The Vaccine/Autism Connection: the Jenny McCarthy Body Count

Healing and Preventing Autism

Autism is one of those conditions whose cause has been difficult to find.

Some parents of autistic children and other autism advocates — as many as one in four parents — have said that CHILDREN’S VACCINES CAUSE AUTISM.  Since that original 1998 report proposing that there was a link between vaccination shots and autism came out, further studies since then have SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN THAT NO SUCH LINK EXISTS.Jenny McCarthy, popular model, actress, and former co-host of the fantastic MTV game show SINGLED OUT, has been one of the more outspoken supporters of the autism/vaccine connection.  In an interview with TIME shortly after her book HEALING AND PREVENTING AUTISM came out, she said the following about vaccinations given to children, and why she believes that giving children shots early in their development is one possible cause to autism:

We don’t believe it’s only the mercury. Aluminum and other toxins also play a role. The viruses in the vaccines themselves can be causing it, too…..  People have the misconception that we want to eliminate vaccines. Please understand that we are not an antivaccine group. We are demanding safe vaccines. We want to reduce the schedule and reduce the toxins. If you ask a parent of an autistic child if they want the measles or the autism, we will stand in line for the f___ing measles.

And that’s why the JENNY MCCARTHY BODY COUNT website was created — to shed light on the fact that the suggestion by anti-vaccination advocates to parents to not vaccinate their children for various diseases could lead to illnesses and deaths that could have otherwise been prevented.   

The site reports the number of those illnesses and deaths that have occurred since June 2007, based on publically-available information.

Interestingly, even after the report debunking the autism/vaccine link came out, Jenny still claims that her son’s autism was caused by the MMR shots he was given, but later was “cured” of his autism by going on a gluten-free diet.

What do you think?