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Jenny McCarthy, with help from Oprah Winfrey, lies about vaccines

jenny mccarthy vaccines

The old Skeptical Raptor is taking a bit of a break over the next few days to recharge his batteries for all of the pseudoscience that will be coming out in 2020. In lieu of new content, I will be republishing the top 10 most read articles on this blog during 2019. Here’s number 3 – Jenny McCarthy.

Honestly, I thought she had faded from the anti-vaccine world, but I guess over 150,000 people still researched her. 

Jenny McCarthy was once the MTV drunk college dating game hostess and former “journalist” on The View. I remember when she joined The View – there was widespread condemnation of her hiring from scientists, journalists, and yours truly because of her loud and annoying anti-vaccine rhetoric. Clearly, no one of any note supported her being hired on the View, except for websites like the Age of Pushing Nonsense To Harm Children. Continue reading “Jenny McCarthy, with help from Oprah Winfrey, lies about vaccines”

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Jenny McCarthy asks Twitter for help, Twitter replies “vaccinate”

Last week, former Playboy Playmate, recently appointed co-host of the ABC-TV (USA) show, the View, and anti-science/antivaccination rabble rouser Jenny McCarthy, decided to head to Twitter to get relationship advice. Not sure what she expected, and maybe she’s much more clever than we think by making this a trending topic, but it started rather quietly:

A hurricane of replies flew across Twitter (much of the evening I was retweeting the best ones, or just laughing). As one Tweeter remarked, “this is why the internet was invented.” Yup. Maybe Jenny didn’t know what she was doing?

 

Here are my favorites, and ones I haven’t seen on other articles. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hysterical. A nerdy reference:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were so many more I could have used, but laughing that hard for so long can wear a person out. I did a rough estimate of pro-vaccine to anti-vaccine Tweets for #JennyAsks, and it was around 100-200:1. So, you can conclude that either most Twitter users who follow hashtags are pro-science/pro-vaccine, or anti-vaxxers have limited access to computers and Twitter, since they’re living off the grid avoiding the evil Jews trying to vaccinate them. Oh yeah, that’s a thing amongst the antivaccination crowd.

A few months ago, I got into a discussion with writer and brand new mother Tara Haelle, claiming that social media wasn’t very useful in changing the society’s views on topics. I was skeptical that massive “protests” on Twitter or Facebook would move the body politic on any issues. Apparently, I was wrong. Because Jenny’s hashtag was completely and utterly hijacked by the pro-science/pro-vaccine world.

By the way, I added my own tweet to #JennyAsks a few days ago:

 

 

 

Visit the Science-based Vaccine Search Engine.

 

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One lunatic is dangerous to children–The Jenny McCarthy Story

Screen Shot 2013-07-16 at 15.00.31Unless you’re a skeptic living under a rock on Mars (which would be pretty amazing), you’d know that the Playboy Playmate Jenny McCarthy was chosen by ABC TV (in the USA) to be a co-host on the daytime talk show, The View. Let’s just say that this has not been met positively by much of the skeptical, pro-science blogging and journalism community. In fact, from what I’ve read, hardly anyone but the vaccine denier lunatic fringe is happy about her choice a co-host.

But this isn’t just complaining about an actress getting a job on a TV show. On my personal list of things I care about, I care very little about who is or isn’t the host on The View, a show that I have honestly never watched. And given that Jenny is going to be on it, I have even less interest in watching it.

The real reason why so many of us were upset had nothing to do with her being a bad actress, but because her beliefs about vaccines are plainly untrue and unsupported by the vast wealth of science. And now she might have a platform to hawk her misguided conviction that vaccines are dangerous. Because Americans are so easily seduced by a celebrity endorsement (about 25% of Americans trust celebrities), her comments carry more weight than real physicians and scientific researchers.  Continue reading “One lunatic is dangerous to children–The Jenny McCarthy Story”

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The vote on Jenny McCarthy–a resounding NO

“McCarthy’s view on vaccines stirs ‘View’ controversy” USA TODAY (July 16, 2013) 
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/07/15/jenny-mccarthy-view-vaccines/2518171/ 

“Actress to Fill One Vacancy in the Cast of ‘The View’” The New York Times (July 15, 2013) 
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/16/business/media/jenny-mccarthy-to-join-the-view-on-abc.html?_r=0

“Viruses Don’t Care About Your View: Why ABC Shouldn’t Have Hired Jenny McCarthy” TIME (July 15, 2013) 
http://entertainment.time.com/2013/07/15/viruses-dont-care-about-your-view-why-abc-shouldnt-have-hired-jenny-mccarthy/#ixzz2ZDRFH2Vd

“Jenny McCarthy: The Danger of Medical Celebrity” Forbes (July 15, 2013)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidkroll/2013/07/16/jenny-mccarthy-the-danger-of-medical-celebrity/

“Jenny McCarthy on ‘View’: A new forum for discredited autism theories” Los Angeles Times (July 15, 2013) 
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-jenny-mccarthy–view-autism-20130715,0,6008429.story

“Jenny McCarthy on The View — not The Medically Correct View, Just The View” Washington Post (July 15, 2013) 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2013/07/15/jenny-mccarthy-on-the-view-not-the-medically-correct-view-just-the-view/

“What Jenny McCarthy Should Do Before Her View Debut” Forbes (July 16, 2013) 
http://www.forbes.com/sites/emilywillingham/2013/07/16/what-jenny-mccarthy-should-do-before-her-view-debut/

