Otherwise serious people are spooked about the impact Jenny McCarthy’s hiring on The View might have for the health of a nation.
Dr. Claire McCarthy writes:
By choosing Jenny McCarthy to be a host on “The View”, ABC made a decision that could end up costing lives–even worse, the lives of children.
OK, I don’t find McCarthy particularly talented but isn’t that a bit extreme? Oh wait, there’s more to it.
Jenny McCarthy believes that vaccines caused her son to be autistic. Never mind that it’s not clear that he was actually autistic, none of the claims she has made about vaccines and autism are backed up by, um, any medical evidence. But that doesn’t stop Jenny McCarthy from making those claims very publicly. She is a supporter of Andrew Wakefield, the British doctor whose study linking the MMR vaccine and autism was found to be based on fraudulent data. The fact that he has been discredited by the medical community and lost his license doesn’t stop her from supporting him.
McCarthy is, by all accounts, a flake, but if any parent makes health decisions for their children based on what a panel member of The View tells them should have their children taken from their custody immediately.
Our fear of free speech stems from our fear that people are too lazy or stupid or both to rigorously investigate what they see, hear, and read. That’s not entirely unfounded, though, as I’m still getting Daily Currant articles forwarded to me as serious journalism.
Oh, I was going to use a photo of McCarthy for this post but I couldn’t find one that wasn’t offensive in some way. Take that as you will.
serhasacomplaint 
Mary Miraglia
July 16, 2013 at 1:51 pm
Hah! I was going to say something smart about Jenny McCarthy, something like “Why don’t they just hire Geraldo and be done with it?” But after I read your post I changed my mind.
I’m old enough to remember when kids didn’t get vaccinated for diphtheria, and children in my small community died from it. To have lived through whoopiing cough with all my siblings, but my baby sister , as a newborn, had to go live with Granny for two months to protect her. To have been quarantined from school with “scarletina” (strep throat), and not to have even realized how great that was. To be sent to play with the neighbors when they had the measles “to get it over with.”
So I sure do support vaccines, and I don’t think I believe they cause autism. But one thing I really don’t understand: why does the pharmaceutical industry have to use toxic mercury as a preservative? If there isn’t another less toxic preservative that can be employed, then just freeze the damn things and be done with it. Even if vaccines don’t cause autism — and I’m not saying they don’t, just that I don’t believe it — use of such a toxic substance carries risks and has no business in substances we inject into our bodies. At all.
So I say, change the practice. Now. And then maybe we’ll find out.