Jim Carrey: Repeating Anti-Science, Anti-Public Health Propaganda I "36 Vaccines"

Yesterday, Jim Carrey (actor) published his ignorant, inaccurate, dangerous opinions on autism and the safety and efficacy of vaccines at the Huffington Post.  This will be a several-part post: Part II is here.

It was all bilgewater, as documented by LeftBrain/RightBrain, PodBlack, Kev Leitch, Orac at Respectful Ignorance, PZ Meyers, William K. Wolfram, Science-Based Parenting, Ross Durham, Oliver Willis,  Yellow Limes, The Bureaucrat, and even  Gawker,

I want to make two points right now-- to do so I'll quote Carrey

Recently, I was amazed to hear a commentary by CNN's Campbell Brown on the controversial vaccine issue.

The "vaccine issue" is only controversial to a small, well-funded, fringe element -- called by some the Society to Promote Vaccine-Preventable Disease -- represented by J. B. Handley's Generation Rescue and its celebrity mouthpieces Jenny McCarthy and her boyfriend Jim Carrey. The weight of the scientific evidence is that the current vaccine schedule is both effective in preventing disease and safe--as free as possible of side-effects.. Carrey wrote:

The truth is that no one without a vested interest in the profitability of vaccines has studied all 36 of them in depth.

Setting aside the first inflammatory phrase, let us look at the last phrase: the "36 vaccines".

Shall we count?

Looking at the 2009 recommended inoculations for children from birth to ages (available for free download from http://www.cispimmunize.org/), I count 14 diseases:

1. Hepatitis B
2. Rotavirus
3. Diphtheria
4. Tetanus
5. Pertussis
6. Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib)
7. Pneumococcal
8. Polio
9. Influenza
10. Measles
11. Mumps
12. Rubella
13. Varicella
14. Hepatitis A

Carrey is (a) parroting the Generation Rescue line (b) exaggerating (babies!  36 vaccines!! dangerous!!!),  (c) cannot make an accurate count or (d) some combination of the previous.

The actual number of injections is more difficult to calculate, since (a) each disease requires a different number of injections for complete coverage and (b)  there are various combination vaccine preparations that can be administered. Additionally, an annual influenza vaccination is recommended (which seems to be included in the "36 vaccines")  but it is not clear what the uptake rate is.

If you hear "36 vaccines", you know you are listening to a card-carrying member of the Society to Promote Vaccine-Preventable Disease.  Just remember: 14 diseases, some of which take more than two injections for full protection from disease.

Update March 8, 2010. Following a vile attack on Shannon, her son, and the rest of her family at a blog I will not name or link to, Shannon has given me permission to post this. It is hardly a secret that Squid is Shannon Rosa.  Shannon Rosa is an autism advocate not only for her son and her family, but for all parents of children with autism and all people with autism.  Read her blog at  BlogHer: Shannon Rosa's Blog

Comments

[Calli Arcale]

Don't forget that many of those are grouped together -- MMR, DTaP, etc. There's now even one that gets five diseases in one go: protects against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough , polio, and HiB. Needs four doses total. Is that one vaccine, four, or twenty-five? I suspect to the GR folks, that would count as twenty-five. Honesty is not their forte. Making things sound as scary as possible is.

[Napoleon Van Hardridge]

To understand the big picture, we must dig to the root,only then will we understand - the fruit. Everyone should read this. http://www.jordanmaxwell.com/documents/US-Congressional-Record-1940-British-Israel-World-Government__OCRv0.1.pdf http://www.naturalnews.com/025760.html

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I love you Jim Carrey, you are my star!! By the way, interesting post...

[Jim Carrey]

I love JIm Carrey. He is my favorite comedy actor. I have seen lot of films of him like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind , Jim Carrey: Extreme Yes Man ..All are fantastic one..