When funnyman Jimmy Kimmel gave a few words of wisdom to parents about vaccinating their children last week, Twitter went into frenzy. He received hundreds of angry tweets – some calling him names, others wanting him to apologise and quit, while some went on to accuse him of being paid by pharmaceutical companies. Check out some of the infuriated tweets below:
Jimmy Kimmel (and TV news anchors) personally know as much about vaccine science as an ant knows about spaceship navigation.
— Dr Joe Fawcett (@DrJoe03) March 2, 2015
IMHO Jimmy Kimmel @JimmyKimmelLive is worse than Priests abusing Boys and Bill Cosby drugging Girls pic.twitter.com/SwlrU1FeFw #Boycott @ABC — TannersDad Tim (@TannersDad) March 3, 2015
@jimmykimmel you’re an idiot, there is just as many doctors that are against vaccines.
— Santa Claus (@NexrunTech) March 1, 2015
I will never watch ABC \Disney again until Jimmy Kimmel is off the air. Vaccinations r not 1size fits all. They do cause autism! #CDCfraud — Melissa French (@Missyfrench3) March 3, 2015
@bridgitmendler @jimmykimmel Son Tanner grew up watching you @Disney He is Non verbal W Autism Vax injured ask Jimmy to apologize please
— TannersDad Tim (@TannersDad) March 1, 2015
As expected, despite the entire wrath, Jimmy stood his ground: Some of these people are demanding that I apologize, which I of course will not do. A lot of these groups are insisting that I present both sides of the argument, and I’m not gonna do that either well, for the same reason that I wouldn’t present both sides if a group of people decided that pancakes make you gay – they don’t and there’s no point in discussing it. But what DID he say last week? Jimmy released a video promoting the values of vaccinations; he invited some real doctors to do a public service announcement urging parents to vaccinate their kids. Here’s the controversial video:
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a total of 154 people from 17 states and Washington DC contracted measles between January 1 and February 20, 2015 following an outbreak at Disneyland in California. Kimmel pointed out that around 20 percent of students in the same state where the outbreak began are not vaccinated because “parent’s here are more scared of gluten then they are of smallpox”. Soon after the video went live, he started receiving nasty tweets from members of the anti-vaccination community. The comedian then responded to his critics with another video, showing mock activists who promoted A Child’s Right to Choose whether or not they got vaccinations.
It is hard to continue to wage one-man war on anti-vaccination movement, mock anti-vaxxers, and yet remain poised. After his second video though, he got more support than hatred on Twitter.
Kudos to Jimmy Kimmel for taking on anti-vaccination parents : http://t.co/9rvsCTtwWg
— Phyllis Hartigan (@rhbmph) March 5, 2015
Keep up the good work, @jimmykimmel! Jimmy Kimmel Fires Back Over Vaccination Mean Tweets http://t.co/8vhEhJwdnw via @HuffPostComedy
— jc_grx (@jcgrx) March 5, 2015
Pancakes make you gay! Jimmy Kimmel doubles down on ridicule of anti-vaccination movement | BreakingNews.ie http://t.co/0MiMKDUMzC
— Ulla (@sabriste) March 5, 2015
Fav line “remember when you got polio? No you don’t bcause u were f’ng vaccinated” Jimmy Kimmel vaccines http://t.co/TMUIhq43qa via @Salon
— Dave Marantz (@davemarantz) March 5, 2015
The ignorance of some americans is impressive; kudos to @JimmyKimmel who won’t back down about vaccines http://t.co/GfZ2xckPuM
— johnhensler (@johnhensler) March 5, 2015
@AgeofAutism @jimmykimmel Jimmy and I believe vaccines are safe. Vaccinate your damn kids! You owe it to society!
— David Taylor (@peakdavid) March 5, 2015
Trying to fathom where this article is going? Is this article informed or informing us? Like another article I viewed recently this seems to be a regurgitation of popular pablum. Silly me I am expecting more from Anonymous. Did I miss the big reveal? This issue has many facets. Who cares about a talk show host? What about the whistleblowers who have information about the monopoly the US has chosen to make the vaccine or the millions in settlements made to children severely effected by the vaccine, or the vaccinated children who get the disease anyway. These are the edges I care about. If I wanted shallow I would log on to ET.
While I do agree that one should have a right to choose, I think it’s safe to say that a majority of the anti-vax community are gullible asshats, especially the ones who think that vaccines cause autism. Vaccinate your kids if you want to, it won’t do any harm. If you have a moral or religious issue with that, don’t, but if you don’t on the grounds that vaccines cause autism, and no other standpoint, there really is no evidence for that.
Anybody taking their views on vaccination from Jimmy Kimmel should probably not merely be vaccinated but should also be sterilized to prevent future stupidity.