Jenny McCarthy: um, maybe my kid isn't really autistic

I'm not sure what is greater shakeup to the vaccines-cause-autism movement: the retraction of the original study that made the connection, or Jenny McCarthy saying that her heretofore autistic son, the one magically cured through diet, might not be autistic after all.

http://bit.ly/c8CZfY

After years of speaking publicly about her belief that MMR shots (immunization for measles, mumps, and rubella) caused her son to suffer from autism, Jenny McCarthy now faces the reality that her 7-year-old son Evan — who no longer shows any signs of autism — may likely have lived with completely different illness.

A new article in Time magazine — which Jenny was interviewed for — suggests Evan suffers from Landau-Kleffner syndrome, “a rare childhood neurological disorder that can also result in speech impairment and possible long-term neurological damage.”

Many applaud Jenny, who has never stopped fighting to help her son since his autism diagnosis in 2005. Others say her claims about immunizations have labeled “a menace to public health” by the Center of Disease Control.

Jenny talks about her son’s progress saying, “Evan couldn’t talk — now he talks. Evan couldn’t make eye contact — now he makes eye contact. Evan was anti-social — now he makes friends. It was amazing to watch … when something didn’t work for Evan, I didn’t stop. I stopped that treatment, but I didn’t stop.”

And she is also reversing her initial position that the MMR shots caused Evan’s autism. Jenny says she wants vaccinations better researched — rather than getting rid of them altogether. And though her son may never have had autism, Jenny insists, “I’ll continue to be the voice” of the disease.

 

What does this sentence mean? I don't get the "others say," for one -- CDC either said it or didn't. But if that's the case, would it be "have been labeled"?
Or maybe they intended to write "should have been labeled," which I guess would make sense.

Whatever, it distracted me from the fact that to me, the whole "reversing her initial position" think should have been higher in the story. But I guess it's a tabloid, since they kept referring to her as "Jenny."

 

Brit doc litterally made up the vacccination-causes-Autism bullshit.

Measles is actually making a serious comeback thanks to these fucks.

I feel bad for McCarthy. Some people just feed on their insecurities (I have no idea what word or phrase to use there) about having a handicapped child, and it really is sickening.

 

In fairness, the story said he likely suffered from a disease with similar symptoms ... it's not like he was just dumb and she made the rest up.

 

Anyone could have misjudged their kid's condition, but it's her evangelism about the purported cause that's the problem. I guess she deserves credit for admitting that everything she's been known for in the past few years is wrong -- though I'm not sure she had a choice at this point, given the mountain of evidence.

It's tough to be too hard on parents with sick kids looking for answers, but the damage done by this asinine anti-immunization movement is heartbreaking. A lot of people made costly decisions without taking the time to really try to understand what they were talking about. The bulk of science has ALWAYS supported immunization.

 

You are correct.

 

I wholeheartedly endorse piling on the mother who was scared for her child.

 

Paraphrasing newly naturalized U.S. citizen Craig Ferguson before the November election: "Read about the issues, decide what makes the best sense for you. Don't vote for someone just because a dumbass celebrity tells you to."

 

This.

Is wise.

 

There's the point and then over here, there's where you are.

Nobody's piling on her for being scared for her kid. At worst, we're criticizing her for becoming a spokeswoman for dubious science while having no idea what she was talking about. And now not only is the science debunked, her son doesn't even have the disorder the whole thing was predicated upon.

 

Oh bullshit, McCarthy deserves no sympathy. She revived her dead career by jumping on the "autism is everywhere" bandwagon and tried to paint herself as a parenting-guru autism-battling hero in the process. And it was all bullshit.

The truth is McCarthy gave birth to a perfectly normal son. But she claimed he had autism. Then she claimed she cured his autism. Then she made herself a "national spokeswoman" on the issue and wrote a book about it painting herself as a hero and lecturing the rest of us on how to be parents. And she made a bunch of money off it and got her name back in the spotlight. And it was all bullshit.

And you feel bad for her?

 

So we're finding out that the centerfold is wrong and doctors and scientists were right? Shhhhhhhhocking!

Why people believe shit like this is something I'll never understand.