On Jenny McCarthy and how to fight the anti-vax movement

[summer]

www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-jenny-mccarthy-antivaxxer-public-menace-20150127-column.html#page=1

 To provide context to the ongoing outbreak of measles linked to visits to Disneyland and the influence of the anti-vaccination movement, science writer Seth Mnookin revisits the saga of one of the most celebrated anti-vaxxers, starlet Jenny McCarthy.



Mnookin's reporting on McCarthy comes from his indispensable 2012 book "The Panic Virus," which examines the myth of a link between the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism, its origin in a bogus study by notorious British fraud Andrew Wakefield, and its spread by credulous news and entertainment figures. He posted the chapter on McCarthy on the PLoS blog's website in 2013, when ABC gave her a fresh new platform by naming her to the cast of the talk show "The View."




The measles outbreak is now up to 87 cases, of which 50 are linked to Disneyland visits. Of the 42 patients whose vaccination status is known, 37 were unvaccinated or only partially vaccinated. Second-order infections are now turning up--patients who were exposed to infected Disneyland visitors but hadn't been to the park itself.



The outbreak is raising questions about how best to combat some parents' doubts about the safety of the MMR vaccine, which has been amply documented by science, and about the role of medical regulators in quashing bad advice from pediatricians. More on that in a moment.




Mnookin's reporting depicts McCarthy, a former Playboy playmate and MTV star, as an easy mark for charlatans. After dabbling in New Age crystal spirituality, she fell in with an anti-vaccination group once her son was diagnosed with autism. She soon became a ubiquitous spokeswoman for a dizzying variety of autism nostrums--special diets, supplements, detox, chelation, hyperbaric chambers, etc., none of which has been shown to have any scientific validity--and for doubts about the MMR vaccine.



Most disturbingly, Mnookin documents how the news and entertainment industry abetted McCarthy's dangerous campaign. One of the chief offenders is Oprah Winfrey, who exposed her huge television audience to McCarthy, treating her as an expert on autism because she had "mommy instinct.... She knows what she's talking about," Oprah advised her fans. But CNN's Larry King and Time Inc.'s People Magazine also gave McCarthy star treatment. In our celebrity-obsessed culture in which TV actors are often called to testify before Congress on subjects of concern to their fictional characters, this was powerful stuff.


A footnote: Last year, McCarthy claimed that she had been wrongly painted as "anti-vaccine." Her claim was promptly debunked.



What's the best way to fight the spread of media-spread misinformation? Dartmouth political scientist Brendan Nyhan says it's a mistake to demonize vaccine-doubting parents as "selfish" or "dumb." (As we've done.)





In an exchange with the veteran science and environmental journalist Keith Kloor, Nyhan maintains: "We need to maintain and strengthen the consensus around vaccination, but the most effective way to do so isn't by polarizing and dividing people. The vast majority of parents who don’t vaccinate are intelligent and well-meaning people who are trying to do what’s best for their children. We need to help them make better choices, not ridicule them."



Yet Nyhan's own research suggests that the root of anti-vaccine behavior by parents is an unreasoning conviction bordering on fanaticism. His 2013 study showed that anti-vaccine parents remained unswayed by scientific evidence that vaccines were safe--in fact, it sometimes made them more anti-vaccine.


That implies that the best approach may be to step up peer pressure in favor of vaccination, perhaps by making it socially unacceptable. That could have a real impact in affluent, educated communities--such as Marin and Orange counties--that have had declining vaccination rates. Parents there often think they know better than experts, and their views are reinforced by neighbors and popular but irresponsible local pediatricians. The counter-trend may already be surfacing, as the real consequences of nonvaccination and the real perils of measles become apparent, but vaccination rates are so low in some neighborhoods that it may have a long way to go.



What about regulators? It's proper to ask whether the Medical Board of California, which licenses physicians in the state, has been properly attentive to the issue of whether physicians advising parents to delay or skip childhood vaccinations are upholding their professional responsibilities. The board did not even post an alert about the measles outbreak on its website until Jan. 22, when I asked board officials why none had been issued.



There are no indications that the board has investigated doctors identified in news reports as puveyors of vaccine skepticism, despite news reports from their practices--though its investigations remain confidential until and unless they result in an action against the doctor's license. Still, as the state's leading regulator of physicians, the Medical Board should be in the forefront of the battle against anti-vaccination behavior by its licensees. So far, it isn't. By its inaction, it has ceded the stage to people like Jenny McCarthy.

