The New McCarthyism: Vaccines & Autism

Here is a reprint of guest opinion authored by Dr. Ari Brown in this weekend's Wall Street Journal:

October 27, 2007
   
Vaccines and Autism
By ARI BROWN
October 27, 2007; Page A8

Dangerous vaccines that harm kids. An epidemic of disabled children, hurt by an uncaring medical establishment.

Sounds like a B-grade Hollywood thriller. But this is supposedly a true story as told by actress Jenny McCarthy, author of the best seller, "Louder Than Words: A Mother's Journey in Healing Autism."

When I heard Ms. McCarthy tell Oprah and Larry King that vaccines caused her son's autism, I had a flashback to a cold winter's night, 13 years ago. I was the senior pediatric resident on call in the Intensive Care Unit. Cradled in the arms of her parents, a seven-year-old girl was brought to the emergency room at Children's Hospital Boston. The girl had come down with chickenpox a few days earlier -- she had a fever and hundreds of itchy skin lesions. That night, she had taken a turn for the worse. Her fever shot up to 106 and she became confused and lethargic. She was unresponsive and limp in her mother's arms.

The ER doctors suspected that her open sores allowed Strep bacteria to get under her skin and rage through her bloodstream. Now she was in "multiple system organ failure" -- every square inch of her body was shutting down all at once. IVs were placed into her veins to start fluids, antibiotics and medications to stabilize her heart and blood pressure. She was placed on a ventilator machine to breathe. Then she was brought to the Intensive Care Unit.

By the time I met my patient, she had tubes coming out of every opening and weeping skin lesions all over her body. I was used to blood and gore, but it was hard to look at her and not cry. Imagine how her parents felt when they saw their once-beautiful little girl in this grotesque state, struggling to survive.

My attending physician told me to grab dinner. This child would need me for the rest of the night. I returned to the ICU to find that my patient had gone into cardiac arrest and died. I watched, helplessly, as the nurses placed the little girl into a body bag.

Fast forward five months: The first chickenpox vaccine was approved. That day, I vowed never to let a child on my watch suffer from a disease that was preventable by vaccination.

That's a story that doesn't grab headlines or guest shots on Larry King. Vaccines are one of mankind's greatest scientific achievements. This year alone, they prevented 14 million infections, $40 billion in medical costs, and most important, 33,000 deaths. Yet vaccines are victims of their own success. Today's parents are unfamiliar with the diseases they prevent, but these diseases are alive and well in the U.S. -- I have personally seen children suffer from them.

Call it the New McCarthyism: Who cares about 100 years of scientific research? Vaccines are evil, because the Internet says they are. When a well-meaning parent like Ms. McCarthy blames vaccines for her child's autism, it's dangerous. Celebrity books come and go, but the anxiety they create lives on in pediatricians' offices across the country. A small but growing number of parents are even lying about their religious beliefs to avoid having their children vaccinated, thanks in part to the media hysteria created by this book.

Parents go through stages of grief when their child is diagnosed with a disorder like autism. We all want to blame someone for our suffering. That's understandable. Was there something we could have done as parents to prevent this? But why hasn't the media called out Ms. McCarthy on all the medical inaccuracies in her book? Has anyone actually read it? I have -- cover to cover. Here are two revealing points:

Ms. McCarthy told Oprah that her son was a normal toddler until he received his Measles, Mumps and Rubella vaccine (at 15 months of age). Soon after -- boom -- the soul is gone from his eyes. Yet she contradicts herself in her book: "My friends' babies all cracked a smile way before Evan did . . . he was almost five months old." Which is it? Was he normal until his MMR vaccine or were some of the signs missed before he got that shot?

Ms. McCarthy also contends that mercury in vaccines caused damage to her son's gut and immune system, leading to autism. Yet the mercury preservative Ms. McCarthy assails was removed from the childhood vaccination series in 2001. Her son, Evan, was born in 2002. It's hard to trust Ms. McCarthy's medical degree from the University of Google -- she comments about the Hepatitis C vaccine that wreaked havoc on a friend's child. An inconvenient truth: There is no Hepatitis C vaccine.

