Thursday, April 2, 2009

Who is Jenny McCarthy, and Why Does Anyone Care?

Up until several months ago, I'd never heard of this gal. Then she wrote a book. I refuse, on principle, to read it. Jenny McCarthy imagines that vaccinations cause Autism. Jenny McCarthy also believes she has a magical cure for Autism. In honor of World Autism Awareness Day, I would like to call attention to the delusions she shares with entirely too many parents. Why do we care? Because McCarthy and people like her are a public health risk. Arm yourself with actual information. And if even one vaccine preventable illness or death is prevented by what you learn here and share with others the world will be a better place.

Autism and Autism spectrum disorders seem to be everywhere. Here in Silicon Valley, we seem to have more than our fair share of people suffering from this. It's a horrible malady, and people are justifiably desperate to find some dadgummed answers.

Many times, this disorder begins to present right around the developmental age at which kids get vaccinations. Worried parents swear everything about their kid was "normal" until the day their kid got protection against measles, mumps rubella, diptheria, pertussis and tetanus. The Autism must've been caused by the vaccines! Just like global warming is the result of declining pirate populations. Just because these things happen at the same time doesn't mean that one causes the other. There's a way of checking for that, using some clever ideas called "science."

Unfortunately, there are some real cretins out there. One guy, one guy I tell you, published a study a good while back in which he made up results to show vaccines causing autism. Thoroughly discredited and even admitting to having his pants afire, this guy's nonsense lives on. And lots of innocent people don't.

A lot of well-meaning parents do "research" on vaccinations and decide that, based on faulty studies and the woo of people like Jenny McCarthy, they just can't "risk" their kids getting autism. So they don't vaccinate their kids. That's right. They have the power to spare their children pain, misery, disfigurement and even death but refuse to do so based on the insane ramblings of fearmongering nutbags. Yeah, it sucks that we don't know how to prevent Autism and to cure the most debilitating aspects of it. Causing a whooping cough epidemic that kills old people and little tiny babies "just in case" is almost Pope-like in its arrogance.

In recent years, there have been increasing numbers of outbreaks of entirely preventable diseases because of falling vaccination rates. This is not based on the superstitions of has-been centerfolds, it is measurable. And it is killing people.

Many others have written about this, and I'd like to point you to them now.
The Bad Astronomer

So, the next time someone expresses reservations about vaccinating their kids you have the knowledge. You have the power to encourage them to use their brains and not be a public health menace. Use that power for good. Save some lives. And then someday we can all forget about this Jenny McCarthy person.


Anonymous said...

one of the doctors in our pediatrician's practice grew up in, and studied in what was East Germany.

She has cared for and watched children die of every last one of the diseases for which we now have vaccines, and watched the agonized parents blame themselves as they watch their children suffer.

You won't find a bigger advocate of vaccinations - and I think she's right.

The chances of *anything* going wrong with a vaccine are far smaller than the chances of kids catching the disease...and spending the rest of your life trying to deal with the blame that your own ignorance cost you your kid.

Anonymous said...

Well written. I cannot emphasize enough the need to keep vaccinations current for not only children, but teens and adults. The meningitis vaccine is one that all teens and young adults should have. The older ones among us, should also take advantage of vaccines for flu and pneumonia.

The COG said...

Once upon a time in this country diptheria, measels, mumps and the rest were the sorts of things only known about in old novels.

The power of fear mongers to make things worse is almost unlimited