Jenny McCarthy, Vaccinations, and Autism

[Bateluer]

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1967796,00.html

This woman is going to get people killed. Can she be charged with involuntary manslaughter when a child dies because their parents took her advice and didn't get their child vaccinated? Parents should be charged too, but you have to address the root of the problem or it'll happen again.

This message has won her a wide audience, based on her three best-selling books on autism. She has just completed shooting the pilot for a daytime talk show for Oprah Winfrey's TV network to begin airing later this year — which will be, she promises, yet another platform for her message. But her profile has also made her, among pediatricians, other doctors and many parents, a deeply polarizing figure. Though close to 80% of American children receive the standard battery of vaccinations, skepticism about their safety remains widespread, in part because of the antiscientific clamor of the McCarthy camp. Enough parents are refusing to vaccinate that some long-dormant maladies, like measles and meningitis, have re-emerged. Nonvaccination rates among kindergartners in some California counties have been reported at 10%. To McCarthy's opponents, from the public-health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to the pediatricians of the American Academy of Pediatrics, this makes McCarthy much worse than a crank: she's a menace to public health.

 

[waggy]

no she won't get in trouble. stupidity is not against the law.

 

[Exterous]

No she won't get in trouble. Hell, we even have Congressmen who advocate not getting vaccinations. The stupid people are breeding - any they are bringing back infection diseases with their non-vaccinated spawn!

 

[Bateluer]

no she won't get in trouble. stupidity is not against the law.

True, but child abuse and knowingly spreading infectious diseases are.

 

[umbrella39]

What do you expect from the girl who got her start taking off her clothes then doing Singled Out.

 

[Codewiz]

This coming from a woman that thought her kid was an indigo child. She is insane AND stupid.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigo_children

 

[DukeN]

Even the dumb have a right to free speech.

The stupid thing is with her LOUD attitude (ever seen on on LKL?), it's tough to take her argument seriously because of the sheer abrasiveness.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

This entire situation is completely the fault of the pharmaceutical companies and government who have squandered away the trust the public should have in them.

 

[Greenman]

Is there anything to her argument?
I always like to get at least one fact and a little hearsay before I jump on a bandwagon.

 

[Slick5150]

There was some "researcher" saying there was a direct link between vaccinations and autism. His research has been debunked and even he has had to admit so recently.

 

[Blackjack200]

Similar to the creationists, moon landing deniers, global warming deniers, etc.

It's pointless to argue, they are not looking for the truth.

 

[HannibalX]

She's an idiot and only other idiots will listen to her.

Thinning of the heard.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Is there anything to her argument?
I always like to get at least one fact and a little hearsay before I jump on a bandwagon.

Well, there's the mercury in vaccines. And despite the verifiable harm it can have on the human body, people with a vested interest in saying so insist that the mercury in vaccines is safe. So there's that.

 

[Vette73]

Well, there's the mercury in vaccines. And despite the verifiable harm it can have on the human body, people with a vested interest in saying so insist that the mercury in vaccines is safe. So there's that.

"Information about Thimerosal
Since 2001, with the exception of some influenza (flu) vaccines, thimerosal is not used as a preservative in routinely recommended childhood vaccines."

Autism rates did not drop when they removed it 100%. In fact they still went up.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

There are way too many folks here that seem perfectly willing to let anyone in a white coat jab them and their children with just about anything. I'm not saying vaccines definitely cause autism or anything else, I don't know. But neither does nearly anyone responding to this thread, yet you all are so sure they don't. Why will people so often label flagrant economic incentive a nutjob conspiracy? People, companies, government, they all follow their incentives. And if that incentive is to deny the potential harm of an unsafe product to avoid legal and financial liability, they will do so, and from the attitudes I see here likely get away with it. There's an ever increasing myriad of shit in the world that is making us physically sick, all in the name of lining someone's pockets. We really need to be vigilant about verifying what's safe and what's not.

 

[MotF Bane]

http://www.jennymccarthybodycount.com/Jenny_McCarthy_Body_Count/Home.html

 

[OutHouse]

True, but child abuse and knowingly spreading infectious diseases are.

not getting your child vaccinated is not child abuse. where in the hell do you get off spewing such crap?

 

[jackschmittusa]

Gonad the Barbarian

I have never personally measured the speed of light, but I chose to believe the guys in the lab coats when they say it's about 186,000 miles per second.

Study after study has shown no link between autism and vaccines. Peer review backs up the studies.

So, without conducting my own study, I have to make a rational decision about what to accept. The preponderance of evidence leads to a single conclusion.

 

[woolfe9999]

There are way too many folks here that seem perfectly willing to let anyone in a white coat jab them and their children with just about anything. I'm not saying vaccines definitely cause autism or anything else, I don't know. But neither does nearly anyone responding to this thread, yet you all are so sure they don't. Why will people so often label flagrant economic incentive a nutjob conspiracy? People, companies, government, they all follow their incentives. And if that incentive is to deny the potential harm of an unsafe product to avoid legal and financial liability, they will do so, and from the attitudes I see here likely get away with it. There's an ever increasing myriad of shit in the world that is making us physically sick, all in the name of lining someone's pockets. We really need to be vigilant about verifying what's safe and what's not.

