#2776: Joel Dorfman

 

Anti-vaccine groups – usually identifiable by names including the phrases “vaccine choice” or “health freedom” – have become a political force to reckon with, and they exist everywhere in the US. Joel Dorfman, for instance, is chairman of the board of the antivaccine group Michigan for Vaccine Choice, and though he’s but one member of one of a large number of such groups, at least he’s been given the opportunity to spread antivaccine misinformation in local Michigan media outlets, such as when weighing in – and apparently being treated as some kind of authority – on a case where a local anti-vaccine mother, Rachel Bredow, wanted to defy custody-arrangements when the father wished to get their kid properly immunized: “If this child is injured as a result of being given eight immunizations, who do you think is going to take care of the child?” asked Dorfman.

 

Yes, Dorfman sees vaccine injuries everywhere, and is not afraid to use your familiar array of standard anti-vaxx tropes to support his (delusional) narrative, for instance by appealing to the “unavoidably unsafe” gambit while simultaneously claiming to be educated on the topic (a contradiction), and by recommending legislators (Dorfman has also testified before the Michigan State Legislature) to read the conspiracy theory book Vaccine Epidemic (edited by well-known and leading anti-vaccine advocates Mary Holland, Louise Kuo Habakus & Kim Mack Rosenberg). Dorfman is apparently a lawyer; he has no discernible medical training.

 

Diagnosis: Local village idiot (yeah, we realize that the name suggests as much) and conspiracy theorist, but one of a rather disconcerting number of such; they’re zealous and hard-working and tireless, and all theirs efforts, instead of being used to do something constructive, go into trying to make the world a slightly worse place to live. It’s a tragedy.