Drowning In The Conspira-Sea

Summary

Podcast Summary: "The Dream" Episode - "Drowning In The Conspira-Sea"

Podcast Information:

• Title: The Dream
• Host: Little Everywhere
• Description: Reimagined as a weekly interview podcast focusing on the "American Dream" and the obstacles that hinder its achievement, with increased creative freedom in presentation.

Episode Details:

• Episode Title: Drowning In The Conspira-Sea
• Release Date: February 18, 2025

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1. Introduction to the Episode

Jane Marie reintroduces the podcast by revisiting a previous episode from the second season, focusing on the intersection of wellness and conspiracy theories. The episode emphasizes the pervasive distrust in big pharma, the medical industrial complex, and government institutions, which fuels the growth of conspiracy theories within the wellness industry.

Jane Marie [00:33]: "Here in the US we have a long and storied history of big pharma and the medical industrial complex and the government defrauding citizens."

2. Spotlight on Anna Merlin

Anna Merlin, a senior reporter at Mother Jones and author of Republic of American Conspiracy Theorists and their Surprising Rise to Power, is introduced as the guest. Her work delves into various conspiracy theories, highlighting their roots and the reasons behind their increasing popularity.

Anna Merlin [03:12]: "I write a lot about subcultures, broadly alternative religious movements, alternative beliefs... especially the anti vaccine movement and its increasing social and political power."

3. Public Belief in Medical Conspiracies

Anna Merlin cites studies indicating that half of Americans believe in at least one medical conspiracy theory, with nearly 20% endorsing more than three. This widespread belief underscores the significant impact conspiracy theories have on public health and perception.

Anna Merlin [03:12]: "...half of us, half of Americans, believe in at least one medical conspiracy."

4. Conspiracy Theory Gatherings: The Conspiracy Sea Cruise

Anna recounts her experience attending the "Conspiracy Sea" cruise, a gathering for conspiracy theorists. The event features speakers who propagate various unfounded theories, blending alternative spirituality with distrust in established institutions.

Anna Merlin [04:10]: "So the thing that got me writing about conspiracy theories in a concerted way is that I went on a cruise for conspiracy theor called the Conspiracy Sea."

Highlights from the Cruise:

• Laura Eisenhower promotes beliefs that challenge established scientific facts, claiming global manipulations and hidden agendas.

  Laura Eisenhower [04:37]: "They don't want you to know that they're using HAARP to control the weather... there is a small cartel of about 750 people that own everything."

5. The Andrew Wakefield Case and Anti-Vaccination Movement

A significant portion of the discussion centers on Andrew Wakefield, notorious for his debunked study linking the MMR vaccine to autism. Anna Merlin explains how Wakefield's actions have fueled one of the most dangerous health conspiracies.

Jane Marie [05:49]: "In 1998, he published a quote unquote study where he claimed that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, MMR for short, caused autism."

Key Points:

• Wakefield's study, funded by parents of autistic children aiming to sue vaccine manufacturers, lacked scientific rigor.

• Despite the retraction of his study and loss of medical license, Wakefield continues to propagate misinformation, leveraging new theories to maintain relevance.

  Jane Marie [07:00]: "His latest theory is that... there's a link between gut health and autism... But remember, correlation does not equal causation."

6. Commercialization of Alternative Therapies

The episode highlights how conspiracy theories are monetized through the sale of alternative therapies at conferences like Autism One and Conscious Life. These events often blend pseudo-scientific claims with wellness products, creating lucrative opportunities for promoters.

Anna Merlin [10:49]: "They leave the lecture hall and they literally enter a marketplace immediately... people selling things that are very effective."

Examples of Sold Products:

• Hyperbaric Oxygen Chambers

• Dangerous Drugs for Heavy Metal Removal

• Neurofeedback Machines

• Bleach Drinking Regimens

• Supplements like "Speak"

  Bonnie Patton [15:04]: "This supplement was really incredible. You give it to your autistic child and within a very small amount of time, your child will start being able to speak again."

