On Sunday I posted about whether or not Jenny Mccarthy’s son is recovered or not.
In a transcript of McCarthy’s June 6 interview about her “autism crusade,” it’s as hard as ever to get the facts straight about what her son Evan has: Perhaps it is indeed not clear to either McCarthy or the various medical and other professionals who have evaluated her son.
Here’s what McCarthy said in answer to questions by guest host Jamie Kolby and by Greta van Susteren:
VAN SUSTEREN: And in the spectrum, where is Evan?
MCCARTHY: Evan was undiagnosed with autism.
VAN SUSTEREN: So if I met Evan?
MCCARTHY: You …read more

Some will remember last week for June 4th and “Green Our Vaccines” rally.
I remember it as Charlie’s last full week of elementary school.

Low Birth Weight and Preterm Birth: Autism Risk Factors?A new study in Pediatrics links low birth weight (less than 5.5 pounds) and preterm birth to an increased risk for autism in infants by about twofold, and more so in girls than in boys.
“The issue here for me is did our teacher behave as alleged?”An editorial in the June 3rd Palm Beach Post about 5-year-old Alex Barton being voted out of his kindergarten class quotes Michael Lannon, Superintendent of …read more

When Jenny McCarthy’s book Louder Than Words: A Mother’s Journey in Healing Autism was published last September, all the talk was that she had “recovered” her son from autism.
In article after article about the “Green Our Vaccines” rally, it is said that that her son is “autistic” and “has autism.”
Just trying to get the facts straight.

1500.
That’s journalist Arthur Allen’s estimate of how many people were at Wednesday’s Green Our Vaccines rally; a bit smaller of a number than the “close to 10,000” elsewhere noted.
Writing in today’s Washington Independent, Allen—-who’s won a bit more than the ire of the anti/pro-safe – vaccine advocates/crowd with his book, Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine’s Greatest Lifesaver—-reports about what he saw and heard at the rally:
A mother who noted that, without the internet, she would “‘probably not’” have linked her son’s “regressive autism” to the hypothesis that vaccines can be linked to autism.
An almost-meeting with Wendy Fournier of the …read more

“Change the schedule!” This appears to be the rallying cry of today’s Green Our Vaccines rally. CBS news quotes comedian Jim Carrey:
Led by actors Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey, they’re marching against the medical establishment that says there’s no evidence vaccines cause autism, CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook reports.
“We want to send the message to the CDC and our federal government that vaccinations schedules are not one size fits all for all children and that each child is different,” said concerned parent Michael Williamson.
Their new battle cry: Spread out the vaccine schedule.
“Thirty-six vaccines in the first few …read more

A couple of years while teaching this poem to an English Literature 101 class at a mid-sized university in New Jersey (it’s not where I teach now), I asked my class what “green” signifies. While we live in New Jersey, I grew up in California (think Berkeley not Los Angeles) and — having started to recycle in the 4th grade, lived through a couple of droughts and a gas shortage, and developed a preference for whole grains in elementary school — “green” to me means nature, plants, leaves, grass, stuff that grows in the ground naturally.
So I was honestly crestfallen …read more