On Tuesday, City Pages' Hannah Jones noted Anoka Republican state senator Jim Abeler's appreciation of anti-vaxxers in Two members of the new MN Autism Council are vaccine skeptics:
Members Wayne Rohde and Patti Carroll are both part of the Vaccine Safety Council of Minnesota and Health Choice, organizations that have argued that vaccines can be harmful (they can, in extremely rare cases) and that they may cause autism (they do not).
Republican Senator Jim Abeler, who formed the MN Autism Council, says Rohde and Carroll are both “remarkably useful” members of the group. They both have children on the autism spectrum, and they “represent a community” of people who have “concerns about vaccines.” That, he says, is part of why he “consciously” picked these two people.
Abeler, a chiropractor by trade, wouldn’t say whether he believes vaccines have a link to autism, and he said at a recent meeting of the council that he’d “suggest we don’t discuss that anytime soon, or maybe never.” He believes vaccines could cause a wide variety of harms to children, some of which he believes may be underreported.
But refusing to address the issue of vaccines and autism implies that there’s a debate to be had. There is no proven link between vaccines and autism spectrum disorder. In fact, the origin of the supposed vaccine-autism link is a 1998 case study broadly regarded as an “elaborate fraud.” ....
Abeler isn't alone among Republican senators in appreciating that community of people who have "concerns about vaccines." On Facebook on Tuesday, Carver County state senator Scott Jensen posted on his Facebook page:
There's a lively debate about vaccines on the post, as well as appreciation of the sentiment.
Read more in the Star Tribune articles, Officials urge vaccinations amid Northwest measles outbreak and Vaccine skeptics on MN Autism Council touch off debate.
The doctor says what?
Jensen is considered a fellow able to work across party lines on issues such as gun violence and legalization of recreational cannabis. However, we had to wonder about his remarks at a recent press conference covered by MinnPost's Peter Callaghan in Is the legalization of recreational marijuana in Minnesota inevitable?:
Jensen said he would give the same advice to a patient who asked about recreational marijuana that he would if they asked about alcohol or tobacco. “There’s no study that says it’s good for you,” Jensen said. “If there’s a medical condition we’re treating, it may well provide enhanced health. But in terms of using it recreationally, I’m not going to stand in front of a group of people and say that’s good for people.”
But he said with regulation comes a more consistent and purified product. And more use could broaden use for medical conditions not yet allowed by state law.
That sounds like he's recommending using pot to self-medicate--even though the text of the bill excludes medical cannabis from the scope of the legislation.
Moreover, with legalization of recreational cannabis in Colorado, the Rocky Mountain state's medical cannabis industry has shrunk, rather than broadened, as Colorado Public Radio's Ben Markus reported in August in Colorado Medical Marijuana Sales Take A Nosedive. Is The End Nigh?. We wonder, as does Callaghan, whether reforming Minnesota's expensive and unworkable medical cannabis law might be reformed, rather than pushing patients toward self-medication.
Photo: Jensen, standing, with anti-vaxxers during their day on the hill. Via Facebook.
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