What is Retrospectacle? This series of posts are a kind of Thomas Dolby-inspired ‘retrospectacle’ of earlier popular entries from my site, which will fill in during the time that I am busy working for the rest of this month.
This is for Sara Jane.
Now that I have your attention – let’s have a little recap as to one of the reasons why I blog. It’s because of 
people like Dr Rachael Dunlop.
Dr Dunlop (most commonly known as ‘Dr Rachie’ on the Skeptic Zone podcast) is just one of the many, many scientists out there and one of the great number of skeptically-minded women who take part in questioning pseudoscience. No, one doesn’t have to be in with ’socialite-skeptic-sorts’ to be such an influential person, although she has been known to co-coordinate Sydney Skeptics meet-up group events! As listeners know, Dr Rachie is articulate, well-read and wonderfully dedicated to finding out about the very latest challenges to the progress of science and health. We certainly need many more people like her.
Yesterday she alerted me to an article in a magazine I… well, I kind of loathe. It’s the popular Australian magazine ‘Woman’s Day’. I’ve been so out of the loop with celebrity culture that I no longer recognise half of the ‘famous faces’ in it (‘there’s really a reality TV show that revolves around losing weight??’).
Today, I finally wrangled a spot of spare time to check out a particular article in an edition of that magazine that she “Twittered” about: “I Cured My Son’s Autism” by Jenny McCarthy:
‘…he’s been undiagnosed autistic… the fact is, we detoxed and healed those kids…do away with preservatives, sugar, wheat, dairy, corn syrup, artificial food colourings – and suddenly your child is making eye-contact and sleeping through the night… Without a doubt, in my mind, I have met up to 60,000 women who all told me the same story. After vaccination, their child developed a fever, started having seizures and slowly lost all language and eye contact. Six months later, they were diagnosed with autism. We now have 36 vaccinations back on schedule. Back in 1983 it was 10 and autism affected one in 10,000. Now it’s one in 150 here…”
Now, to be fair, Women’s Day magazine does features a tiny box up in the top right of the article, labeled ‘The Vaccination Debate’. It features a mere two paragraphs:
While Jenny believes that vaccinations put children at risk of autism, medical experts insist that parents should arm themselves with the facts before making a decision. “When you compare the benefits and the side effects of vaccination, the benefits far outweigh the side effects,” says Dr John Gullotta, chairman of the Public Health and Therapeutics Committee of the Australian Medical Association.
“… when you look at something like measles for example, 1 in 25 children who get measles will develop pneumonia, and 1 in 2000 will develop encephalitis, which is a swelling of the brain; whereas from the vaccination, one in a million children can develop encephalitis. We’ve eradicated things such as small pox and polio, thanks to vaccinations.”
Despite this inclusion, I’m rather depressed how poorly Women’s Day has responded with a tiny text box. It doesn’t address McCarthy’s claims at all well, nor does it recognise that we still have cases of children carrying such diseases, because of not vaccinating. Women’s Day magazine boasts a readership of ‘1 in 5 (22%) Australian women each week across all cities, towns and demographics‘.
I guess I should take it as a good sign that the current editor, Amy Sinclair, is retiring and there’s a new editor, Zoe Meunier, from now on. If you’d like to write in about the article – their ‘Your Say’ section features at www.womansday.ninemsn.com.au.
The ongoing issue of anti-vaccination proponents like Jenny McCarthy is nothing new to many – particularly those who enjoy reading science blogs, skeptic magazines or keep an eye on literature that doesn’t require a knowledge of ‘The Biggest Loser’. Although I must admit, it’s an analogy that I often associate with the arguments of anti-vaccination claims.
However, fighting against those claims are quite a challenge, despite the continual lack of evidence for the scare-tactics. We’re up against popular glossies like Women’s Day, which fail to promote good counter-evidence. ‘Mother’s evidence’ in comparison sounds just so… so caring.
Dr Steve Novella, who was interviewed by Dr Rachael Dunlop on a recent episode of the Skeptic Zone podcast, has featured many blog posts on the topic and wrote this overview, which was my first introduction to the topic, within the Skeptical Inquirer magazine. His posts include ‘Celebrity Smackdown: Amanda Peet vs Jenny McCarthy’ – a tale about “the celebrity culture in which we grant more weight to the opinions of celebrities than they deserve”:
Amanda Peet has entered the game with a video in which she defends the safety of vaccines. In an interview about her views she said:
Frankly, I feel that parents who don’t vaccinate their children are parasites. [here is, by the way, Peet's apology for the divisive nature of that remark].
She is referring to the fact that when the majority of children are vaccinated they prevent the spread of infection through so-called “herd immunity.” Those who don’t vaccinate are benefiting from those who do. Calling this “parasitic” is inflammatory – but not inaccurate. Peet essentially gets it right. Of course, when enough people choose not to vaccinate there is the risk that herd immunity will be compromised and outbreaks will occur – this has already happened in the UK and is now starting to happen in the US.
…While I credit Peet for caring enough about the issue to use her celebrity status to promote a position I agree with, and I credit her with getting the issue correct – her celebrity endorsement of vaccines really shouldn’t matter. This question should not be settled by which side gets the sexier actresses as spokespersons (and, BTW, if that were the case Peet would win hands down – I’m just saying).
