Wednesday, January 3, 2018

#1944: Greg Marvel

Greg Marvel is President of the Board of Education for the San Ramon Unified School District. He is also an anti-vaxxer. In fact, Marvel claims to be “a strong believer in the use of vaccines.” However, he said of Leslie Manookian’s antivaxx propaganda movie The Greater Good (review here) that “it presents a balanced argument, with national experts advocating for universal vaccination, while others in the film present cautionary arguments.” If you think the conspiracy ravings of The Greater Good presents a “balanced argument”, you are delusional. And anti-vaccine. Given that he is also a school board president, the fact that he sees The Greater Good “as a starting point for each viewer to begin the discussion within their own families about the benefits and risks associated with vaccinations, and thus strongly recommend that every parent watch this film,” is deeply problematic. One also wonders whether it is considered within the scope of his role to send a letter on school board stationary praising the film to antivaccine groups. Well, the antivaccine Canary Party used Marvel’s endorsement for all it was worth.

Of course, such actions from a school board president should, in a reasonable world, lead at least to some serious criticism. Instead, since San Ramon is apparently a hotbet for antivaccine activism, he received support. Nancy Sheets, “a credentialed school nurse” in the San Ramon district endorsed the conspiracy flick, too.


Diagnosis: Wtf, San Ramon? Greg Marvel is a conspiracy theorist with a penchant for pseudoscience, and a danger to your children and community (Nancy Sheets, too). Get him out.

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