“I’m not a doctor, which brings me to another point. It seems like the media is often giving celebrities and actors more authority on this issue than they’re giving the experts and that’s a sad fact. And I know that’s a paradox – that’s part of why I wanted to become a spokesperson, so I could say, ‘Please don’t listen to me, don’t listen to the actors, go to the experts.’”
~Amanda Peet during an appearance on Good Morning America on Tuesday, begging parents to listen to experts before deciding whether to immunize their kids – and not rely on the advice of celebrities (mostly stars like Jenny McCarthy and Charlie Sheen who have used their status to vocally oppose vaccinations). Read a little on Jenny McCarthy’s recent ‘Green Our Vaccines’ campaigne by clicking HERE.
photo: WENN
We hear and obey.
Finally, a responsible activist.
Thanks for covering this important campaign that Peet is taking part in. Autism is not caused by vaccines and it hurts autistic people when lay people like Jenny McCartney are making outrageous accusations and claiming to be experts on the causes of Autism.
We covered Amanda’s original comments in cookie magazine here: http://www.wrongplanet.net/article372.html
No kidding! Finally, a responsible celebrity! Amanda Peet, my new favorite actreesss. I will see all her movies now.
Also don’t listen to people with financial conflicts of interest…
like big pharmaceutical companies and any doctors in their pocket.
i’ve seen her boobs.
I applaud the author for posting this quote. However, this article should also include links to those in the scientific community that think McCarthy and her “cause” are dead wrong and straight up harming children. Like this one: http://www.theness.com/neurologicablog/?p=339
Take it from me – what most performers know best is how to perform –
they spend a lot of time and mental energy figuring out how to do that
well. They are mostly not spending a lot of time becoming experts on
anything but that. So – if you want to know how to be a great musician,
actor, or other performing artist, ask a musician, actor or other
performing artist. Don’t ask them about politics or medicine, or
expect them to have anything more relevant to say about these subjects
than the average Joe.
(Of course, as ‘anonymous Joe implies’, it’s a lot more fun to look at
some people’s boobs while they’re saying something inane regarding
subjects about which they have very little expertise or knowledge
You’re a boob.
No one should take advice from Jenny McCartney seriously
except of course naked slut advice.
LOL, dude that is some quote let me tell you
JT
I admire Amanda Peet’s comments in that they show some appropriate humility
and concern, but she is unfortunately wrong just like so many others.
Someone, like me, who actually has a family member (a nephew) who became
autistic as a direct result of a vaccination is qualified to provide an
opinion.
Besides, blatantly asserting that autism is not caused by vaccines is the
height of arrogance, just like asserting that anything does not exist–one
cannot “prove” by the absence of “proof” (evidence).
On the other hand, one counter-example is all it takes to disprove such an
assertion, and my nephew suffices for me to disprove Amanda Peet’s comments.
Likewise, all it took was to find one giant squid to disprove all the
detractors.
Finally, the same conclusion is easily reached from commonly known facts.
1. Pregnant women are routinely warned to avoid foods containing mercury,
such as tuna fish and many other kinds of fish, because it is believed to
negatively-impact brain development.
2. Vaccines are well-known to have contained and probably to continue to
contain high levels of mercury and other toxic substances. Meanwhile,
vaccines are not FDA- or otherwise regulated, they are not properly tested,
and their contents are generally not precisely known (when is the last time
you read the “label” on that flu shot?).
3. Vaccines are well-known to cause many and varied “side effects”, up to and
including death (see the CDC’s website and many others–warning, it’s graphic).
With such well-known issues and side effects, readily shown, there is no
significant leap required at all to hypothesize that vaccines CAN cause
autism. And with many parents and others (actors) who have witnessed it
occurring in children they know (such as my nephew), the conclusion follows.
The only appropriate response is to fund the necessary research to connect
the dots in detail, identify the precise mechanism, and take the necessary
steps to prevent it from ever recurring.
By the way, I love Amanda Peet as an actress, such as in “The Whole Nine Yards”.
Beautiful *AND* clever and responsible. Kudos.
The thing is, yo, The Cult Of Expert’ism own$ you!