[borinquen57]

I'm honestly very stressed out about this. I vaxxed DD1, so anti-vaxxers just made me angry, but DD2 is itty-bitty and can't be vaxxed yet. Mississippi and West Virginia are the only two states that allow parents to opt-out only if they are medically exempt, but why is it only these two? Something has to be done before this gets even more out of hand. It makes me feel paranoid thinking this way, but I don't know if my paranoia is warranted.  *-)

[UMaineTeach]

Jan 31, 2015 14:32:05 GMT -5 @cse1960 said:

 natural immunity and clean healthy living and Ive done my research.

maybe some one needs to come up with a savvy campaign that plays to that. Run it in upper-middle class markets. "I choose to teach my children wash their hands often to keep clean, I choose feed them organic kale to keep them healthy, I choose to extended rear-face to protect from a car crash, I choose to vaccinate to give them everything they need to protect from deadly diseases.

Like my favorite anti-abortion ads (you know, if I had to choose a favorite anti-abortion ad) They leave you with a choice, but it's clear what your choice should be. But you can't be mad, because they left you with a choice.

[jln]

Jan 31, 2015 14:32:45 GMT -5 borinquen57 said:

I'm honestly very stressed out about this. I vaxxed DD1, so anti-vaxxers just made me angry, but DD2 is itty-bitty and can't be vaxxed yet. Mississippi and West Virginia are the only two states that allow parents to opt-out only if they are medically exempt, but why is it only these two? Something has to be done before this gets even more out of hand. It makes me feel paranoid thinking this way, but I don't know if my paranoia is warranted.  *-)

I'm very afraid of this, too.  DS2 is due in May and I'm sure we'll be out and about a lot with DS1.  I'm not normally a paranoid person, either, but I wouldn't be surprised if I stayed home until DS2 got his first vaccines.  It's maddening that I even have to feel that way in order to protect my kids. 

[auntie]

Playboy's Miss October 1993 doesn't even have a horse in this race. Her kid doesn't even have autism. Evan has Landau-Kleffner Syndrome which is a kind of seizure disorder. Basically epilepsy.

[usuallylurking]

Jan 31, 2015 15:50:16 GMT -5 auntie said:

Playboy's Miss October 1993 doesn't even have a horse in this race. Her kid doesn't even have autism. Evan has Landau-Kleffner Syndrome which is a kind of seizure disorder. Basically epilepsy.

Yeah? Well the MMR probably caused THAT, too! Omg. Maddening.

Also, thank you for this. I hadn't ever looked into what her kid actually has.

[auntie]

Jan 31, 2015 16:39:44 GMT -5 usuallylurking said:

Jan 31, 2015 15:50:16 GMT -5 auntie said:

Playboy's Miss October 1993 doesn't even have a horse in this race. Her kid doesn't even have autism. Evan has Landau-Kleffner Syndrome which is a kind of seizure disorder. Basically epilepsy.

Yeah? Well the MMR probably caused THAT, too! Omg. Maddening.

Also, thank you for this. I hadn't ever looked into what her kid actually has.

She's actually backpedaling again and claiming she was misquoted in the Time interview. (I think it was Feb 2010- no longer a freebie or I'd post it)

His symptoms seem more like a this seizure disorder than ASD.

The irony of the MMR hypothesis is that autistic behaviors are a rare complication of measles which is why Wakefield looked at MMR. He wasn't initially interested in preservatives.

[auntie]

Jan 31, 2015 17:04:21 GMT -5 @dontcallmeshirley1 said:

Can I ask: how much of this can we land squarely on McCarthy's shoulders? Weren't these people out there to begin with and we just didn't know it? I guess what I'm trying to ask is, have we actually established a correlation between McCarthy spouting her bullshit on tv and rising rates of anti-vaxxing, or did she basically just become the spokesperson for something that was happening anyway?

Note: I am for ALL the vaccines, lest anybody wish to paint me some sort of sympathizer.

I'd say she has blood on her hands.

I'd also say that mainstream media outlets that allowed her to pitch her woo unchallenged by experts during her book tours (Louder than Words and Healing and Preventing Autism) share in the blame as well. Oprah and Barbara Walters? I'm looking at you.