#162: Lee Grossman

Originally, I meant to cover Herb Grossman, who runs the website trashevolution and whose arguments are more inane than Christine O’Donnell’s and Kent Hovind’s. The problem is that the stupendous Herb Grossman is powerless and in fact merely pitiful – he is a guy with a website and an issue, so I think I’ll just leave him alone.

Lee Grossman, on the other hand (probably unrelated), deserves exposure. He belongs to that other favorite group of nuts of ourse, the anti-vaccinationists. Grossman is not the loudest or most vocieferous among them, but he is president of the Autism Society of America (ASA), and a firm believer in the scientifically completely unsupported claim that vaccines may cause autism. That belief and that position together make a very bad combination. Again, he may not be one of the most radically delusional (he’s no JB Handley, David Kirby or Jenny McCarthy), but the belief is so dangerous that any person in a position of power with respect to this matter, is somewhat obliged to try to follow the evidence, and Grossman simply doesn’t, as shown by this screed.

In a way, the ASA is far more moderate than the horrible Autism Speaks. Still it is listed on Quackwatch’s list of untrustworthy organizations.

More scary stuff here.

Diagnosis: Crank, and a dangerous one; he might still, perhaps, be stopped by reason and evidence (i.e. he may, for all I know, not have succumbed completely to insanity) – but he should be stopped.