I have to question Peet’s qualifications on this matter, even if she is denying her own suitability as an expert. After all, we are talking about a woman who freely admits to using sunscreen on her baby for fear of what those chemicals might do to a baby’s skin but is all too ready to become a spokeswoman for the vaccine industry after talking with one doctor outside of her own family (http://www.cookiemag.com/entertainment/2008/07/amandapeet)
While I feel for Rob Williams (I have a step brother who is autistic)
I have to respectfully disagree that there is “proof” that immunizations
cause autism. My step brother was born in the 1960′s, which is waaay
before the thimerosal preservative was introduced (1980′s.) And the
problem with “proving” the cause for something like autism is that
the difference between children is so much greater than the statistical
differences needed to demonstrate a clear cause-and-effect relationship.
I did a little research if you are interested.
http://maxhealthwealth.blogspot.com/2008/08/mercury-poisoning-in-children-leads-to.html
Toni,
You’ve fallen into one of the logical fallacy traps set by those who wish to ignore any possible link between autism and vaccines. Autism as a condition has been identified as a specific condition for the better part of a century, so yes… obviously your stepbrother was diagnosed before the numbers of autistic children skyrocketed.
However, just because there have been autistics before thimerosal was introduced does not do anymore to prove the lack of a link between autism and vaccination than it does for me to point out that people flew on gliders before the Wright Brothers built a working machine-powered airplane.
There is no mercury in vaccines, nor has there been since sometime around 2001. Update your arguments, people.
In response to Rob Williams points:
“Someone, like me, who actually has a family member (a nephew) who became autistic as a direct result of a vaccination is qualified to provide an opinion.”
How so? Close proximity to an autistic child absolutely does not make you an expert on the medical minutiae of the issue. If it did, maids who work with household cleaning agents would have to be considered experts on chemical formulation. That is simply an asinine assertion.
“Besides, blatantly asserting that autism is not caused by vaccines is the height of arrogance, just like asserting that anything does not exist–one cannot “prove” by the absence of “proof” (evidence).”
Au contraire, mon frère. The height of arrogance is positing that your personal contact with an autistic child pre-empts the weight of scientific evidence and studies on this issue. Yes, science could be proven wrong on autism. It just hasn’t happened yet. Research continues on this topic. And until proper studies show a real link to autism, I for one, will be vaccinating my children to protect them from far more common diseases that vaccines can stop.
“On the other hand, one counter-example is all it takes to disprove such an assertion, and my nephew suffices for me to disprove Amanda Peet’s comments.”
Your nephew was diagnosed with autism, at or around the time he received a vaccine (I’m assuming based on your comments). That doesn’t prove or disprove anything on it’s own. That’s why we have impartial third parties doing studies, using concepts like “the scientific method.” You should read about it, it’s the latest thing in research…
“1. Pregnant women are routinely warned to avoid foods containing mercury, such as tuna fish and many other kinds of fish, because it is believed to negatively-impact brain development.”
This is a non-sequitur, as vaccines no longer contain mercury.
“2. Vaccines are well-known to have contained and probably to continue to contain high levels of mercury and other toxic substances. Meanwhile, vaccines are not FDA- or otherwise regulated, they are not properly tested,
and their contents are generally not precisely known (when is the last time you read the “label” on that flu shot?).”
No, this is not well-known. Your statements are wild fabrications of fancy, and not based on any facts. That statement alone should discredit your entire diatribe.
3. Vaccines are well-known to cause many and varied “side effects”, up to and including death (see the CDC’s website and many others–warning, it’s graphic).”
Again with the non-sequitur. This has nothing to do with autism. Yes, there are sometimes bad side effects to vaccines, in the same way that there are a small percentage of side effects to ANY medication, whether it be manufactured or herbal in origin.
By the way, some side effects of NOT vaccinating children are measles, mumps, rubella, whooping cough, and crippling polio. All which have made a comeback in recent years, thanks to vaccine denyers like yourself. Thanks for putting children in the general population at risk, based on your uninformed and entirely baseless opinion. I will continue to trust the experts, not trolls like yourself.
-Uncle
Frank: The manufacturers lied about the mercury and other toxic chemical
content of vaccines for years, and one particular manufacturer continued
distributing such a vaccine with mercury content for two years after they
promised to cease, all of which is well documented on the web. SO, do you
really trust them now, with billions of dollars at stake, and with noone
watching over their shoulder (vaccines are not regulated by the FDA or any
third-party group)?
