Dear Michael Hiltzik:
Thank you for your post, “Will President Oprah bring her quacks with her to the White House?” in which you carefully examined the appalling amount of evidence of Ms. Winfrey’s support of pseudoscience over the years. The number of examples, and the strength of her influence, make catastrophic how much support she has given to celebrities disseminating quackery and misinforming those who most need accurate information to help their loved ones. I write as a member of the Board of Directors of the Association for Science in Autism Treatment (ASAT) to thank you for devoting space of your LA Times blog to discuss the evidence and the disservice that results when such prime influence is used to promote pseudoscience. ASAT is an organization devoted to promoting safe, effective, science-based treatments for people with autism by disseminating accurate information. ASAT focuses on scientific evidence for autism treatment and I was pleased to see that you mentioned the debacle that helped the false claim that autism is caused by vaccines stay in vogue for much longer than it took to discredit the people who fabricated such evidence. Please continue supporting science!
Sincerely,
Daniela Fazzio, PhD, BCBA-D
Association for Science in Autism Treatment
