The healthy living editor for The Huffington Post reacted to the CNN GOP debate by criticizing Donald Trump and others for “peddling dangerous and bad ideas about health,” because of their remarks about vaccinations.
Criticism of “anti-vaccination” stances is rich coming from Huffington Post, which has repeatedly been a platform for anti-vaxxer opinions including actor Jim Carrey’s. In 2009, Carrey insisted that there was still uncertainty about the safety of vaccinations. Over the years, others also stoked fear about vaccination safety including David Kirby, Dr. Bob Sears and comedian Bill Maher.
At the GOP debate, Trump had said, “I am totally in favor of vaccines but I want smaller doses over a longer period of time,” before telling a story that linked vaccinations and autism. Sen. Rand Paul, an eye doctor, echoed some of that saying “I’m also a little concerned about how they’re bunched up.”
Healthy living editor Lindsay Holmes pointed out, “Vaccines are crucial for public health. Research has also shown they do not cause autism.” Another story by HuffPo’s senior editor Arthur Delaney accused Trump and Dr. Ben Carson’s of pandering to “vaccine deniers” with their debate statements about vaccines and said claims of an autism link has been “massively discredited.”
But The Huffington Post’s concern about the “alarming, anti-science rhetoric” of the GOP presidential candidates would seem a whole lot more sincere and credible and less like a convenient political hit job if the left-wing website hadn’t been a sounding board of anti-vaccination sentiment for many years.
Michael Greibok helped research this story.