Uncle: When many thousands of parents, relatives, day care provides, etc.
notice that normal children are becoming autistic immediately after receiving
a vaccination, and there are no other identifiable factors (the rest of the
child’s life and environment are unchanged), then that is an observation
worthy of the scientific method. When the so-called “experts”, who have very
high stakes in the game (billions of dollars and their reputations), cannot
identify an alternative, and when they casually, blindly, and callously
dismiss those observations just as you do, most of us are simply not
convinced.
My nephew was a perfectly-normal little boy, and within two weeks of
getting a vaccination, he stopped talking, stopped functioning, and he
became very much a not-normal, apparently-autistic little boy. Nothing
else in his life had changed, he was not exposed to anything else worthy of
note, and no one has even the slightest suggestion of an alternate cause.
My brother has spent the last several YEARS studying this, and I have spent
MONTHS studying it myself, so excuse us if we ignore your cavalier
consideration of a whole TWO MINUTES. Each of my specific points is backed
by numerous sources, including the admissions of the FDA, the CDC, and the
manufacturers themselves.
My comments were and are directed to those who simply need a heads-up that
there is an alternative perspective, and I provided enough information for
them to start their own research. I made no claim that vaccines are “proven”
to cause autism, any more than they are “proven” not to cause it.
If you choose to trust the “experts”, then more power to you–they welcome
the sheep to the slaughter, as well as the stroke of their ego that you are
providing. As for “trolls”, I suggest you revisit the definition–you provided
no real content, yet you blast your comments at the world with vengeance.
If if walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, …
Mr. Uncle,
I am the father of the nephew. My son has gone through every test including MRI, DNA/Chromo.., etc.
There is no reason he should have autism, but he does.
He was completely normal until the age of 2 and then literally changed over night. He was talking, then stopped, he was normal and then he was not.
He is 6 now and does talk and has made progress that can only be described as leaps and bounds.
I did not waste my time reading all of your comments, but I read enought to tell you to SHUTUP!
So, I do have a CLOSE proxemity to an autistic child, I have read the scientific information, and I hhave talked to more doctors than I care to remember. There are links to the vacs, whether you want to admit it or not. Has it been “proven”? Hell they can’t even actually PROVE my son is autistic. They can prove he breathe and prove he talks now that he does, and oh he poops so that is proven. But in the world of autism NOTHING is really proven.
I am going to say again, he got a vac and shortly thereafter he completely and totally changed for the worse. He has not been vaced since.
Learn about the real history of vaccines. The fact of the matter is vaccines are USELESS and damaging to the immune system and overall health. Vaccines are responsible for the spike in autism. http://www.ivanfraser.com/articles/health/vaccination.html
“The medical authorities keep lying. Vaccination has been a disaster on the immune system. It actually causes a lot of illnesses. We are actually changing our genetic code through vaccination…100 years from now we will know that the biggest crime against humanity was vaccines.” — Dr. Guylaine Lanctot
. Can you provide scientific justification as to how injecting a human being with a confirmed neurotoxin is beneficial to human health and prevents disease?
2. Can you provide a risk/benefit profile on how the benefits of injecting a known neurotoxin exceeds its risks to human health for the intended goal of preventing disease?
3. Could you please provide scientific justification on how bypassing the respiratory tract (or mucous membrane) is advantageous and how directly injecting viruses into the bloodstream enhances immune functioning and prevents future infections?
I challenge anyone to answer these questions while providing detailed scientific proof.
http://www.safeminds.org/research/New-Scientific-Evidence-Links-Autism-to-Vaccines-and-Mercury.html
Two new papers published this week in the peer-reviewed neuroscience journal Acta Neurobiologiae Experimental is point to vaccines and heavy metal toxins including mercury as causes of the alarming rise in autism. The Centers for Disease Control now estimate autism to affect one in 110 children, up 40% from just a few years ago.
“The rapid increase in autism cannot be explained solely by changes in diagnostic practices and awareness,” said Sallie Bernard, president of SafeMinds. “We must look at what babies and pregnant women are being exposed to that has created this epidemic and take immediate steps to protect our children from these hazardous substances.”