Dealing With My Own #JennyMcCarthy Backlash...

I am very blessed to have the readers that I do.  You all are for the most part very supportive and nonjudgemental and I really appreciate that.  Today I appreciate it even more. 

Yesterday I wrote about Jenny McCarthy.  I stand by what I said, and I don't think that anything I said would be considered "shocking" to the average autism parent.  I posted a link to my blog in the comments section of an article about this issue on slate.com.  The article was calling for readers to boycott the view because of Jenny McCarthy the anti-vaxxer. 
http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/07/15/the_view_daytime_talk_show_hires_antivaxxer_jenny_mccarthy.html

Never in my life have I been in the presence of such antagonistic, pot-stirring cranky people.  People who very clearly have little to no experience with autism.  Within minutes of posting the article, I was told I was moderating my stupidity, that I was not "interested in science", I was accused of claiming to be a medical expert.  I was told that Jenny McCarthy's son was never autistic, that she diagnosed him herself.  That cracks me up, because he received ABA, and all of the traditional therapies, was diagnosed by a neurologist, and underwent pretty much every biomedical treatment that money can buy.  He was lucky that way, mom could afford it.  Yes there is talk that he had Landau-Kleffner syndrome, not autism- a common misdiagnosis.  It's not for me to say.  Or anyone else- if the EXPERTS don't know, then we certainly don't either. 

Jenny McCarthy's website is called generationrescue.org.  It has a link to find a DOCTOR.
http://www.generationrescue.org/recovery/find-a-doctor-2/search

Here is her page on vaccination:
http://www.generationrescue.org/resources/vaccination/

I see nothing in here that states that she "recommends" NOT vaccinating your children- looks to me like she is telling people to educate themselves, look at their family history, and consider their options
she recommends visiting the website for the National Vaccine Information Center
http://www.nvic.org/Ask-Eight-Questions.aspx
and she recommends that you answer these 8 questions with regard to YOUR family before you vaccinate.

I understand that people feel she is anti-vaccine and who knows, maybe that is her personal view.  However this is her professional website, this is the platform she presents to the world, and in my eyes, it is not dangerous.  Once again, I am not saying I agree with or support her- but the more I read, the more it seems that people are taking her ideals and blowing them way out of proportion.  I also think that giving one individual this much power- that she is a public health risk, yada yada is a tad.....dramatic.  Yes, she is in the public eye.  Do people realize that she served as a spokesperson for TACA (www.taca.org) for years?  Her personality may be a bit....severe at times, but people are taking her stance on vaccines, twisting it, and turning her into a villain and it's just not true.  I sure as heck wish I had educated myself a bit more before I vaccinated.  Would my kids still have their vaccines?  I can say without question that the answer is yes.  I just may have gone about it in a different way. 

Jenny McCarthy , The View and the Uncalled for Backlash

Since when did it become appropriate to permit an individual’s personal opinions to impact their ability to obtain a job?  Especially when said job is on a talk show aptly named “The View”???

There is a huge backlash going on in case you missed it, because Jenny McCarthy has been hired as a new permanent host on The View. 

http://social.entertainment.msn.com/blogs/post--jenny-mccarthys-view-hiring-blasted-as-public-health-threat

People have these types of comments:

"I think a network hiring a homicidal maniac, giving her a forum in front of people who have young children and are impressionable, is the most irresponsible thing I've heard of in a long time," New Yorker writer Michael Specter rants to the Los Angeles Times. "She's very dangerous. It's unfortunate that in our society, scientific evidence is now just taken as some other point of view." 

"Congrats ABC for hiring vaccine crank Jenny McCarthy for her 'outrageous... fresh POV,' [because] actual medical science is so stale and dull," fumes Time magazine TV critic James Poniewozik, who took issue with Barbara Walters' statement that Jenny "can be serious and outrageous. She has connected with our audience and offers a fresh point of view."

Salon takes a harder line: "Dear ABC: Putting Jenny McCarthy on 'The View' will kill children," blares its headline. "The vaccine conspiracy advocate doesn't just have a quirky point of view, she is spreading lies that hurt people."

Adds a pediatrician to the Boston Globe, "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."

Now, I have my own “views” on vaccines, which I have shared plenty of times.  I think people are being extremely melodramatic about this.  To say that she will cost children’s lives is akin to saying that because a talk show host is prochoice, more abortions will occur. 

I do not agree with Jenny McCarthy’s simplified philosophy about all of this- aka autism, vaccines, nutrition, etc.  She does state that her son Evan is “cured” of his autism.  And I have heard stories of other “recovered” children.  The bottom line is that her son’s “recovery” was due to dietary changes, infusions of glutathione, B12, and intensive therapy.  I know this because I read her book.  It all goes back to the idea that children with autism have an impaired ability to rid themselves of toxins, which like or not, vaccinations do introduce.  But they also come from many many other sources, and even if, as she claims, the MMR vaccine was his tipping point, it does not mean it “caused” his autism.   That is why I am pro spreading out vaccines, not stopping them. 

For all we know, ABC has made her sign an agreement that she will not discuss this on the show.  Even that would be pretty crappy in light of the fact that we are in the U.S. and plenty of other hosts have certainly voiced controversial opinions on this show. 

You know what I think is irresponsible?  Parading the current popular medical opinion out to the public as fact.  There are far too many changes to these theories on a daily basis for me to buy the idea that the medical community as a whole knows what they are doing.  Especially as it pertains to autism.  I have been presented with so many ideas/theories/treatments since the boys were diagnosed that it makes my head spin.  It made me really mad to read these quotes.  Not because they are definitely wrong, but because they assert that the larger medical community is without question, right.  And I think that the jury is definitely out on that.  I base this on Johns Hopkins’ study of mercury’s effect on the immune system, and the more and more widespread acknowledgement that autism is in part an immune modulated disorder.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/opinion/sunday/immune-disorders-and-autism.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Just some food for thought….

If autism is related to immune system dysregulation, is it really such a huge stretch to consider the idea that maybe, just maybe, multiple injections of substances that are meant to activate the immune system of a typical individual (vaccines) could possibly negatively affect that of an individual with a genetically impaired one?

And if one considers this possibility, is it really appropriate to label her as a “homicidal maniac”?  I think not.