Viewpoint: ‘Denouncing’ HBO, Bill Maher for helping Dr. Jay Gordon spread vaccine misinformation

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Image: HBO

Dr. Jay Gordon (who usually likes to be called “Dr. Jay”) and I go back a long time, ever since I first noticed him spreading antivaccine propaganda that vaccines cause autism in 2005 on the then-embryonic Huffington Post.

If, as he claims, Dr. Jay is “not antivaccine”, though, why did he appear on Real Time With Bill Maher [November 1] and spew antivaccine tropes in front of a national audience?

The entire interview with Dr. Jay was a large segment of the show, nearly one quarter of its running time, and it was a segment devoted to spreading antivaccine misinformation, fear mongering, appeals to ignorance, and false equivalencies.

What I should have done then but am going to do now is to denounce HBO. By airing a show in which the host is allowed to spout antivaccine pseudoscience, fear mongering, and conspiracy theories, along with clearly refutable outright misinformation about vaccines to a national—no, worldwide—audience in the middle of a huge measles outbreak in the US (and much larger measles outbreaks elsewhere) resulting from vaccine hesitancy, HBO is complicit in facilitating the spread of antivaccine misinformation.

Read full, original post: Shame on HBO! Bill Maher interviews Dr. Jay Gordon and the antivaccine misinformation flows.

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