Toronto Public Health is the latest in a long line of health authorities and Autism awareness groups to voice their concerns publicly over ABC’s appointment of Jenny McCarthy to prime time talk show The View.
The announcement that she would join the panel of the top rated show in September. Ex Playboy model, comic and actress Ms McCarthy, 40, has spent the last five years predominantly using her celebrity status to voice her personal concerns over vaccinations, and their link to Autism diagnosis in children.
In a public tweet on July 22, Toronto Public Health wrote:
They went on to link an infographic on to a following tweet which can be viewed here.
The tweets started a furore of tweets to Toronto Public Health applauding their candid views on the link between Autism and vaccinations.
Recently Ms McCarthy, who’s 10 year old son Evan was diagnosed with Autism five years ago, claimed to have cured his Autism with a simple change in diet. Speaking on CNN recently the actress said:
“There are some who wonder what we mean when we say “recovering” from autism. They confuse the word recover with cure. While you may not be able to cure an injury caused in a terrible car accident, you can recover; you can regain many skills that you once lost.
We believe what helped Evan recover was starting a gluten-free, casein-free diet, vitamin supplementation, detox of metals, and anti-fungals for yeast overgrowth that plagued his intestines. Once Evan’s neurological function was recovered through these medical treatments, speech therapy and applied behavior analysis helped him quickly learn the skills he could not learn while he was frozen in autism. After we implemented these therapies for one year, the state re-evaluated Evan for further services. They spent five minutes with Evan and said, “What happened? We’ve never seen a recovery like this.”
The miracle recovery has in fact left some health authorities the Autism Community in some doubt that Evan’s original diagnosis of Autism was correct in the first place, as there is no scientific evidence for an Autism cure.
The anti-vaccine movement was started in 1995 by Andrew Wakefield, who’s research into proteins used in vaccinations was proved to be fraudulent, and is thought to be partly responsible for the number of deadly measles outbreaks in pockets of the UK and America recently, as parents believed the research and decided against immunising their children.
Jill Fillipovic, blogging on behalf of the guardian wrote:
“Should McCarthy’s views disqualify her from speaking publicly? Of course not. Are there plenty of dumb men and men with ridiculous ideas on television as well? Absolutely. But The View producers surely had a large pool of potential hosts from which to select a replacement for Hasselbeck. That they affirmatively chose to offer a platform not only to a person who has done almost nothing in terms of political or cultural analysis but one whose only foray into that arena was promoting views that encourage the spread of disease and leave kids dead is unconscionable.”
Other public objectors include Bill Nye, the science guy, and New York Times Michael Specter, who wrote that McCarthy’s views are both dangerous and distressing.