The odds that will happen are very long indeed. Even if (and that’s a huge if) that person comes forward, and even if (an even bigger if) it turns out that there is some evidence of mental deficiency that occurred at the same time as the administration of a vaccine, it will take a lot more than that to prove that the vaccine *caused* the mental condition.
Bachmann made an unforced error. There was absolutely nothing to be gained from telling (or re-telling) the anecdote she was told about this, regardless of when it was told to her, or whether the one case told to her checked out.
As anyone who has done some statistics knows, you can find a few instances of almost ANYTHING that is co-incident with a widely-administered vaccine, wide administration of some medicine or medical procedure, power lines, RF fields, the use of microwave ovens, whatever.
This sort of stuff drives people who are versed in mathematics nuts, because we have such an ignorant populace that it is nearly impossible to explain to them that sometimes just because A and B happened in a relatively close period of time doesn’t mean that they have anything to do with one another, unless we have a sufficiently large population where these issues occur in ways that we can statistically filter out the “noise” in the multiple variables in all these people’s lives.
The point she should have made was about government mandates in health care: She’s against them. Perry and Romney are for them, and that’s just like Obama too. That’s been her point all along on Obamacare, and she could have been consistent on that - and nailed both Perry *and* Romney, since they both are guilty of putting forth policy which TELLS people what to do about their medical care.
Ahhh.... but she didn’t do that, did she? She wanted to go for the tear-jerking emotion of administering injections to “innocent” “little girls,” while she didn’t mention Romney’s health care mandates.
She tried to get slick with her political tactics and it has blown up in her face.
Exactly. She went too far. She doesn’t have a balance nor with taking on her opponents - she doesn’t touch Mitt when obamacare, jr. is staring her in the face. I think she supposes her rants make her look powerful.