Whooping cough and the Echo Chamber

From USA Today:

"Whooping cough epidemic declared in Wash. state:"  This could be a headline from the 1930s, but instead it's from May of 2012.  Whooping cough (or pertussis) is a highly contagious disease that used to cause thousands of deaths per year--mostly in infants.  With the development of the pertussis vaccine in the 1940s, whooping cough was largely eradicated in this country.  


Why is there an epidemic of the disease in Washington then?

Washington has the highest school exemption rate from vaccinations in the country (6.2%).  And, now, Washington is dealing with a pertussis epidemic.

Why does Washington have the highest vaccination exemption rate in the country and now a whooping cough epidemic?  Because of the sad fact that myth often has the power to defeat logic and fact, that's why . . . .

Sexist ads for Milk? Yup.

#TheHandmaid's Tale--From the New York Times:

Remember that "Unwritten Rules of Being a Girl" discussion we had?  It gets worse.

In July 2011, the California Milk Processor Board ran a series of ads suggesting that milk could help women control the symptoms of PMS.  The ads are based upon two small studies done in 1998 and 2005, which were not peer-reviewed or repeated in any other studies.  The studies' results suggested that 1,200 milligrams of calcium might help the symptoms of the (only) 15-20 percent of women who suffer from PMS symptoms severe enough to cause them difficulty in day-to-day life.  

The CMPR didn't let that stop them from running ads (mostly online) like the one above that cast women as being controlled by their biology and becoming so hysterical and agitated that men have to apologize to the woman for failing to understand her irrationality (which puts the actual blame on the woman) and then give her milk to somehow sedate her hysteria.

For more of these ads, click inside: