Oprah, where’s your science savvy?
Oprah’s teaming up with Jenny McCarthy, the celeb mom who says she’s cured her son’s autism through alternative therapies. And who still believes vaccines cause autism despite ample scientific evidence to the contrary. McCarthy’s been on the the show and now will blog on Oprah’s website.
According to Arthur Allen at Slate, David Tayloe, the President of the American Academy of Pediatrians, is none too pleased with the new actress/autism activitist/blogger:
“If you give her a bully pulpit, McCarthy is going to make people hesitate to vaccinate their children. She has no medical or scientific credentials. It disturbs us that she’s given all these opportunities to make her pitch about vaccines on Oprah or Larry King or U.S. News or whatever. We have to scramble to get equal time—and who wants to see a gray-haired pediatrician talking about a serious topic like childhood vaccines when she’s out there blasting the academy and blasting the federal government?”
But McCarthy doesn’t worry Dr. Paul Offit, an esteemed medical doc, vaccine inventor, and author of Autism’s False Prophets. Why?
Because people won’t listen to a celebrity for medical advice. Hmmm…
Does he know the former Playboy Bunny (who dropped out of nursing school) has turned out several parenting books? A few bestsellers? Like the newest, Healing and Preventing Autism: A Complete Guide?
And hey, surely there’s someone in the AAP who wouldn’t bore people to tears on Oprah. Someone who might just make her estrogen-packed audience tune in – and get their kids vaccinated.