American Politics Is Full of Medical Doctors With Insane Ideas
Some day, an academic historian will write the definitive history of how, in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, American politics became so thick with medical doctors who ascribe to crazy ideas. First among them, of course, will be former Congressman Paul Broun of Georgia, who told a local sportsmen's banquet back home that everything he'd learned in medical school was a tool of the devil in one way or another.
It turns out that we have a new entry in that lengthy calendar of wingnut Asclepii. From The Tennessean in Nashville:
Not only did Republican Mark Green, a Congressman-elect from Clarksville who is also a medical doctor, express hesitation about the CDC's stance on vaccines, Green said he believed the federal health agency has "fraudulently managed" the data. His remarks came in response to an audience question at a town hall meeting in Franklin from a woman identifying herself as the parent of a young adult with autism. The woman was concerned about possible cuts to Medicaid funding.
"Let me say this about autism," Green said. "I have committed to people in my community, up in Montgomery County, to stand on the CDC’s desk and get the real data on vaccines. Because there is some concern that the rise in autism is the result of the preservatives that are in our vaccines...As a physician, I can make that argument and I can look at it academically and make the argument against the CDC, if they really want to engage me on it."
Of course, the CDC, and most other professional medical organizations, to say nothing of the entire research community, have engaged these arguments over and over again, debunking them six ways from Sunday as both meritless and dangerous to the public health. But that's not going to stop Dr. Congressman-elect Green.
At the town hall, Green emphasized that he would make it a priority to "stand against" what he believes may be the CDC withholding information on vaccine research. "But it appears some of that data has been, honestly, maybe fraudulently managed," Green said. "So we've got to go up there and stand against that and make sure we get that fixed, that issue addressed."
In a statement Wednesday to USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee, Green elaborated that he was referring to discussions in the House in recent years, such as a concern raised in 2015 by Rep. Bill Posey, R-Florida, that the CDC covered up a possible link between autism and childhood vaccines. "It has been suggested on the floor of the House that the CDC may have not been transparent with data," Green said. "Parents should vaccinate their children, but more research definitely needs to be done."
Green said he "would encourage families to get vaccinated at this time," and confirmed that he and his wife had vaccinated their children. "There appears to be some evidence that as vaccine numbers increase, rates of autism increase," Green said. "We need better research, and we need it fast. We also need complete transparency of any data. Vaccines are essential to good population health. But that does not mean we should not look closely at the correlation for any causation."
Green may be familiar to some close observers of the antics down at Camp Runamuck. For about 11 seconds, he was the president*'s choice to be Secretary of the Army, but he was found to hold views that were...well, shall we say, eccentric?
Green, a state senator who will be sworn in Jan. 3 as a freshman in the U.S. House of Representatives, has previously come under fire for other controversial comments. Among them were remarks that cost the Iraq war veteran a job as President Donald Trump's Army secretary, causing him to withdraw his nomination for the post last year amid criticism over statements he made about gays, lesbians, transgender people and Muslims.
Critics of his nomination at the time pointed to Green’s sponsorship of a bill that would allow mental health providers to refuse to treat LGBT patients. He also supported legislation to prevent transgender high school and college students from using public bathroom facilities. “If you poll the psychiatrists, they're going to tell you transgender is a disease," Green said at a Chattanooga Tea Party event in 2016.
Green was elected to fill the seat abandoned by Marsha (Baby Parts For Sale) Blackburn who, through the grace of a distracted god and the people of Tennessee, will be inflicting herself on the U.S. Senate for at least the next six years. Democracy is the worst form of government ever devised, except for...except for... I forget the last part.
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