7. The Allure of Community and Purpose

Anna Merlin discusses the psychological factors that make conspiracy communities appealing. These groups provide individuals with a sense of meaning, purpose, and community, especially for those grappling with health diagnoses that make them feel vulnerable and out of control.

Anna Merlin [25:24]: "Alternative communities... give people shape and meaning and purpose in community where they didn't maybe previously feel like they had it."

8. Personal Impact: Jane Marie’s Measles Experience

Jane Marie shares her personal ordeal with influenza B that initially mimicked measles symptoms, underscoring the real-world consequences of declining vaccination rates fueled by conspiracy theories.

Jane Marie [26:23]: "I spent three days without my daughter and was billed over $20,000 by the hospital."

She emphasizes the resurgence of measles, eradicated in 2000, linking it directly to the anti-vaccine movement's rise.

Jane Marie [27:01]: "We eradicated measles... Last year, there were almost 1300 cases in 31 states."

9. Concluding Insights on the Risks of Conspiracy Theories

The episode concludes by reflecting on the dangers posed by medical conspiracy theories. These beliefs not only undermine public health initiatives like vaccination but also perpetuate harmful misinformation, leading to increased illness and societal strain.

Jane Marie [27:18]: "There is a market in telling people that you might be sick and that constant vigilance of your physical body is the only thing standing between you and the gaping maw of the grave."

10. Final Thoughts and Call to Action

Jane Marie wraps up the episode by highlighting the critical need for accurate information and the dangers of unchecked conspiracy theories. She invites listeners to contribute to the conversation by sharing their observations of unsettling happenings.

Jane Marie [27:18]: "We have a tip line open... leave us a message about anything that you think is funky out there."

---

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Jane Marie [00:33]:

  "Here in the US we have a long and storied history of big pharma and the medical industrial complex and the government defrauding citizens."

• Anna Merlin [03:12]:

  "I write a lot about subcultures, broadly alternative religious movements, alternative beliefs... especially the anti vaccine movement and its increasing social and political power."

• Laura Eisenhower [04:37]:

  "They don't want you to know that they're using HAARP to control the weather... there is a small cartel of about 750 people that own everything."

• Jane Marie [05:49]:

  "In 1998, he published a quote unquote study where he claimed that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, MMR for short, caused autism."

• Bonnie Patton [15:04]:

  "This supplement was really incredible. You give it to your autistic child and within a very small amount of time, your child will start being able to speak again."

• Anna Merlin [25:24]:

  "Alternative communities... give people shape and meaning and purpose in community where they didn't maybe previously feel like they had it."

• Jane Marie [27:01]:

  "We eradicated measles... Last year, there were almost 1300 cases in 31 states."

---

Conclusion

"Drowning In The Conspira-Sea" explores the intricate web of conspiracy theories within the wellness industry, highlighting their historical roots, psychological appeal, and the tangible dangers they pose to public health. Through insightful discussions and personal anecdotes, the episode underscores the urgent need to address misinformation and promote scientific literacy to safeguard the American Dream against forces that seek to undermine it.

Transcript

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[Jane Marie]

Welcome back to the Dream. I'm Jane Marie. Today we're going to replay an episode from our second season of this show where we talked about wellness and conspiracy theories in wellness. Yesterday's guest, Anna Merlin does a lot of reporting in that space. And even five years ago, she kind of knew what was coming. Here in the US we have a long and storied history of big pharma and the medical industrial complex and the government defrauding citizens. Take this recent example. So you know how when you go to the doctor nowadays, they take a seat at a computer and pull up your records. Those programs you see on the screen always look kind of clunky to me. But someone designed them precisely for the purpose of tracking your health information for your doctor. And insurance companies, one of those companies that designs the software that keeps track of all your health data got busted by the U.S. district Attorney's Office of Vermont for conspiring with an opioid manufacturer. Here's how the scam played out. Say you go in for back pain. Your doctor can ask you to rate the pain, ask about other symptoms, etc. Bleep, bleep, blorp. They enter it into the computer program and the program spits out possible treatments, maybe physical therapy or ibuprofen, rest, heat packs, ice or drugs. Well, in this scheme, not only did the drug company offer kickbacks to the software company to list its opiates in the menu of choices, the software company also let the drug company come in and help them design the program. You know, help them choose what ailments, what criteria would trigger a suggestion to prescribe their drug? They were fined $145 million. Or how about all the syphilis studies done on people without their permission? Or radiation experiments carried out during the Cold War on poor folks and prisoners and children. One government study by the US Atomic Energy Commission in Quaker Oats involved 73 mentally disabled kids who were told they were joining a science club but in fact were being poisoned by radioactive oatmeal. Even though these incidents are few and far between, they're Enough for conspiracy theorists to hang their hats on for someone to say, well, this is just the stuff we know about. Imagine what these bad actors are really hiding. The wellness industry benefits from these seeds of doubt plants them and sows them into fruitful fields of products and therapies and movements that too often end up causing more harm than the stories that inspired them.

[Anna Merlin]

My name is Anna Merlin and I'm a senior reporter at Mother Jones.

[Jane Marie]

Anna wrote a book called Republic of American Conspiracy Theorists and their Surprising Rise to Power. She covers all kinds of conspiracies in the book, from the understandable to the way out there stuff. And in it she cites studies that show that half of us, half of Americans, believe in at least one medical conspiracy. Almost 20% believe in more than three medical conspiracy theories.

[Anna Merlin]

I write a lot about subcultures, broadly alternative religious movements, alternative beliefs. And so as a subsection of that, a few years ago, I. I started writing really deeply about conspiracy theories and I got especially involved in writing about the anti vaccine movement and sort of its increasing social and political power.

[Jane Marie]

Anna has spent a ton of time going to conferences and meetings and rallies held by people and organizations who believe that some scary bad actor is trying to fool us when it comes to our health. One of those meetings she attended was on a boat.

[Anna Merlin]

So the thing that got me writing about conspiracy theories in a concerted way is that I went on a cruise for conspiracy theor called the Conspiracy Sea. Sea. It's a good pun. Yeah.

[Laura Eisenhower]

Welcome to the conspiracy cruise. I just want to tell you that conspiracy theorists are always right. You're with me. Give me an amen.

[Jane Marie]

Here are some clips from a video Refinery 29 made while on the Conspiracy Cruise in 2016.

[Laura Eisenhower]

This thing we call reality is just another form of dream. When you look at what happened on 9 11, we cannot have been told the truth. It's not who killed jfk. It's who didn't kill jfk. Everybody was in on jfk. This young lady, beautiful, beautiful lady, is a global alchemist, a cosmic mythologist, intuitive astrologist. She is the amazing Laura Eisenhower. Grab her microphone right there.

[Jane Marie]

I was recruited to go off planet in 2006, and I learned a lot about what's going on behind the scenes because of that. So I share theories, but I also share things that are about as close.

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To fact as I can get as.

[Jane Marie]

Far as what I've seen and experience. You twist those knobs and you tune.

[Laura Eisenhower]

It to a particular frequency or a rate that helps you quantify what you.

[Jane Marie]

Want and then manifest it.

[Laura Eisenhower]

They don't want you to know that they're using HAARP to control the weather. They don't want you to know what's in Area 51. They don't want you to know that there is a small cartel of about 750 people that own everything.

[Anna Merlin]

While I was there, another person who was on the boat with me was Andrew Wakefield, who is the person who authored the now debunked study claiming that there was a causal link between the MMR vaccine and what he called regressive autism.

[Jane Marie]

Okay, let's pause here and back up for a minute. For those of you who've never heard of Andrew Wakefield, you're lucky he's the guy at the root of the decades long public panic around vaccines, perhaps the most widespread and dangerous health conspiracy out there. In 1998, he published a quote unquote study where he claimed that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, MMR for short, caused autism. The story of how he got there and how he was eventually kicked out of the mainstream medical community is fascinating and cruel in a lot of ways. Back in the 90s, Wakefield was a gastroenterologist, someone who studies how our guts function. And he was doing research at the Royal Free Hospital in London, a legit hospital. The story goes, at least according to him and his devotees, that he witnessed a causal link between the MMR vaccine and autism. And so he held this big press conference to tell people that he could no longer morally support giving that vaccine to children. What he didn't say was far scarier. Earlier in the 90s, in other papers, he claimed that the same vaccine caused irritable bowel syndrome. No, wait, in another paper, he said it caused Crohn's disease. It caused something. According to Wakefield, it must, because he had just filed a patent for a single shot measles vaccine. And what's the easiest way to switch people from a triple threat vaccine to your regressive seeming single threat one? Tell them it'll hurt their kids the way Wakefield did. This is some evil genius shit. Not only did he get funding for this MMR autism study from parents of autistic children who were planning to sue vaccine makers, who he recruited only 12 kids for the study, eight of whom already showed symptoms. That is not a scientific study. Nevertheless, his research appeared in the Lancet Medical journal. Parents read it and everyone freaked out for a number of years until finally his theory was disproven enough times that the Lancet published a retraction and Wakefield lost his medical license. Andrew Wakefield himself, however, never made a public apology or anything like that. To the contrary, he played the victim, stating that his study was just too revolutionary. What happened next is not that surprising, but pretty annoying and dangerous. Wakefield decided that he still wanted to make a lot of money and that's how he ended up on this cruise. For self identifying conspiracy theorists, you'd think that a doctor who takes himself seriously wouldn't be caught dead in that sort of environment. But Wakefield came up with some new bullshit to sell, so he's gotta go wherever people are buying. His latest theory is that, okay, now stick with me because this gets really convoluted. He found a new opportunity in the emerging field of gut health. The idea that the flora in your stomach contributes to things like serotonin production. He's taken this pretty mainstream research and used it to claim that there's a link between gut health and autism, as evidenced by the improved behavior of autistic children put on restrictive diets. But remember, correlation does not equal causation.

[Anna Merlin]

What he's seizing on broadly is that nonverbal autistic kids, when they're in pain, they can't express it verbally and often like the way that they express it non verbally is extremely alarming for them and their parents because they're obviously hurting and it's hard to figure out why. And so you'll find that a lot of parents with autistic kids who go down the anti vaccine road start by restrictive diets, no gluten diet and no casein diet. Something that they think will aid their kids gastrointestinal symptoms and like make them feel better. Yeah, so it's, you know, it is a, again, it is a totally understandable thing to want to cut something out of your kid's diet that you think might be hurting them. And it is sort of a gateway towards some of these other claims.

[Jane Marie]

Preaching this new gospel, one centered around diet, in addition to his persistent anti vaxx stance, has been quite lucrative for Wakefield and it's helped him maintain the attention of one of the world's money hungriest leaders.

[Laura Eisenhower]

And we've had so many instances, people that worked for me just the other day, two years old, two and a half years old, a child, a beautiful child went to have the vaccine and came back and a week later got a tremendous fever, got very, very sick, now is autistic.

[Jane Marie]

So using the President's endorsement and these new and varying theories, he's turned to other ways of making money, like promoting alternative therapies at tons of different Conferences, doing speaking engagements and all that jazz at conferences not only like the conspira.

[Anna Merlin]

See, but places like Autism One is the big one. And it does bill itself as, you know, for families with autism. But when you get there, there's all kinds of other panels about all kinds of other things. I would characterize it as pseudo scientific lectures on a variety of topics that to me sometimes don't seem directly related to autism.

[Jane Marie]

Here's a clip from a speech made at Autism One's 2018 conference by Dr. Billy DeMoss, a chiropractor from Orange County, California.

[Laura Eisenhower]

But we've all been brainwashed by that tool that sits in your teeth in your family room, which is the TV set. Take that piece of shit and throw it out the friggin window. It'll be the best thing that you ever did. You want to have more success in life, get rid of it. Because it's just a soul style sucker is what it is. You know, when I'm talking about soul sucker. And what it does is it brainwashes. You Read the book, 1984. Read the book straight. A Brave New World. It's all right there. It's all prophecy to where this is all going, you know, And I don't have a cell phone yet either, folks. Okay? Plus, you know, I'm just not sure that holding one of these to your head all day, I mean, you guys could be part of that guinea pig experiment, you know, they said cigarettes safe too.

[Anna Merlin]

The health freedom movement, broadly anti vaxxers, they all say that the government is hiding the cure for cancer or autism or what have you because they make more money off of us when we're sick. You know, that there is no money in a cure. There's only money in endless ongoing treatment for disease. I do tend to point out that at all these conferences they leave the lecture hall and they literally enter a marketplace immediately. That's how all of them are set up so that you are funneled directly into the place where you buy things. You will hear people with, you know, a scientific specialty in one field claiming expertise in another. You know, like one of the people at the Autism one conference who now claims that pesticides cause autism. Like that's not her background. She's a computer scientist, but she's very smart. She's clearly very smart, but she doesn't actually know what she's talking about here. But nonetheless, it invests her words with like a level of authority. I think that they have a sense that the people selling things to them there are easier to connect with on an individual level than, you know, this concept of big pharma. Because one thing that happens at these conferences like autism one is that these anti vaccine doctors come and give these parents as much time as they need. They make a literal, direct, personal connection with them, and then they try to sell them something that's very effective. Especially if you're somebody who maybe your kid got a really difficult diagnosis, you haven't had enough time with a specialist, you don't really feel like you have a safety net. Because our safety net in this country in general is very bad, and especially for health, is incredibly bad. So if you come up against someone who is, you know, claiming to really be able to give you something and provide you with care and time and what feels like compassion, then you're. You're much more likely to buy what they're selling.

[Jane Marie]

A short list of what they're selling. Hyperbaric oxygen chambers, but not the kind you'd find in a hospital. More like the DIY ones I saw at the colonic clinic. Dangerous drugs that remove heavy metals from the blood, Neurofeedback machines and a bleach drinking regimen. Seriously. And then less scary sounding, but still dangerous products like this one that Bonnie Patton of Truth in Advertising went after.

[Bonnie Patton]

One of them is actually the first case that we brought and it was against a supplement called Speak. And this supplement was really incredible. You give it to your autistic child and within a very small amount of time, your child will start being able to speak again and tell mom and dad that they love you and so on and so forth. So that was actually the first case that we ever brought. And I'm happy to say that not only did the FTC go after them, but we also complained to the European counterpart where they were selling in Portugal, and they had to take down those claims there too.

[Jane Marie]

What was Speke?

[Bonnie Patton]

So it is a liquid supplement and while that you would give to your children, it's mostly made up of vitamins, but it has a really high dose of vitamin E that we consulted with an expert on that could actually be harmful to children. A lot of times, you know, we see this with very susceptible populations, right? People that have been given very scary and terrifying diagnosis, whether it be cancer or fibromyalgia or adhd, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, the list goes on and on. And they're being told these hard, cold facts by medical health care professionals. And consumers, I think, are desperate to find something that will help or even, you know, prevent the onset of these, you know, horrible diagnoses.

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[Anna Merlin]

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[Jane Marie]

Alternative therapies are being sold to cure or prevent a whole host of ailments, and they're sold at conferences all over the world, including one called Conscious Life here in Los Angeles which Anna attended.

[Anna Merlin]

It's a big sort of new age conference that has sort of an equal focus on wellness and also sort of like more esoteric claims about angels and afterlives and UFOs. Sometimes people like George Norrie Speak, who's like a big figure in the UFO movement. It's really fun actually. But so while I Was there. The last time I was there, there was a group that leads cancer tours to Mexico to clinics that traffic in non FDA approved cancer treatments. And there were several people selling colloidal silver, which is obviously like a big sort of long feature of the wellness natural health movement.

[Jane Marie]

I me, Jane, I'm personally acquainted with colloidal silver because my grandmother loves it. It's just tiny pieces of silver suspended in a liquid, usually water. And according to old texts and what I'd call folklore, it's an antimicrobial and antiviral agent. It's seriously dangerous to ingest. But that doesn't stop Grandma Ruth.

[Anna Merlin]

People will claim that you can put it on skin to heal cuts and stuff, and that's probably harmless somewhat, but there's a lot of evidence that taking it internally can cause like liver and vision problems and turn you blue. There's like a. There's a guy who famously was extremely blue, who appeared on TV a lot from that. Yeah, what the fuck was his name?

[Laura Eisenhower]

This is Paul Carazon son, who was 14 years ago, an ordinary looking man with fair skin and freckles. Now when he walks down the street, people stare in disbelief because he is blue. So how did this happen?

[Jane Marie]

Well, it all started when I saw an ad in a magazine. It was for a colloidal solar generator.

[Laura Eisenhower]

Because you thought it was going to do what for you?

[Jane Marie]

I had no idea.

[Laura Eisenhower]

Let me stop you right here, Dr. Oz. What is he talking about? This ailment that makes you. And I'm going to call it that because you're through and through blue. It's not just on the surface, is called Argyria. And what ends up happening is the blue gets into your cells. The silver, you basically tattooed your entire body with this silver.

[Jane Marie]

Well, it's gonna save me a lot of money at the tattoo parlor, I think.

[Laura Eisenhower]

Yeah, that's for sure.

[Jane Marie]

Paul Carson died in 2013 of a stroke about five years after that appearance on Oprah. And though it seemed like she and Dr. Oz were not endorsing his use of colloidal silver, Dr. Oz did go on a few years later to have Gwyneth Paltrow on his show promoting the stuff. So who knows what to believe.

[Anna Merlin]

It's important to point out that, like, the sort of natural health and supplement industry is a big feature on both the right and the left. So, like, Alex Jones started selling supplements and that is how he made his money, you know, so, like, this is not just a right or left thing. This is a. Seems to be a particular mania that Kind of engulfs all of us.

[Jane Marie]

Yeah.

[Anna Merlin]

Something that I think about a lot when I listen to Alex Jones is that he talks all the time about being under threat by these sort of malign outside influences. And seen in that context, the supplements are a way to sort of shore up your body and prevent it from being as susceptible to these malign outside influences. Right.

[Laura Eisenhower]

Talking about Ebola, what everybody's talking about internally is what to do in case it spreads in the United States. And that's have a plan to get out of a well populated area, you know, have some land somewhere. You know, they were worried that possibly the borders would be closed, which I don't know if that's really going to happen if they wanted to spread.

[Jane Marie]

What are you doing specifically for yourself?

[Laura Eisenhower]

What I'm doing is I have a place to go that's, you know, kind of close to a national forest where I can just get out of there. I have clean water over there, I have clean food, I have clean seeds to grow my own stuff. I mean, I have masks that I can use, but I have a good supply of iodine, I have a good supply of silver over there. You know, I've got the DNA force to protect my cells, to protect against free radical damage.

[Anna Merlin]

I think for a lot of people who feel a sense of persistent like sickness or disorder, it's because they feel like they are, you know, under attack by these large institutions that they don't have a lot of control over, like big pharma. And so it's sort of natural to me, first of all, that they're constantly trying to fix it, but secondly that they're also constantly finding like new things that are wrong, you know, because when you talk about it sort of an enemy as big. And.

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[Anna Merlin]

Overarching is Big Pharma like it's not surprising that you'll feel like it's eating into every aspect of your life. One thing I think a lot about with conspiracy communities in general is that and you know, alternative communities of any kind is that they give people shape and meaning and purpose in community where they didn't maybe previously feel like they had it. And I think especially with wellness and health claims, having a diagnosis gives your life a narrative. And you know, seeking out wellness, pursuing health gives you a way to organize your life. I do not think that people want to be sick by any means, but I think that maybe in some ways the pursuit of wellness or the feeling of perpetual disorder that you're trying to fix gives people a sense of meaning.

[Jane Marie]

You are going to get sick and die or you're going to have illnesses and they, they, you don't get to decide. For example, there's some illnesses that are more prevalent in women than men.

[Anna Merlin]

Right.

[Jane Marie]

You don't decide which genes you're born with.

[Anna Merlin]

Right.

[Jane Marie]

And so you might just have just the luck of the draw that you're going to.

[Anna Merlin]

Yeah. And that's Terrifying, isn't it? Like the sense of sickness as being fundamentally random and something as devastating as cancer.

[Jane Marie]

It's not as terrifying as thinking I have any control over it.

[Anna Merlin]

Yeah.

[Jane Marie]

If I thought I had control over it, then I would be walking around in terror because I would know that there's an endless list of things I should be doing.

[Anna Merlin]

You were supposed to.

[Jane Marie]

Do you know what I mean? Yeah.

[Anna Merlin]

I mean, I think you're tapping into a feeling that a lot of people have every day of their lives. And I think that there's a vast industry that draws on these things. There is a market in telling people that you might be sick and that constant vigilance of your physical body is the only thing standing between you and the gaping maw of the grave.

[Jane Marie]

Right.

[Anna Merlin]

Yeah.

[Jane Marie]

I'm recording this on my phone from the hospital. I came into the hospital last night, four days ago. I started getting a rash on my face and my chest. And then, speaking of the gaping maw of the grave, I never expected that during the course of our reporting, I'd stare into it because of the anti vax movement. Let me explain. In October of last year, 2019, I got sick. It started with a rash on my chest, which spread to my legs and arms. Then I got a fever, then aches and chills, and then my skin started to feel like it was burning off of my body. I went to my regular doctor where they guessed I was having an allergic reaction to something, sent me across the street to the pharmacy where I threw up while waiting for them to fill a prescription for a steroid to calm the rash. Later that day, lying in bed with ice packs covering my body, I truly thought I was dying and finally went to the ER where they diagnosed me with a severe case of influenza B in addition to the rash and admitted me overnight. The next morning, a doctor came in to examine me, and because of my fever and the rash, he told me I'd be moving into a negative airflow room because, get this, it looked like I might have the measles. I shit you not. It turns out you can't test for measles if you've ever been vaccinated against it because the test looks for measles antibodies in your blood, which look the same whether they're a result of the vaccine or from the active virus. Also, the measles vaccine isn't 100% effective. In fact, even if you've been inoculated, you still have a 1 in 30 chance of contracting the disease if you're extremely exposed to it. Which is why we all need to be vaccinated. The doctor asked if I'd traveled recently and I said yeah. Just two weeks prior, I'd flown through lax. That sealed my fate. I spent three days in the hospital while we waited for the symptoms to either get worse and confirm that I had the measles or get better, which they eventually did. I spent three days without my daughter and was billed over $20,000 by the hospital. But this isn't about me. It's about a larger issue that the anti vaxx movement has created and that we didn't used to have. According to the CDC, we eradicated measles in the year 2000, right around the same time the anti vaxx movement was really getting its footing. Last year, There were almost 1300 cases in 31 states before 1963. When the measles vaccine came out, it was a thing that everyone got. And it killed around 500 people and hospitalized about 50, 50,000 every year. Imagine that coming back 50,000 people being hospitalized and quarantined from their families because they might have a disease that we eradicated decades ago. Except for a few extremist groups decided that they'd prefer that to the slight chance that their child is born autistic, which, by the way, I'll say for the thousandth time, has nothing to do with vaccines, nor is it curable, nor is it worse than death. That's it for this week. We have a tip line open. Call us at 3232-4814-8832-2348-1488 and leave us a message about anything that you think is funky out there. What's going on, guys? Talk to me.

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[Jane Marie]

Nope, all wrong.

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[Jane Marie]

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