Anti-vaxxer, starlet, kook

The leading light of the anti-vaxxer movement is apparently having second thoughts. (Or should I say first thoughts?)

Jenny McCarthy, shown here with her idiot boyfriend Jim Carrey, has for years been the leading spokesnut of the anti-vaccine movement. Aside from blaming the MMR vaccine for her son's autism she has been willing to try just about every possible remedy for his condition. Every remedy, that is, that is based on superstition, anti-intellectualism, or sheer gullibility.

McCarthy began to try almost every treatment that turned up on Google. Evan went through conventional, intensive Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) therapy as well as a host of alternative approaches, including a gluten-free and casein-free (GFCF) diet, hyperbaric oxygen chambers, chelation, aromatherapies, electromagnetics, spoons rubbed on his body, multivitamin therapy, B-12 shots and a range of prescription drugs. McCarthy says she made a deal with God. "Help me fix my boy," she prayed, "and I'll teach the world how I did it."

Well, guess what? Her kid's all better now. No symptoms of autism. No antisocial behavior. No problems with speaking, or interacting people. No autism.

To what can we attribute this miraculous cure? Well, maybe Jenny's god, or maybe one of those quack cures she went for, or maybe, just maybe, he never had autism in the first place. As the study described in Time online demonstrates, the son's symptoms were always more consistent with an unusual neurological disorder than with autism, particularly the fact that they started with seizures, which you don't see with autism.

Was her son ever really autistic? Evan's symptoms — heavy seizures, followed by marked improvement once the seizures were brought under control — are similar to those of Landau-Kleffner syndrome, a rare childhood neurological disorder that can also result in speech impairment and possible long-term neurological damage. Or, as other pediatricians have suggested, perhaps the miracle I have beheld is the quotidian miracle of childhood development: a delayed 2-year-old catching up by the time he is 7, a commonplace, routine occurrence, nothing more surprising than a short boy growing tall.

So what is Jenny McCarthy saying now? "I'm sorry, and I apologize to everyone whose kid got measles because someone listened to me and didn't let their kid get vaccinated"?

Not exactly.

And she is also reversing her initial position that the MMR shots caused Evan’s autism. Jenny now says she wants vaccinations better researched — rather than getting rid of them altogether, as she previously promoted. And though her son may never have had autism, Jenny insists, “I’ll continue to be the voice” of the disorder.

I've got another suggestion. If you are interested in autism, any other medical condition, or the effects of vaccines, listen to the scientists, not to the ex-Playboy models.

Autism activists, meet science.

Another step to discrediting the claims that vaccines are what cause autism came in a court decision today. In a blow to the movement arguing that vaccines lead to autism, a special court ruled on Thursday against three families seeking compensation from the federal vaccine-injury fund.

Both sides in the debate have been awaiting decisions in these test cases since hearings began in 2007; more than 5,000 similar claims have been filed.

In his decision, the special master, George L. Hastings Jr., ruled that the government’s expert witnesses were “far better qualified, far more experienced and far more persuasive” than the Cedillos’. Although the family had to show only that the preponderance of evidence was on their side, Mr. Hastings ruled that the evidence was “overwhelmingly contrary” to their argument.

While expressing “deep sympathy and admiration” for the family, he ruled that they had been “misled by physicians who are guilty, in my view, of gross medical misjudgment.”

The judges considered 5,000 pages of testimony from experts and 939 medical articles.

This decision follows a report earlier this week that a researcher whose findings had given support to autism activists might have falsified--the word they used was "altered"--his evidence.

I have no doubt that it can be incredibly difficult to raise an autistic child, and I am familiar with the natural human drive to seek patterns and causes to phenomena. Unfortunately, for years the science has been clear that there is no basis to conclude that vaccines are the cause of autism. During that time, we have seen parents refuse to immunize their children, causing epidemics of measles and other extremely dangerous diseases even in the United States.

Although today's rulings will undoubtedly be challenged, we can hope that we are turning the corner and the anti-vaccine superstition will start to fade into history.