OK, so by now everyone heard that Jenny Mccarthy got hired by the View on ABC. And, boy did that spark a blogosphere outrage – even main stream media and journalist had to weigh in.
I would say most bloggers were against it, sent comments to ABC to not hire Jenny, wrote opinions on major news outlets and claimed Ms. Mccarthy is a threat to children’s public health.
Now, to give background – Jenny has a son with autism and she believes that her son’s autism was caused by vaccines because after he got the shots is when he developed his symptoms. And, she has been able to “recover” him from autism through what is called bio-medical interventions or alternative autism treatments. We have seen videos of her son after and he looks better but we have not seen videos of before the “recovery” to make a comparison.
When I first heard about Jenny – I remember her saying autism is a “medical” condition and not just a behavior. I also remember her saying many children with autism have “gut” issues or GI symptoms. I also remember – most main stream medicine disregarding that. I remember her vividly stating that when your stomach hurts – that is very much connected to your brain. At one point – maybe on Oprah show – Jenny explained how when a person drinks alcohol it affects their brain and they get drunk. Again, so many people called her names and dismissed her theory.
In fact, when Oprah started her OWN network and wanted to have Jenny on it – she got similar backlash and people protested it. For some reason – Oprah and Jenny’s deal fell apart.
And, now walla Ms. Mccarthy is hired by ABC and boy are most people pissed off.
So, where do I stand and why should I care?
First, Ms. Mccarthy’s theory of gut being connected to the brain turns out to be true. See below IACC meeting about GI and Autism connection. In fact, my own son would always touch his tummy and say oowwiii and when I ask his regular doctor – I was told autism is a behavior and not connected to his tummy. I say a point for Jenny here because apparently autism is connected to the GI.
2ndly, most of the people against her are either self autistics who I have nothing against but they can clearly speak & advocate for themselves or doctors who are funded by the makers of vaccines which is a huge conflict of interest. This is not fair since most of the children Jenny speaks for have more classic/nonverbal autism and cannot speak or advocate for themselves. I would say another point for her because she is standing up for the voiceless.
3rd, There are lots of parents that have documented their child talking and after a particular vaccine or another – silent ever since. How can you argue with that – fact is a fact. Another point for her.
4th, There have been multiple studies whether vaccines cause autism in many different countries and they have all been proven to be wrong. A point against Jenny or a point for CDC.
5th, How can Dr. Paul Offit be praised and Jenny dismissed. He is always writing books where he only insults parent’s believes and has no solutions. And, he gets funds from vaccine makers. A huge point for Ms. Mccarthy.
Personally for me and when I looked at my son’s record – it was not that he got the MMR talking then stopped. But I can name hundreds of Somali parents who say the opposite and I have zero right or audacity to say to any parent, they are wrong and I am right. I can only speak about my son’s autism.
Now, there has been many Somali parents whose first child got autism and did not vaccinate their 2nd or 3rd children and they still got autism. Therefore, I can understand the governments panic that vaccines prevent diseases and we should vaccinate all children which I totally agree with.
What I don’t understand is why CDC or others fail to see the heartache, pain and sadness an autism diagnoses can bring – not to mention the stress. What I also don’t understand is why there is so much reluctance to find a cause and a cure for the symptoms of autism. I really think if we knew what causes autism symptoms and had a way to help these children reach their full potential – there would not be so much distrust of CDC and the Dr. Offit’s of the world.
In Sum – I am glad that Ms. Mccarthy is hired by ABC and I am glad they said no topic is off limit to talk about there because we need an honest conversation about autism and what it is doing to so many American families. We need an end to this epidemic and a solution for millions of children and families. So – you go girl and I hope you bring up autism in every show and give a voice to our voiceless children and our tired and overwhelmed parents.
My advice to those against Jenny would be fight autism’s symptoms not autism parents.
Thanks.
Idil – Somali Autism Mom & Minority Advocate