Jenny McCarthy Starts Backpedaling: Still Stupid

I am not “anti-vaccine.” This is not a change in my stance nor is it a new position that I have recently adopted. For years, I have repeatedly stated that I am, in fact, “pro-vaccine” and for years I have been wrongly branded as “anti-vaccine.”

My beautiful son, Evan, inspired this mother to question the “one size fits all” philosophy of the recommended vaccine schedule. I embarked on this quest not only for myself and my family, but for countless parents who shared my desire for knowledge that could lead to options and alternate schedules, but never to eliminate the vaccines.

Blatantly inaccurate blog posts about my position have been accepted as truth by the public at large as well as media outlets (legitimate and otherwise), who have taken those false stories and repeatedly turned them into headlines. What happened to critical thinking? What happened to asking questions because every child is different?

For my child, I asked for a schedule that would allow one shot per visit instead of the multiple shots they were and still are giving infants.

I am passionate about important conversations on how we can improve health care for our children and generations to come. This is an extremely important discussion and I am dumbfounded that these conversations are discounted and negated because the answers are not black or white. Again I ask, what happened to critical thinking?

A recent column by a blogger named Nancy Colasurdo states:

“Here’s how it goes in this country, like everything else — black or white. Those are your choices. You either fall in line with 40-plus vaccines your doctor recommends on his or her schedule or you’re a wack-job ‘anti-vaxxer.’ Heaven forbid you think the gray zone is an intelligent place to reside and you express doubt or fear or maybe want to spread the vaccines out a bit on this tiny person you’ve brought into the world.”

Her words echo and articulate my concern with inflexible thinking. This is the real view I, Jenny McCarthy, hold. The gray one!

This is what I have said:

“People have the misconception that we want to eliminate vaccines,” I told Time Magazine science editor Jeffrey Kluger in 2009. “Please understand that we are not an anti-vaccine group. We are demanding safe vaccines. We want to reduce the schedule and reduce the toxins.”

This is what I believe:

I believe in the importance of a vaccine program and I believe parents have the right to choose one poke per visit. I’ve never told anyone to not vaccinate. Should a child with the flu receive six vaccines in one doctor visit? Should a child with a compromised immune system be treated the same way as a robust, healthy child? Shouldn’t a child with a family history of vaccine reactions have a different plan? Or at least the right to ask questions?

I will continue to say what I have always said: “One size does not fit all.” God help us all if gray is no longer an option.

Jenny McCarthy writes a column for the Sun-Times Splash section and appears on ABC’s “The View.”

Still Not A Doctor Jenny McCarthy Gets Crucified on Twitter

Somebody who gets that refusing vaccines because of 'toxins' and then shilling for e-cigs makes you a pathetic hypocrite #JennyAsks

Someone who think vaccines are safe, Botox is poisonous and who doesn't pick their nose and eat it on MTV #JennyAsks

Someone who puts the interests of the community ahead of preserving their own absurd, unshakable ignorance. #JennyAsks

A basic grasp of statistics @JennyMcCarthy: What is the most important personality trait you look for in a mate? #JennyAsks

My ideal partner understands that 'doing my own research!!1!' isn't cherry picking blurbs from blogs. #JennyAsks

My mate knows that anti-vax catastrophizing rhetoric& fearmongering hurts Autistic people like us IN ADDITION TO killing children #JennyAsks

Someone who vaccinates, b/c I'd want our kids to survive. @JennyMcCarthy: Most important trait you look for in mate? Reply w/ #JennyAsks

McCarthy waited until Monday to respond to the backlash, tweeting, "Thank you to all the haters who tweet my name. You make my Q SCORE higher and higher," the former Playboy model wrote. "It's because of you I continue to work. Thank you!"

The View co-host, whose son Evan was diagnosed with autism in May 2005, has often argued that vaccines are linked to autism in children. McCarthy has since clarified that she "and the autism community" are not anti-vaccine per se, but they are without question "anti-toxin and anti-schedule."

VIA E!News

Proof Jenny McCarthy is evil.......the real toll of anti-vaccination

The toll of the anti-vaccination movement, in one devastating graphic

Aaron Carroll today offers a graphic depiction of the toll of the anti-vaccination movement. (H/t: Kevin Drum.) It comes from a Council on Foreign Relations interactive map of "vaccine-preventable outbreaks" worldwide 2008-2014.

A couple of manifestations stand out. One is the prevalence of measles in Europe -- especially Britain -- and the U.S. Measles is endemic in the underdeveloped world because of the unavailability of the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine.

But in the developed world it's an artifact of the anti-vaccination movement, which has associated the vaccine with autism. That connection, promoted by the discredited British physician Andrew Wakefield and the starlet Jenny McCarthy, has been thoroughly debunked. But its effects live on, as the map shows.

Vaccine panic also plays a role in the shocking incidence in the U.S. of whooping cough, also beatable by a common vaccine. Researchers have pointed to the effect of "non-medical exemptions" from legally required whooping cough immunizations -- those premised on personal beliefs rather than medical reasons -- as a factor in a 2010 outbreak of whooping cough in California.

These manifestations underscore the folly and irresponsibility of giving credence to anti-vaccination  fanatics, as Katie Couric did on her network daytime TV show in December. We examined the ethics of that ratings stunt here and here.

Among other worthwhile examinations of the impact of the anti-vaxxers, see this piece about growing up unvaccinated in Great Britain in the 1970s, and this disturbing piece by Julia Ioffe about her battle with whooping cough, a disease no American should have.

The lesson of all this is that vaccination is not an individual choice to be made by a parent for his or her own offspring. It's a public health issue, because the diseases contracted by unvaccinated children are a threat to the community. That's what public health is all about, and an overly tolerant approach to non-medical exemptions -- and publicity given to anti-vaccination charlatans like Wakefield and McCarthy by heedless promoters like, sadly, Katie Couric, affect us all.

Carroll, who assembles the relevant papers and documents on the MMR/Autism sophistry here, deserves the last word. "Vaccinate your kids," he writes. "Please."

Via LATimes