed] ) , ADHD ( [link removed] ) , asthma, cancer ( [link removed] ) , food allergies, rheumatoid arthritis ( [link removed] ) , or POTS ( [link removed] ) , etc.

What about Jay's comments?

Interestingly, Jay has often said that measles ( [link removed] ) isn't that bad...

> "This measles outbreak does not pose a great risk to a healthy child. And quite frankly I don't think it poses any risk to a healthy child."
>
> Jay Gordon on Doctor explains why he lets kids avoid the measles vaccine

Healthy kids can just die ( [link removed] ) with measles though. And healthy kids are at later risk to develop SSPE ( [link removed] ) , which is fatal.

And if he doesn't understand that vaccines aren't given based on the weight of the child or adult ( [link removed] ) , then he is clearly not a vaccine expert.

[link removed] If you are scaring parents ( [link removed] ) away from getting vaccinated, then giving vaccines on an alternative schedule ( [link removed] ) doesn't mean that you aren't anti-vaccine...

If he doesn't understand the consequences of his slow vaccine schedule, especially if more parents actually started listening to him, then he is clearly not a vaccine expert.

Mostly, he seems to be an expert on pandering to parents who already have fears of vaccinating ( [link removed] ) and protecting their kids.

[link removed] The kids that are vaccinated at "a different pace and thought process" are simply hiding in the herd ( [link removed] ) . They don't get sick because the rest of us are vaccinated and protected, but that system breaks down if more people start listening to Dr. Jay.

And what he has never understood, even if he does get some of these parents to vaccinate on a slower schedule, his rhetoric likely gets many more parents ( [link removed] ) started on the road to thinking vaccines are harmful or not necessary.

Jay Gordon has been wrong before, as you can see in the way he has changed his stance on the HPV vaccine, which he says he now gives, and he is wrong now.

[link removed]

And his advise is indeed contrary to that of the American Academy of Pediatrics, which makes you wonder why he is still allowed to be a member.

> “There is no ‘alternative’ immunization schedule. Delaying vaccines only leaves a chil​d at risk of disease for a longer period of time; it does not make vaccinating safer. 
>
> Vaccines work, plain and simple. Vaccines are one of the safest, most effective and most important medical innovations of our time. Pediatricians partner with parents to provide what is best for their child, and what is best is for children to be fully vaccinated.”
>
> Karen Remley, MD, MBA, MPH, FAAP, Executive Director, American Academy of Pediatrics​

Maybe its time that Doctor Contrarian stopped thinking everyone else is wrong and he takes a long and hard look at his own views on vaccines.

> "Nothing I do is free. I feel like I should give you a little bit of a discussion before I recommend Tylenol, because of the impact on the liver. A discussion about ibuprofen, because of the impact on the kidneys. And when someone gets antibiotics from me, I talk to them. You know, there could be a yeast infection. You could get diarrhea and a rash. Sorry about the diarrhea and the rash. But with vaccines, the discussion is closed."
>
> Jay Gordon

Health care providers are hopefully all giving their patients a vaccine information sheet and informed consent ( [link removed] ) , so the discussion is certainly not closed when they give kids vaccines.

Does Jay discuss the potential risks of delaying or skipping vaccines?

Will he say sorry about the rotavirus, measles, tetanus, and diphtheria?

Vaccines are safe ( [link removed] ) , with few risks ( [link removed] ) , and are very necessary ( [link removed] ) .

Although he thinks he is taking the middle road, Jay Gordon simply helps fuel the modern anti-vaccine movement.

To be sure though, along the way, he certainly has been in the middle of things...

[link removed] March 1997 article in the LA Times describing how media savvy “skeptics” were attacking vaccines.

From his appearance on Good Morning America in 2000 to discuss why Cindy Crawford wasn't vaccinating her baby, just as Wakefield ( [link removed] ) was getting started, to testifying against SB277, California's vaccine law, that didn't work because doctors simply started writing unnecessary medical exemptions ( [link removed] ) , he has been there. And let's not forget that he was Jenny McCarthy ( [link removed] ) 's pediatrician!

> "I'm just saying, 'we don't know shit,' that's why when doctors, when you get a diagnosis, the other doctor gives you another one. They say, right away, get a second opinion."
>
> Bill Maher

Bill Maher ( [link removed] ) was right about one thing, if you are going to Jay Gordon for advice about vaccines - get a second opinion ( [link removed] ) .

More on Jay Gordon and Bill Maher

* ADA - Statement on Dental Amalgam ( [link removed] )
* How does anesthesia work? ( [link removed] )
* Can Flu Shots Cause the Flu? ( [link removed] )
* False Balance about Vaccines ( [link removed] ) ( [link removed] )
* What Are the Signs of MTHFR Mutations? ( [link removed] )
* Is a Family History of Altered Immunocompetence a Contraindication to Getting Vaccinated? ( [link removed] )
* How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Hurts Autistic Families ( [link removed] )
* Disease Friendly Doctors ( [link removed] )
* The Moral Responsibility of the Anti-Vaccine Movement ( [link removed] )
* What Are the Greatest Tricks Anti-Vaccine Folks Use to Persuade Parents to Skip Vaccines? ( [link removed] )
* More Questions to Help You Become a Vaccine Skeptic ( [link removed] )
* Bill Maher Welcomes Anti-Vaxxer Jay Gordon To Real Time ( [link removed] )
* Bill Maher agreed with a controversial doctor, repeating a debunked theory that it was 'realistic' that vaccines have caused autism in children ( [link removed] )
* Dr. Jay Gordon and me: Random encounters with an apologist for the antivaccine movement ( [link removed] )
* How is it that antivaccine pediatricians keep their medical licenses? ( [link removed] )
* Dr. Jay Gordon – “Anti-Vaccination” ( [link removed] )
* Moms Who Vax: What Middle Ground? ( [link removed] )
* Inventing your own vaccine schedule? Not a wise idea. ( [link removed] )
* An example of how alternate vaccine schedules endanger children ( [link removed] )
* Avoiding False Balance: Vaccines in the Media ( [link removed] )
* Science deniers use false equivalence to create fake debates ( [link removed] )
* Christine Maggiore, vocal skeptic of AIDS research, dies at 52 ( [link removed] )
* A Mother’s Denial, a Daughter’s Death ( [link removed] )
* Christine Maggiore and Eliza Jane Scovill: Living and dying with HIV/AIDS denialism ( [link removed] )
* HIV skeptic faces child’s death ( [link removed] )
* Did HIV-Positive Mom’s Beliefs Put Her Children at Risk? ( [link removed] )
* 90 percent of children who died from flu not vaccinated ( [link removed] )
* Doctor explains why he lets kids avoid the measles vaccine ( [link removed] )

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