Doctors do need to do a better job of guiding families through the maze of autism treatments. I also desperately want to know why autism happens and how to treat it. But let's put our energy into funding autism research and treatment, not demonizing our vaccination program.

Ms. McCarthy is in the trenches, fighting for her son. I, too, am fighting. I am on the front lines everyday, trying to keep our kids healthy and protected. And, after all I have seen, one thing is certain -- I've vaccinated my own kids and would do it again in a heartbeat.

Dr. Brown, a pediatrician in Austin, Texas, is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Comments

[Lisa]

I appreciate your comments. I agree that there's a lot of uneducated antivaccine-hype out there.

I do have a question. I had to get my six-year-old a Hepititis C shot before she was allowed to enter school this year. Isn't that a vaccine? Or is it something else? A bit confused.

Lisa,
While the disease, Hepatitis C, exists, there is not a vaccine for it. Currently, there are only vaccines for Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B. Your daughter probably got the Hepatitis A vaccine before school entry (Hep B is given as part of the infant vaccination series).
Dr B

[Monica]

Amen. I cringed when I saw that Oprah episode. Just awful that no one has called her on that.

[Diane]

Thank you for posting this. I have a month old son and have been unnerved by conflicting stories about vaccines. It is nice to hear a medical doctor's opinion on the net.

[Heather]

I too was horrified at Jenny McCarthy's book. I loved her Belly Laughs and Baby Laughs books, I loved her sense of humor. I just HATE that not only did she dredge up the vaccine causes autism rumor (it is a rumor) that was just starting to die down, but that she did obviously NO research in to her assumed facts. I feel for her and her child, but that is no excuse to spread these lies.

[Ryan]

It seems these days many children are being diagnosed as autistic for many characteristics children develop as they grow. Not being interactive with others, not talking much before the age of 2, fits of temper, it just seems a lot of jumping the gun to me. My nephew's parents were recently told by their doctor that he resembles some characteristics that could lead to autism. There should definately be more testing and research on this subject. And as for Jenny McCarthy as well as anyone else making up their own facts out of their beliefs and opinions, facts before fiction? It's obvious she is concerned and a loving mother, but to publish a book by a celebrity with untrue statements that will of course stir up a hysteria upon loving and concerned mothers is just ridiculous. Let's leave it to the experts.

[Gina]

Thank you Dr. Brown for this article. Personally I think J. McCarthy is funny, but she is an entertainer not a medical expert. When entertainers make these kinds of statements it garners a lot of media attention and she doesn't even have her facts straight. Not vaccinating your children is irresponsible and the fact that so many people opt out of the shots now is crazy. Leave this discussion and research to the medical professionals!

[Heather, an RN]

Thank you for reminding us to use common sense. I watched Ms. McCarthy on the Oprah show and found many inconsistencies as well. To my knowledge, autism does not cause grand mal seizures. I have a son with Asperger's syndrome and understand the ferver to find an environmental culprit for autism. But you are correct to point out that medical research does not indicate vaccines cause autism. But we do know vaccines save lives! I wish media wouldn't give such creedence to celebrities in matters they are not experts in, because in this case, it is a life or death matter.

[Mary Collignon]

Thanks so much for posting your well written article. As a Nurse Practition I am continually asked about this issue and now I have even more ammunition.

Mary

[Dre]

I totally disagree with the above poster. Vaccines have been around for years. You had them when you were younger and nothing happened to you. In fact babies ingest more mecury on a daily basis than what is in the vaccine. I think it is a ploy of "We have to blame somebody, therefore, the pharmaceutical companies are to blame. It has never been proven that thimerosal "mecury" causes autism. I guess the so called smart parents were to stupid to realize that the case definition of autism has changed dramatically over the years. Hell if your child eyes don't blink, then they have autism. Come on people

[Amanda]

Dr. Brown--Thank you for your wonderful article.

