Oprah Helps McCarthy Spread Vaccine Lies

“Chastising a celebrity is an exercise in futility,” Arthur Allen acknowledges in Slate, but he tries anyway, blasting Oprah Winfrey for giving vaccine skeptic Jenny McCarthy platforms from which to spread “dangerous misinformation that could bring some once-controlled diseases back.” McCarthy believes her son got autism from vaccines, a theory disproved by “abundant evidence” and a federal probe, Allen writes.

“Wealthy, toothsome, vivacious, and sexy Jenny McCarthy’s impassioned campaign is actually harmful,” Allen says, wondering why Winfrey is treating the former Playboy model “as if she were Mother Teresa kissing lepers.” The head of the American Academy of Pediatricians agrees: “If you give her a bully pulpit, McCarthy is going to make people hesitate to vaccinate their children.” (More Oprah Winfrey stories.)