[hinckley buzzard]

I won't be holding my breath waiting for the unknown woman in the audience to produce the records. This illustrates the problem with uncritically believing any anecdote that some nobody wants to tell you. Bachmann showed very faulty judgment in repeating this claim. A note of caution to the wise, including right here on FR, where inflammatory and unsubstantiated anecdotes have been known to abound.

[traderrob6]

This won’t be the first time a politician has offered up an anecdote to support their position that was later proven to be fallacious.

It generally tends to be a Democrat though.

[ScaniaBoy]

One should be very cautious drawing conclusions about a single (alleged) case like this. Almost always impossible to prove cause and effect.

However, although side-effects of vaccines are often rare, they can be devastating to those who happen to be susceptible. We have a recent event in Scandinavia, where it turned out that the vaccine against swine-flu caused narcolepsy in sensitive subjects. According to publications in medical literature, there are indications that also the HPV-vaccine can cause severe neurological side-effects (though, the cause and effect is not yet proven).

Demyelinating disease and vaccination of the human papillomavirus

Human papillomavirus vaccine safety in Australia: experience to date and issues for surveillance.

Guillain-Barré syndrome after Gardasil vaccination: data from Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System 2006-2009.

Although, one talks about sensitive or susceptible individuals, it is often the case that one cannot know prior to the event who is sensitive or not. That has of course a very strong bearing on the question whether to make vaccinations compulsory or not.

PS: The above was meant as a general point re vaccinations. I know that there was an opt-out clause in the (not approved) Texas legislation.