Anatomy of an anti-vaccination hoax.

This is an excellent example of how people's emotions can be manipulated by quacks in order to promote pseudo-science and vaccination hysteria. First we have the heart breaking story of Desiree Jennings; a smoking hot Washington Redskins cheerleader who had her life "ruined" by a flu vaccination:



Scary stuff huh? If I were a gorgeous female specimen in the prime of my life, I would probably think twice about getting vaccinated if there was a one in a million chance I could end up looking like a bad SNL character.

Qualified medical professionals, however, were immediately skeptical of her dystonia diagnosis:



It's important to note that even though her condition appears to be psychogenic, it doesn't necessarily mean she's faking it or that she's crazy. Her movements are probably completely involuntary and she is going through a terrifying experience. That said, there is zero evidence that her flu vaccination has anything to do with here condition.

This of course didn't stop anti-vaccination organization Generation Rescue from adopting Desiree as their new poster child, and they soon had a lovely website up telling "her story" and warning of the dangers of vaccination. And then this:



Hurray! The supposedly incurable dystonia is gone. And who is the doctor responsible for this medical miracle? Dr. Rashid Buttar, an anti-vaccination advocate who has been charged by the North Carolina Medical Examiners with various counts of misconduct, including prescribing urine injections and bilking desperate cancer patients out of thousands of dollars for unsubstantiated treatments.

The treatment he used to "cure" Desiree is called "transdermal chelation"; an unproven, much maligned procedure he has prescribed for everything from autism to cancer. Dr. Buttar is now claiming his treatment detoxified Desiree's body of the mercury she received from the flu vaccination, which was causing her dystonia.

Rubbish. There has never been a documented case of dystonia being caused by a vaccine, and the flu vaccine she received had only trace amounts of mercury that have been proved harmless time and time again. And even if Desiree actually had dystonia, "transdermal chelation" or any other type of detox therapy does not cure it.

Reality? This poor woman had a very real psychogenic problem which she needed genuine treatment for. Instead she was exploited by opportunistic quacks who used her plight and now her recovery to promote a totally unrelated issue.

And her miraculous recovery? Who knows? Psychogenic conditions can fade and return for a variety of reasons; its even possible that Dr. Buttar's pseudo-science had a placebo effect on Desiree enough to actually help her. But that's psychological, not medical, and it certainly has nothing to do with vaccination.