Atlanta, We have a Problem ( and her name is Jenny McCarthy)

[Guest guest]

Atlanta, We Have a Problem (and her name is Jenny McCarthy)By J.B. Handleyhttp://www.rescuepost.com/rescue_post/2007/09/atlanta-we-have.htmlHelp Wanted: Director of Media Relations for the Atlanta-based Centersfor Disease Control. Must be able to spin cow pies into gold and make pigsfly. Need you today!In the always hot autism-vaccine debate, the CDC has taken their shareof hits in recent years: David Kirby's release of Evidence of Harm, DanOlmsted's consistently logical reporting for UPI (and now the Rescue Post),screaming parents in front of CDC headquarters, and a full page ad we ran inUSA Today in 2006 blaming the CDC for causing the autism epidemic.But, CDC has never met the category 5 sh_t-storm that blew into townyesterday after two angry moms, Jenny McCarthy and Holly Robinson Peete,appeared on Oprah (the last truly national TV show in our new media world,with an estimated 10 million daily viewers).The fun is just beginning. According to TACA's website, where Ms.McCarthy now serves as national spokesperson, she is scheduled toappear in the next 10 days on Larry King Live, 20/20, Good Morning America,and The View. Kim Stagliano has listed Jenny's media schedule in a postearlier this week, scroll down to see it.To add insult to injury, Ms. McCarthy's book, Louder Than Words, isclimbing the charts. At Amazon.com, she's up to #8, and over at Barnes & Noble, she's already #2! If you liked the Oprah interview, you'll love thebook, because Ms. McCarthy leaves nothing unsaid.What's extraordinary about Ms. McCarthy's media blitz isn't just thatshe's a celebrity talking about autism on our terms, it's that she's talkingabout biomedical recovery for her son. While Don and Deirdre Imus did us alla huge favor with their advocacy, they never addressed our community's truetrump card: recovered children.Not only is Jenny doing that, she's doing that while being a formerPlaymate of the Year, a popular comedic actress, dating Jim Carrey, andpresiding over a collection of national bestsellers about being a Mom.If you missed it, here's a little excerpt from Oprah's show that theyput up on Oprah.com last night:In recent years, the number of children diagnosed with autism hasrisen from 1 in every 500 children to 1 in 150—and science has notdiscovered a reason why. Jenny says she believes that childhood vaccinationsmay play a part. "What number will it take for people just to startlistening to what the mothers of children who have seen autism have beensaying for years, which is, 'We vaccinated our baby and something happened."Jenny says even before Evan received his vaccines, she tried to talkto her pediatrician about it. "Right before his MMR shot, I said to thedoctor, 'I have a very bad feeling about this shot. This is the autism shot,isn't it?' And he said, 'No, that is ridiculous. It is a mother's desperateattempt to blame something,' and he swore at me, and then the nurse gave[Evan] the shot," she says. "And I remember going, 'Oh, God, I hope he'sright.' And soon thereafter— boom—the soul's gone from his eyes."Despite her belief, Jenny says she is not against vaccines. "I am allfor them, but there needs to be a safer vaccine schedule. There needs to besomething done. The fact that the [Centers for Disease Control andPrevention] acts as if these vaccines are one size fits all is just crazy tome," she says. "People need to start listening to what the moms have beensaying."Oprah actually read a statement from the CDC. It was painful to listento, and I'm sure the nation's bullsh_t meter went on high alert given howqualified it was. Interestingly, the statement focused exclusively onThimerosal in vaccines, even though Ms.McCarthy blamed the MMR for her son's regression, a Thimerosal-freevaccine.This is the only play left in the CDC's playbook, as I mentioned in apost back in August, The Thimerosal Shield, where I noted, "they [CDC] knowthat Thimerosal is only one of the possible ways that the vaccine schedulecould be the primary trigger behind the autism epidemic, but the spin seemsto be, `It's not Thimerosal so we should no longer consider vaccines'despite the fact that neither point is true."I'm popping the popcorn, snuggling the chair up to the TV, and lookingforward to the next few weeks. The Category 5 shit-storm is just gettingstarted, and we're all going to enjoy watching Ms.McCarthy yell "Louder Than Words."J.B.Handley is co-founder of Generation Rescue.

 

 

 

See what's new at AOL.com and Make AOL Your Homepage.