blog-thing : Obama ignores anti-vaccine agenda

Obama ignores anti-vaccine agenda

I had just finished reading Kristina Chew’s piece, When a Real Crisis Hits, when this news item caught my attention. Jim Carrey is setting up a $50 million trust fund for his partner, Jenny McCarthy and her autistic son, Evan. Carrey’s daughter will inherit the rest of his $200 million dollar fortune.

While I am pleased that Evan is one autistic child who will not be badly affected by the credit crunch I am a little confused. Last year all the news was that Jenny had recovered her son from autism. Now he is described as still being autistic. Last year Jenny described him as recovered from autism but still needing treatment for seizures. The year before she told People Magazine that Evan’s seizures were not epilepsy but a part of his autism.

This would not matter if McCarthy was just another celebrity mother making contradictory statements about bringing up her child. But she is also an advocate for the belief that vaccines cause autism and her celebrity status gives her ready access to the media. Together with Carrey she is on the board of the anti vaccine organization, Generation Rescue and her supporters are trying to drum up support for a meeting with Barack Obama’s team prior to his inauguration. It looks like Obama’s transition team have already done autism and no anti-vaccine advocates were invited. But the Autism Self Advocacy Network were invited, which is good news for the autism community.

January 4th, 2009 Posted by Mike | autism advocacy, politics | 2 comments

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2 Responses to “Obama ignores anti-vaccine agenda”

Comment by Clay | January 5th, 2009

I’m not surprised, but pleasantly reassured, that Obama’s team will not be listening to the lunatic fringe, the anti-vaxers. Now I know my donations were money well spent.
Comment by Mark | January 7th, 2009

mike this is off topic but apparently baron-cohen was on bbc breakfast this morning talking about prenatal autism testing and termination.
what ever camp you are in this is bad news the RA and NAS need to do something about this man.

My Background

I am Mike Stanton. I live and work in the UK where I teach children with severe learning difficulties, many of whom are autistic. My adult son is diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome. I am a member of the National Autistic Society. I speak and write on autism.

My book, “Learning to Live with High Functioning Autism” is available in a Spanish translation, Convivir con el Autismo. I have also contributed a chapter to Asperger Syndrome in Adolescence edited by Liane Holliday Willey.

ACTION FOR AUTISM is a reaction against names like Action Against Autism and Defeat Autism Now! Names like these suggest to autistic people that we are against them as people. You may not mean that. But if you care about autism you ought to care about the feelings of autistic people and not use language that makes them angry or upset. If you disregard the feelings of autistic people do not be surprised if you are disregarded.