Well, it’s also nice to know that Novella doesn’t endorse ’sexy woman might to equal right’. An important thing that sometimes seems to overlooked by even the skeptically-minded at times!
He has more recently continued on with ‘Skeptical Battlegrounds: Part IV – Anti-Vaccine Hysteria’:
One thing is clear – the skeptical movement has to keep vigilant and keep the pressure on. We have to oppose anti-vaccine pseudoscience at every turn. We need to make ourselves available to the mainstream media and be effective at the public relations end of the game. We need to get the mainstream scientific and medical communities more active and show them how it’s done.
Within that post, he mentions the work of several scientists and authors who are weighing in on the side of vaccinations. Those who read the very popular Science Blogs might be more familiar with Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatrician and researcher who recently published a book on the topic called “Autism’s False Prophets”. It’s become a featured Book Club book on the Science Blogs network – I’ve had an enjoyable November dropping in to read entries such as “Autism’s False Prophets: Finally, science pushes back against antivaccine lunacy” and “Myth, Religion, and Jenny McCarthy, False Prophet of Autism”.
As that site says, there’s a group of contributors on Science Blogs that add to the ongoing blogged discussion of vaccination myths, such as Respectful Insolence, Denialism, Pharyngula, GoodMath, BadMath and Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted).
As part of the Stop Jenny.com site, myself and the other contributors have been going over claims too – as time goes on, it appears there are more and more useful resources, as Novella has blogged and all the other science bloggers and authors have added more and more in response.
Yet at the Stop Jenny site – we’re particularly keen to challenge at the source – the two books by Jenny McCarthy.
I’ve found, so far, that the ‘worst’ out of her two books is ‘Mother Warriors’. In comparison to the first in her ‘autism-claim’ non-fiction accounts, ‘Louder Than Words’, it firstly fails to feature the following inside cover disclaimer:
This book is a work of non-fiction based on the life, experiences and recollections of Jenny McCarthy. The health-related materials in this book are for informational or educational purposes only. You should not rely on this information as a substitute for the advice of your health-care professionals. Please consult them regarding the applicability of any opinions or recommendations in this book with respect to any symptoms or medical conditions that you or your family may experience.
Whilst the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers and internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors, or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
I’ve got about five pages of claims documented from the first book, ‘Louder Than Words’ so far – but it’ll take a while more to finish off the masses of material in the second. I think we’re planning on linking every claim to a counter-claim, which may be useful as a hand-out or a ‘wiki’ of sorts. Let us know if you think there’s a good way to organise such information!
I hope people continue to be keen to write about challenging the claims of the likes of McCarthy, Safe Minds and Age of Autism, Andrew Wakefield and Mark and David Geier, Dr. Jay Gordon (prominent in the second book, ‘Mother Warriors’) and even Jim Carrey (who has a rather odd essay included in the second book) and Oprah Winfrey, who features in ‘Mother Warriors’ as a most uncritical supporter. Many of these articles can be featured on the Stop Jenny.com site or help suggest future resources on many other ventures.
But I should emphasise – I personally don’t and never see a website as a ‘be-all-and-end-all.’ We’re up against a lot of more popular sites, from Yahoo Answers to Google search vagaries and the ever-present television, magazine and real-world social support networks. It’s unrealistic to think it’s that simple. Or that people trust us when trust is so difficult to gain and internet interaction can be misinterpreted as bullying rather than genuine concern or questions by a fellow stakeholder.
After all, it was Jenny McCarthy who described how she developed her initial doubts about her doctors, after dropping off her son for his first session of ABA therapy at the UCLA ECPH autism program, through the power of conversations and suggestions via face-to-face interactions with other women:
As I closed the door behind me, I saw two mommies who had jumped up to greet me. I could tell by their looks that they had recogised me. I saw excitement and some relief in their smiles, to know celebrities also could have kids with autism. After saying some quick hellos, they immediately started firing out questions.
“Do you know about the diet? The gluten- and casein-free diet?” one mother said.
“Yes, I figured it out. Evan has been on it for a few months now,” I said.
“Do you know about chelation?”
“Chelation? No, what’s that?”
“It’s to detox mercury out of the body. You know about the mercury, right?” she said.
“Yeah, to some extent. I do believe that’s how damage was done to Evan’s immune system.”
“Well, you have to get it out. You have to chelate the mercury out.”
“How do you do that?”
“You need a DAN! doctor.”
“A what?”
… they then started to hand me phone numbers of doctors and Web site info. I felt so overwhelmed and, at the same time, relieved that I had just met women with whom I could share my pain and recovery stories.
Louder Than Words, Chapter 17, pages 116-7.
Of course, writing in, writing articles that feature offline, reading books, talking to the many, many people who are readers of such publications all can play a part. I really don’t see this as a ’skeptical’ issue in many ways. This is about parenting, health and improving public awareness of the dangers of unquestioned celebrity – and what ramifications it can have on children who really wouldn’t care less about ‘who the blonde lady is’ when it comes to being healthy.
Oh – just spotted - Who Needs Science Or Feminism When There’s Jenny McCarthy?
![[Valid RSS]](http://img501.imageshack.us/img501/9879/validrsscf0.png "Validate my RSS feed")
Comments on this entry are closed.