“Jenny McCarthy joins ‘The View’” USA TODAY (July 15, 2013)
http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2013/07/15/abc-the-view-jenny-mccarthy-barbara-walters/2517659/

“Bill Nye: Jenny McCarthy’s Errant Views On Childhood Vaccines May Be Discredited On ‘The View’” Huffington Post (July 15, 2013) 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/15/bill-nye-jenny-mccarthy-childhood-vaccines-autism-the-view_n_3600666.html?ir=Science

OPINION: “She plays one on TV” New York Daily News (July 16, 2013) 
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/plays-tv-article-1.1399408#ixzz2ZDXAXKsq

“Science Community Is Furious Over Jenny McCarthy’s New Job On ‘The View’” Business Insider (July 15, 2013) 
http://www.businessinsider.com/anti-vaxxer-jenny-mccarthy-on-the-view-2013-7#ixzz2ZDVSUM3N

“The View Hires Notorious Anti-Vaxxer Jenny McCarthy” Slate’s Bad Astronomy (July 15, 2013) 
http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/07/15/the_view_daytime_talk_show_hires_antivaxxer_jenny_mccarthy.html

“ABC’s hiring of Jenny McCarthy: a decision that could cost lives” Boston.com (July 15, 2013) 
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/health/mdmama/2013/07/abcs_hiring_of_jenny_mccarthy_a_decision_that_could_cost_lives.html

OPINION: “ABC shouldn’t give McCarthy platform: Column” USA TODAY (July 15, 2013) 
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/07/15/jenny-mccarthy-view-column/2519101/

“Jenny McCarthy joins ‘The View’ as co-host” TODAY (July 15, 2013) 
http://www.today.com/entertainment/jenny-mccarthy-joins-view-co-host-6C10637031

“Anti-Vaccine Evangelist Jenny McCarthy Is the New Elisabeth Hasselbeck” New York Magazine (July 15, 2013) 
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/07/jenny-mccarthy-joins-the-view-elisabeth-hasselbeck.html

“Jenny McCarthy’s ‘View’ Announcement Stirs Up Snark on Twitter” The Hollywood Reporter (July 15, 2013)
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/jenny-mccarthys-view-announcement-stirs-585510

“ABC’s Jenny McCarthy Vs. ABC’s Actual Doctor on Vaccines” New Republic (July 15, 2013) 
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/113867/abcs-jenny-mccarthy-vs-abcs-actual-doctor-vaccines#

“Jenny McCarthy to Join ‘The View’” The Daily Beast (July 15, 2013)
http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2013/07/15/jenny-mccarthy-to-join-the-view.html

“Anti-Vaccine Activist Jenny McCarthy to Join ‘The View’” Politix (July 16, 2013) 
http://politix.topix.com/homepage/7036-anti-vaccine-campaigner-jenny-mccarthy-to-join-the-view

“Jenny McCarthy To Bring Her Anti-Vaccine Activism To ‘The View’ As New Co-Host” Think Progress (July 15, 2013) 
http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2013/07/15/2302631/jenny-mccarthy-to-bring-her-anti-vaccine-activism-to-the-view-as-new-co-host/

“Jenny McCarthy: An antivaccine ‘View’ is hired” Respectful Insolence (July 16, 2013) 
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2013/07/16/jenny-mccarthy-an-antivaccine-view-is-hired/

“Should Jenny McCarthy’s Vaccine Opinions Keep Her Off The View?” Pop Blend (July 15, 2013) 
http://www.cinemablend.com/pop/Should-Jenny-McCarthy-Vaccine-Opinions-Keep-Her-Off-View-57524.html

(A special thanks to fellow blogger, Karen Ernst, for creating and editing this list.)

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Jenny McCarthy gets to showcase her ignorance on television

© Discover Magazine Blogs, 2013
© Discover Magazine Blogs, 2013

Despite general opposition to it in the social media world, Jenny McCarthy, former Playboy Playmate of the Year, has just officially joined The View, an American daytime talk show on the ABC television network (owned by Disney). So other than being a former Playboy model, what is she notable for? Well, unless you’re just totally uninterested in the vaccine controversy, you know her as someone who heavily promotes the anti-vaccination movement.

Let’s look closely at Jenny’s background. Her extensive medical and science education includes…not much. In fact, she’s used as an authority figure among vaccine deniers, despite having no formal education in the sciences, medicine, immunology, virology, psychiatry, psychology…I’m sure you get the point.

In 2005, she announced that her child was diagnosed with autism, and she remains convinced that vaccines caused her son’s autism, although that view is unsupported by any scientific or medical evidence, which has lead to some significant skepticism and doubt that her son even has autism. Her public appearances and statements have increased the public perception of this link, and may have led to decreased immunization rates and increased incidence of some vaccine preventable diseases. Jenny has stated that chelation therapy helped her son recover from autism. Essentially, she claims that mercury in vaccines causes autism, which has been rejected by scientific and clinical studies. In fact, there is no evidence whatsoever that vaccines cause autism (this blog post thoroughly discusses all of the evidence), unless you buy into the fraudulent link between autism and vaccines promoted by Mr. Andy Wakefield‘s paper that alleged a connection between MMR and autism and has been retracted by the Lancet medical journal.  Continue reading “Jenny McCarthy gets to showcase her ignorance on television”