Via Dave Munger, an article today in USA Today about celebrity idiocy on the medical front:
Doctors and public health groups say they struggle over the best way to respond to celebrity claims.
At Every Child By Two, an immunization campaign co-founded by former first lady Rosalynn Carter, board members were initially inclined to ignore celebrities who question vaccine safety, says executive director Amy Pisani. Now, the group spends 80% of its time explaining why vaccines are still critical.
“We were poised to start working in Africa,” Pisani says. “But we were forced to pull back just to re-educate people here in the United States.”
I practically go into spasms these days whenever Jenny McCarthy shows up on TV. The damage she’s done to millions of kids is almost incalculable. However, as the article says, celebrities can also have quite positive effects when they go public with illnesses that are underacknowledged for one reason or another. So it’s not all bad.
