Startup Fiance

I have always been empirically minded, and tend to keep up on topics science and medicine related. It has been recently brought to my attention that Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy have begun some sort of “green our vaccines” quest, through which they are purporting to save the world’s children from greedy pharmaceutical companies, corruption in government, and arrogant doctors in search of riches. Like disciples, they have taken to the streets to spread their message about the dangers of toxins included in childhood vaccines, and the malfeasance of health care professionals dolling out these harmful injections.

I could just ignore this if they were not such a public figures, but it is their celebrity, coupled with their complete disregard for the merits of scientific research, that makes them terribly dangerous. I am all about standing up for a cause; I will work to clear the name of the Pit Bull until I die. I do take issue, however, with self righteous celebrities taking up causes for which they are not properly equipped and educated to be disseminating information about. They both have lots of experience and knowledge regarding autism, but the fact is, they get the science behind the alleged autism-vaccine link tragically wrong.

I believe their self-righteousness stems from a belief that only they and their group mean well. I will use the term ‘conspiracy theorist’ to describe their blindly eager belief that the nameless, faceless “ultimate powers” are inherently evil. They have gone so far as to state that doctors have abandoned their oath to “do no harm.” There is a certain arrogance exhibited by their statements, and it is apparent after reading some of the transcripts from their latest appearances, they they believe they know better than scientists. McCarthy wants people to trust in her motherly instincts over years of hard evidence proven by science. Carrey has gone so far as to predict that the future will vindicate his claims (which include the imaginary disease known as restless leg syndrome, which according to Carrey, is a psychological illness caused by “Big Pharma” to sell more prescriptions), and anyone who disagrees with him will be viewed as a flat-earther.

I will not get into the many details surrounding their misinformation, as they could very well result in a post comprised of 100 or so paragraphs, so I will take the next few to sum up my major qualms with their anti-vaccine campaign.

First, their primary slogan at their latest rally was the mantra “Too Many, Too Soon”, basically claiming that children are getting too many vaccines too soon in their lives. Carrey’s main issue with vaccines is the frequency at which they are presently given when compared to 20 years ago. Two decades ago children received 10 vaccines and now they get 36 in the routine schedule. When you look at the raw numbers, that does seem a bit fishy. What he fails to mention is the fact that although the number of vaccines have increased, the number of antigens in the vaccines have decreased; children are getting less of an antigen challenge today than 20 years ago. He also happily brushes over the scientific evidence that delaying vaccines leaves children vulnerable to those diseases longer, and increases the incidence of vaccine-preventable diseases.

Second, their vaccine awareness push relies heavily on creating hysteria about the “toxins” contained in vaccines. Practically anything can be a toxin, you can die from drinking too much water or from anaphylactic shock if you are a peanut sensitive individual, the key to understanding toxins is to explore the idea of toxicity. Toxicity relies on an analysis of risk vs. benefit, and in the case of vaccines, the risk of exposure to the “trace” amounts of mercury leftover from the manufacturing process greatly outweigh the benefit of receiving the immunization.

While it is true that there are “trace” amounts of mercury among the vaccines included in the vaccination schedule, these amounts are as trace as they come – a truly insignificant dose such that no well-informed person has any reason to consider their toxicity. Your child is in more danger from eating a lovingly prepared tuna sandwich than from receiving one of these shots. I read in one transcript that McCarthy threw out some very misleading information, saying that the trace amounts of mercury in vaccines is higher than the safe levels for drinking water. Again, we have to go back to the idea of toxicity, the safe level for the one-time dose of a vaccine is much different than what could be considered safe for water you drink every day, for an entire lifetime.

Third, the link between autism and the mercury-containing agent thimerosal (which was removed from vaccines by the end of 2001) is a weak argument, at best. When thimerosal was discontinued we would have expected a dramatic decrease in the subsequent cases of autism, but this never happened. On the contrary, autism rates have continued to climb after the thimerosal ban (which likely can be attributed to an increased awareness and better diagnosis). These facts have not stopped McCarthy, she also claims that vaccines contain both antifreeze and either, which is simply untrue. I can only hypothesize that the previous claims are rooted by a large-scale ignorance for scientific facts, mixed in with a healthy dose of intellectual indolence.

Please, Carrey and McCarthy, get down from your soapbox and listen. Your anti-vaccine campaign is not doing anyone any good. I understand it must be absolutely devastating to have a child with a deficit like autism, and my heart goes out to you, but you are not doing him any good by urging other people to stop providing their own children with much-needed protection from perfectly preventable diseases. In fact, there has been a resurgence of vaccine-preventable diseases in recent years including Mumps and Rubella. So Jim and Jen, I ask, is it really the doctors who have abandoned their oath to “do no harm”, or two delusional actors lost in conspiracy theories and a flawed understanding of science?