Jenny McCarthy, courtesy Playboy Enterprises
Jenny McCarthy, pictured above, is not a medical expert. After she became convinced that her son’s autism was triggered by vaccines, the actress, model, and “Playmate” associated herself with Generation Rescue, which promotes the unfounded anti-scientific belief that autism is caused by vaccines. McCarthy has appeared on Larry King Live, in 2008, Youtube here, Oprah and currently co-hosts “The View,” a talk show on daytime television on the ABC network. ABC’s decision to hire her in this role was criticized in NJ.com, PLOS, the LA Times.
The problem is one needs nothing more than notoriety to become a pundit, and “pundits” who speak convincingly while they utter nonsense can cause real harm.
Jenny McCarthy, Larry King Live, Oprah, and “The View” would not normally be the subject of a blog post on Popular Logistics, however, McCarthy promotes junk science and quack medicine, akin to holocaust deniers and those who profess disbelief in the scientific evidence of climate change. The good news is that most men don’t think about what Ms. McCarthy says, they just think about her, ahem, body language. The bad news, as discussed on Slate, here, and by Dr. Jen Gunter, here, is that people watch Oprah and “The View” and some will take her beliefs seriously and will not immunize their children.
As Dr. Gunter says,
Until Jenny McCarthy got major air time the link between vaccines and autism was relatively fringe. But with Oprah in September of 2007 McCarthy, and by extension Andrew Wakefield, the erroneous link between vaccines and autism hit the jackpot. Oprah, instead of producing a show with any kind of balance simply read a brief statement from the CDC to counter McCarthy’s 45 minute diatribe of warrior-mom-against-the-world. Whether by design or by chance Dr. Bob’s Vaccine book was published the very next month and the rest, as they say, is history.
Vaccine rates plummeted, reportable diseases made a resurgence, and pediatricians everywhere groaned. Also, millions of dollars were spent re-studying vaccines to try to prove to the now skeptics that vaccines are indeed safe. The problem? The crux of McCarthy’s and many other vaccine “warriors” is that their beliefs are propped up by conspiracy theory, not science or even common sense.
Today we have a new study that tells us American children are still woefully behind on their immunizations: almost half of the more than 300,000 children studied over four years were undervaccinated. This, despite the fact that there is a plethora of scientific evidence showing vaccine safety.
We as a society have spent millions of dollars proving something that was already known (money that could have gone into studying the cause of autism or testing therapies). A lot of this research has been government-funded, so we paid with our tax dollars. I don’t decry spending tax money on research, but proving something that was already known, over and over again, to try to convince those fueled by conspiracy theories kind of sticks in my craw.
McCarthy achieved fame by appearing in Playboy magazine (photos). McCarthy, According to wikipedia, earned $120,000 from Playboy in 1993. She subsequently worked on MTV. According to IMDB Ms. McCarthy “Attended Southern Illinois University at Carbondale” and “dropped out of nursing school to become an actress.”
Popular Logistics agrees with Dr. Gunter, we would like to see Oprah and “The View” devote air time to vaccine safety. As Dr. Gunter says, “Oprah can use her broadcast arsenal to draw attention to the recent Institute of Medicine’s incredibly comprehensive look at vaccinations that finds ‘no evidence of major safety concerns associated with adherence to the childhood immunization schedule.’ I also want to hear how vaccine skeptics have profited from their snake oil.”
Again, the problem is one needs nothing more than notoriety to become a pundit, “pundits” who speak convincingly can cause real harm, and the producers behind Oprah, Larry King, and “The View” owe it to their viewers and advertisers to fact check their pundits.
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Larry Furman is a candidate for General Assembly (Site / Join / Contribute) to represent NJ Legislative District 12, which stretches from Matawan to New Hanover and includes Old Bridge, Manalapan, Englishtown, Roosevelt, Millstone, Jackson, and various other towns (click here). He is also an analyst with Popular Logistics. He holds a Bachelor’s in Biology, and an MBA in “Managing for Sustainability” from Marlboro College, Vermont. He also has experience in information technology. He can be reached at ‘Larry” at Furman For New Jersey. com.