There have been 21 studies exploring whether there is a correlation between vaccination and autism. All 21 have concluded no link. Are you suggesting that these studies have been manipulated? If so, why should we believe anything that comes out of the scientific community?

This whole issue is just another salvo in the war against science that is taking place all over America right now, a war in which any conclusion of science that doesn't fit the emotional, political, or religious predelictions of some person or group is dismissed as a hoax, conspiracy, or product of "greed" and/or "careerism" or [fill in the blank] theory of bias that can apply to any and every scientific endeavor whatsoever.

Jenny McCarthy is worse than a moron. She is grandstanding for attention and the garbage that comes out of her mouth is lethal. She's a scumbag.

- wolf

 

[Vette73]

There are way too many folks here that seem perfectly willing to let anyone in a white coat jab them and their children with just about anything. I'm not saying vaccines definitely cause autism or anything else, I don't know. But neither does nearly anyone responding to this thread, yet you all are so sure they don't. Why will people so often label flagrant economic incentive a nutjob conspiracy? People, companies, government, they all follow their incentives. And if that incentive is to deny the potential harm of an unsafe product to avoid legal and financial liability, they will do so, and from the attitudes I see here likely get away with it. There's an ever increasing myriad of shit in the world that is making us physically sick, all in the name of lining someone's pockets. We really need to be vigilant about verifying what's safe and what's not.

If you take Vaccines your chances of autism do not increase.
If you do not take Vaccines then your chances of disease and death DO increase.

Does not get any simpler than that.

I have a 1 year old son and like a good parent I looked into vaccines, autism etc... and the only people saying not to take vaccines were from nut jobs that had no scientific evidence.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

There have been 21 studies exploring whether there is a correlation between vaccination and autism. All 21 have concluded no link. Are you suggesting that these studies have been manipulated? If so, why should we believe anything that comes out of the scientific community?

This whole issue is just another salvo in the war against science that is taking place all over America right now, a war in which any conclusion of science that doesn't fit the emotional, political, or religious predelictions of some person or group is dismissed as a hoax, conspiracy, or product of "greed" and/or "careerism" or [fill in the blank] theory of bias that can apply to any and every scientific endeavor whatsoever.

Jenny McCarthy is worse than a moron. She is grandstanding for attention and the garbage that comes out of her mouth is lethal. She's a scumbag.

- wolf

This isn't really a question of mistrusting science, it's a question of mistrusting the scientists. And "they" have gotten a lot of things dead wrong over the years, both intentionally and unintentionally. More pressure on them by the folks whose well being depend on them is not a bad thing. As for autism, the only real way to verify what doesn't cause it is to verify what does cause it. That's the only way they can definitely prove any product safe, and as long as that cause remains unknown or disputed, anyone who may ultimately be responsible remains free from any legal or financial liability. I don't distrust science, but I do distrust those with a vested interest in manipulating data and results. I'm not asserting that is necessarily what is happening here, but I'm not so quick to discount it either.

 

[werepossum]

There is definitely something causing the huge increase in autism among boys. It definitely isn't mercury, nor any other single component in vaccines. If it is linked to vaccines at all, it would be in the sheer number given today, an immune response to the sheer number of the immunoresponsive substances with which we inflict children. A more likely scenario from what I've read is that a little-known and mostly harmless virus is becoming widespread and causes an immune system response in utero, perhaps because sons are more foreign to the mother's body than are daughters. Since viruses are blindingly hard to detect and observe directly, a virus without much difference in effect from a cold (or with no apparent effect) would be almost undetectable. But no one really knows at this point. Not everyone even agrees there is an increase; some think the expanded definitions of autism explain the perceived increase.

I don't think there are enough unvaccinated babies to really do a proper study on autism, although perhaps among the Mennonites and/or Amish? But there are certainly enough different vaccines world-wide to rule out any particular vaccine or vaccine component as the cause.

 

[actuarial]

This isn't really a question of mistrusting science, it's a question of mistrusting the scientists. And "they" have gotten a lot of things dead wrong over the years, both intentionally and unintentionally. More pressure on them by the folks whose well being depend on them is not a bad thing. As for autism, the only real way to verify what doesn't cause it is to verify what does cause it. That's the only way they can definitely prove any product safe, and as long as that cause remains unknown or disputed, anyone who may ultimately be responsible remains free from any legal or financial liability. I don't distrust science, but I do distrust those with a vested interest in manipulating data and results. I'm not asserting that is necessarily what is happening here, but I'm not so quick to discount it either.

So maybe eating food causes it. Does that mean you're not going to feed your kid?

 

[Blackjack200]

Autism is one of the most heritable psychiatric disorders in the world - 90%. The environmental factors are still important, but let's not pretend that kids are just catching wierd colds.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

So maybe eating food causes it. Does that mean you're not going to feed your kid?

Really, you want to imply that our food supply can't possibly be making people sick with the current state it's in? Read your damn food labels sometime and tell me that shit, especially kid-centric food, is healthy.