On the topic of chickenpox...my daughter was diagnosed with a case of chickenpox at 7 months of age (before the vaccine was offered). Luckily, her case turned out to be very mild. However, given the scary nature of the experience you share, it would have been helpful to have more information in the book about what do to if you encounter a case of chickenpox. Just a thought for the next edition.

Thanks again for all the information in your book. It is the first place we go when we have a question.

[Marcy]

Thank you for this. The misinformation is what gets me the most. I hear people talk about the evil of vaccines and their mercury, when it took me 5 minutes on google to find that all vaccines given to children 7 and under (other than the flu vaccine) have not contained thimerosal for years. I wish people would really research, before just following a hype.

[Tracy]

Yes! Yes! Yes!
That interview on Oprah drove me absoulutely NUTS. I am a Nurse Practitioner in Infectious Diseases, luckily not old enough to have experienced medical care pre-vaccine, but have read plenty in my training about life before we had vaccinations. If only everyone knew what you shared!
We need more people speaking out about this. Parents who choose to not vaccinate are doing what they thing is best for their kids, based on the opinions of under-educated, self-proclaimed "experts." It's terrible! We may not be able to take legal action against such people, but we can as a community of parents and *caring* medical providers create a culture that is intolerant of such dangerous (and often militantly judgemental) ignorance.

[momof2]

Dr Brown- to give you more ammunition, I'd like you to read her earlier book about her son's first year of life. Jenny McCarthy states that she had an emergency c-section and her baby wasn't breathing at birth. Possible oxygen deprivation might change things a little bit. But why not blame things on the medical establishment. Maybe we can start a class action suit or something.

[islandkiwi]

This is a nice article and I found it to be quite reassuring, as I am among those hesitant to give vaccines.

Am I against vaccines? Absolutely not, but I do have concerns when vaccines are given all at once. It just seems like an awful lot to throw at an infants newly developing immune system. I'm also wary of the preservatives in the vaccines...not because of the effects of one shot, but rather the effects of five different shots (and the preservatives contained therein), and whether that is soundly tested.

Call it the Supersize syndrome. A hamburger is okay by itself, but you throw together the fries, shake and apple pie, now you have a problem. So do these vaccines get tested with the other vaccines, or is each treated as it's own study?

I've voiced my concerns to our pediatrician, but they dismiss my concerns as superstition, and who am I to argue? They're giving these vaccines every day, and I'm just a guy that worries. But still, I worry. Our little girl has gotten the vaccines on my pediatricians standard schedule because they refuse to spread them out, and that does bother me...but she hasn't had any nasty side effects, so I let them do it and stew on the inside.

[zorrokat]

Dr. Brown, thank you for this post. It's scary how much misinformation is out there and how people like Jenny McCarthy, well-intentioned or not, use the Internet and media to perpetuate myths and rumors. I loved her book "Belly Laughs" but she really ought to focus on her photo shoots and bad movies and leave the medical research to the professionals.

Islandkiwi: You're the one who signs the consent form so you deserve answers from your child's doctor. If they can't or won't address your concerns in a satisfactory manner, try to find a doctor who will treat you with more respect. Your child's pediatrician should be a partner in her health care, not an adversary!

[Charyl]

Oprah's 4 interviews with Jill Bolte Taylor were the first that Oprah did after Eckhart Tolle and they take everything Tolle talks about to another level. Oprah's copy of Jill's book, MY STROKE OF INSIGHT, was dog-eared and all marked up and kept reading from it the way she read from A New Earth and recommended it highly.

Oprah's recommendation was enough for me. I read My Stroke of Insight and I loved it too. This story is as inspiring as The Last Lecture or Tuesdays with Morrie - and even better, it has a Happy Ending!

I bought the book on Amazon because they have it for 40% off retail and they also had an amazing interview with Dr Taylor that I haven't seen anywhere else - Here is the Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/My-Stroke-Insight-Scientists-Personal/dp/0670020745/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211471755&sr=1-2