Open mouth, insert foot, miss out on some potential big $$$

[the_archfiend]

Considering Kommandant B's latest idiocy concerning the HPV vaccine, I'm not particularly surprised that someone more in the know (read: actual college professors knowledgeable on the subject) than she would offer up a bit of a prize for almost certainly nonexistent people mentioned by the Kommandant herself:

A University of Minnesota bioethicist is offering $1,000 for medical proof that a woman’s daughter suffered mental retardation from the vaccine for human papillomavirus virus, a story that was told by Rep. Michele Bachmann after Monday’s debate.

Bachmann has come under fire from the medical community for suggesting the vaccination for the HPV virus, a sexually transmitted disease that can cause cervical cancer, is linked to mental illness.

Steven Miles, a U of M bioethics professor, said that he’ll give $1,000 if the medical records of the woman from Bachmann’s story are released and can be viewed by a medical professional.

His offer was upped by his former boss from the University of Minnesota, Art Caplan, who is now director of the University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics. Caplan said he would match Miles' challenge and offered $10,000 for proof of the HPV vaccine victim.

“These types of messages in this climate have the capacity to do enormous public health harm,” Miles said of why he made the offer. “The woman, assuming she exists, put this claim into the public domain and it’s an extremely serious claim and it deserves to be analyzed."

If the woman in question actually exists, that is. Somehow, I think holding your breath until you find out is only going to result in a blackout and a bad headache.