What do I think? I'm often asked by those curious about my views on autism. One of the specific questions I'm asked with some regularity is what I think of Jenny McCarthy. The former Playboy model, turned actress, turned autism activist and anti-vaccine zealot is ABC's new co-host of The View, the popular long-running, day-time talking divas show.
Her placement's got more than a few people a little twisted in the britches. Here's my take. I believe that vaccines can be one of a multitude of environmental autism triggers, in some cases, but not THE cause of the enigmatic developmental disorder. Our population has immune system irregularities, and vaccines are administered in large numbers, very early in life, in large quantities with issue-causing substances that the law even says can harm. Especially within a genetically whacked out immune system. Autism is largely genetics. Scientifically proven. The genetics have to be there to be triggered by substances, be it vaccines or other foreign and toxic substances with of which our contemporary environment, sadly, has in plentiful amounts.
"Think of autism like a fart," McCarthy was quoted, "and vaccines are the finger you pull to make it happen."
Let's "talk about curing autism." One percent. That's the facts. One percent of autism is claimed to be cured. One percent is not a big number. I think I've met one. person. who truly passed through the spectrum and I only spent about an hour with him. As Yale found, what that one percent looks like is children who received the diagnosis of PDD-NOS–which, essentially, is a milder form of autism in most cases–and they were diagnosed by their second year of life and received a lot of interventions, particularly behavioral, and (Yale doesn't say this, to my knowledge, but often, also, dietary removal therapies plus specific supplementation). And the one percent still had either learning disAbilities or speech/language disorders.
If you've been reading "The Journey with Grace" very long, you know that I don't believe in cures, or that there is a need for cures. Autism is a different way of being. We are one in 88, let's talk about acceptance, tolerance and assistance.
As NPR reported, McCarthy is seen as an autism advocate. Here's my truth. She is not an advocate for me and what I believe to be true for autism. Here's hoping that she plays down her zealous and extremist views from the past as she takes on this new, highly visible role. NPR speculated she might have already toned down the vaccine rhetoric given some of her more recent statements.
