Health & Medicine

Jenny McCarthy Explains “Anti-Vaccine” Stance Despite Past Concerns About Autism Links

Thomas Carannante
First Posted: Apr 15, 2014 11:06 AM EDT

After fielding criticisms left and right over the past few months, Jenny McCarthy penned an op-ed in the Chicago Sun-Times where she said she is not "anti-vaccine" despite being vocal in the past about vaccines link to autism spectrum disorder.

Ms. McCarthy's son was diagnosed with autism when he was five years old. Since then, she has been labeled as "anti-vaccine" due to being outspoken about a potential link between vaccines and autism. However, science has proven time and time again that such a link is non-existent.

Her op-ed most likely comes as a result of the recent disease outbreaks that have caused her to catch a lot of criticism. Across the United States, there were small outbreaks of measles, meningitis, mumps, and other disease that are prevented through vaccines, indicating that less people are being vaccinated. Critics claim that the outspoken celebrities who are opposed to vaccines are partially to blame.

"Blatantly inaccurate blog posts about my position have been accepted as truth by the public at large as well as media outlets (legitimate and otherwise), who have taken those false stories and repeatedly turned them into headlines," she wrote in the article, via the New York Daily News.

In the past, McCarthy has also called for "safe vaccines" and for doctors and health experts to reduce the schedule and toxins associated with current vaccines. She stated that her article is "not a change in my stance nor is it a new position that I have recently adopted," mentioned in this Huffington Post article.

McCarthy affirmed her stance that there is a "gray area" when it comes to vaccines and that "one size does not fit all." She wrote that it is important for children to receive vaccines, but is skeptical about a child receiving multiple vaccines in a single doctor visit.

Hopefully for Ms. McCarthy, this will silence her critics especially since vaccine-treated diseases seem to be resurfacing throughout the country.

To read her op-ed piece in the Chicago Sun-Times, click here.

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