Can Barbie save us from whooping cough?

My kids’ closest friends recently came down with whooping cough. They seem fine most of the time, and then they start coughing and hacking. Sometimes they cough so hard they throw up. Tears run out of their eyes. It’s pretty tough to watch, and they expect it to continue for up to six weeks.

None of these kids were vaccinated because their mom doesn’t trust vaccines. She’s part of a growing number of parents who are choosing not to vaccinate their children because they’ve been misled about the science behind vaccination.

The anti-vaccine movement is as old as vaccines themselves. But recently it’s gained momentum through the outspoken activism of celebrity Jenny McCarthy.

Jenny is charismatic, passionate and beautiful. She’s a great spokesperson for her movement. Pro-vaccine advocates are struggling to get their message across as well, with only doctors, scientists, public health officials and school nurses on their team.

What they need is a star to take up the cause. A blonde powerhouse adored by parents and children. What vaccine advocates need is Barbie.

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Will an anti-vaccine ad in Times Square save lives or put more at risk?

I have a good friend who’s highly intelligent, witty and loves her kids to bits — and she won’t get them vaccinated, so I know for sure that not all parents who don’t vaccinate their kids are crazy. But I’d be less than honest if I didn’t secretly feel that many of them are.

I really do get how that sounds rude, but I genuinely don’t mean it in a rude way — I really, really just don’t understand how some educated people don’t vaccinate their kids.

And then I read how an anti-vaccination organization is advertising hourly on the jumbotron in Times Square through Thursday, and I roll my eyes and wonder what else my kids will be exposed to because some people refuse to protect their kids from very preventable and very serious diseases.

CHECK OUT THE VIDEO AD AFTER THE JUMP.

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Justin Bieber's mom turns down Playboy

Teen pop phenomenon Justin Bieber has, along with his own line of nail polish and throngs of screaming fans, a mom.

A mom, Patricia Bieber, who would rather stand by her religious values than collect $50,000 from Playboy for posing nude in an upcoming issue.

Finally, we’re seeing a teen celebrity’s mom who seems to remember that she’s a mom first, not a publicity stunt waiting to happen. In fact, she seems to be using her moment in the spotlight to model responsible, healthy parenting choices. I hope the Lohans are reading this.

Go, Mama Bieber, go! Keep your big girl pants on!

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Jenny McCarthy has a new idea to fight autism

Since her son was diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, Jenny McCarthy has done a lot as the celebrity poster mama for austistic parents.

Jenny has written misleading books, appeared on Oprah blaming vaccinations for the escalating incidence of autism, and opened a center for the treatment of autistic kids near where she lives. She’s campaigned relentlessly in defense of the discredited researcher Andrew Wakefield.

Jenny McCarthy has probably done more to single-handedly reduce the vaccination rate in this country than any other individual. The Jenny McCarthy Body Count keeps track of deaths due to vaccine-preventable illnesses, and lays the blame at her influential feet.

Now, she has a new idea to help autistic children. One that plays more to her strengths.

Jenny says she’d pose nude in Playboy again, if the money went to help autistic children.

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Whooping cough epidemic: blame Jenny McCarthy?

CNN is reporting that a ninth baby has died in California from the whooping cough epidemic.  “All nine infants were under three months of age,” according to the Department of Public Health.  The LA Times reported earlier that the first eight cases of infant death from pertussis had all been misdiagnosed.

There have been 4,017 cases of whooping cough in California this year, more than in any year since 1955.  Some doctors are readily admitting that they feel this outbreak is directly related to “parents who have shied away from vaccinating children due to fears, albeit unfounded, that there is a connection between vaccines and autism.”  Medical journal Pediatrics agrees.  Is Jenny McCarthy to blame? Continue reading »

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Autistic children carry more copy number variants in their genome than children without autism.  Some of these variants appear to be inherited, while others are considered new, because they are found “only in affected offspring and not in the parents” of autistic children.

That’s what Autism Speaks and “an international consortium of researchers, along with participating families,” announced while unveiling the second phase of the Autism Genome Project.  The results of this phase of study were published today in the scientific journal Nature and sent in a press release by Autism Speaks.
 
The study also identified new autism susceptibility genes which “may lead to the development of new treatment approaches.”
 
People such as Andrew Wakefield and Jenny McCarthy who are convinced autism is caused by vaccines will be dismayed that according to Autism Speaks vice president for scientific affairs Andy Shih, “Piece by piece, we are discovering genetic mutations that can cause autism.”  His plan is to provide families with concrete reasons their children have developed autism, not more speculation.  Continue reading »

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With last week’s International Meeting for Autism Research in Philadelphia came new reports on autism research ranging from good to guilt-inducing: an inkling of hope from a clinical drug trial, research defying the persistent myth that divorce is one likely encore to an autism diagnosis, a rigorous study debunking claims that changes in diet can result in changes in a child’s behavior and two more studies linking common infertility treatments to a slight increase in autism risk. The real good news is that the research is being done, and the real bad news is that with all the headlines, we still don’t know much. (Although we do know that  Dr. Andrew Wakefield, whose “research” supposedly linked the MMR vaccine to autism, lost his license to practice in Great Britain today, which won’t affect his Texas clinic.) None of the reported studies did much more than give researchers a lead on where to look next.

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