It would have been far better to use this as an time to point out the need for boosters, for basic healthcare, to educate us on the facts surrounding whooping cough.

All me family had been at one time or another vaccinated against it. But owing to either a lack of understanding/knowledge both my sister and I contracted it in our teens and my mother has just recently had it.

I wonder what information people walked away from Phil’d post with?

On the broader level, I would hate to see the skeptical movement (if that’s what it is) become just like any other movement — where joiners pile on, just looking to be part of *some* movement, and where less-than-honorable but charismatic leaders can ride that wave to fame, fortune, glory, or whatever drives their egos — at the expense of reason, facts, and often, ethics.

People often complain that organizing skeptics is like herding cats, but I think that’s as it should be. The point of what we’re doing is to get people to think for themselves and keep it real. Steamrolling over reality for the sake of a cause isn’t being skeptical. And if that means skepticism remains a minority view, and is generally disliked, so be it.