22 Jun 2007

Smallpox and vaccination on Conservapedia

Filed under: Information Society, Pseudoscience — Kelly Ramsey @ 2:34 pm

This is downright bizarre. Compare the current stub version of the “Smallpox” article on Conservapedia:

Smallpox is an acute, highly infectious, often fatal disease caused by a poxvirus and characterized by high fever and aches with subsequent widespread eruption of pimples that blister, produce pus, and form pockmarks. It is also called variola.

… to the longer, non-stub version that administrator Andrew Schlafly and others continue to revert away, threatening account blocks, because “Andy asked for this page not to be changed”.

Notice that the article’s talk page gives no explanation for the reverts. The admonition to one user not to copy pages from other wikis seems flimsy.

My guess is that there’s an anti-vaccination bias here that has nothing to do with Christianity and everything to do with Schlafly family / Eagle Forum objectives. Phyllis Schlafly is deadset against mandatory vaccinations. Her son Andrew, founder of Conservapedia, represents a conservative advocacy group that opposes vaccination. Her son Roger opposes mandatory vaccinations as well.

The success of smallpox vaccination is a counterargument that vaccination opponents must go out of their way to address. Note the mentions in the pieces from Phyllis, and Roger, and note the attempted debunking of the smallpox vaccine’s effectiveness in this interview with a vaccination opponent.

Keeping the “Smallpox” article a stub looks like a deliberate attempt to keep conservative readers in the dark, at least until a Schlafly-approved version can be written with the appropriate revisionist history of vaccination.

1 Comment »

  1. [...] Kelly Ramsey has a similar analysis of this issue and provides some more [...]

    Pingback by Column 16: A Pox on Thee! « The Conservapedia Column — 23 Jun 2007 @ 11:06 am

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