I have no opinion about most of the article. However, I do know about Gardasil, and Newsweek’s ridicule of Dr Christiane Northrup’s absolutely correct assertion that a good diet can help deal with HPV makes me suspect that Newsweek’s research is sadly lacking. Personally, I wouldn’t take that article as gospel any more than I’d take Oprah as gospel.

I find it quite amusing that the writer does. That’s not very scientific.

FYI, that NZ article is a reprint of this Independent article:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/oprah-defends-her-experts-accused-of-talking-nonsense-1698770.html

…with a slightly better title, courtesy of PZ…

And I’m talking about losing respect for Oprah about 20 years ago before all these controversies, not now. For a while it seemed she would be different by focusing on real, often controversial social issues. Unfortunately, she bought into the brain-cell-killing “celebrity culture.” I had expected better than that from her. Like, how about doing a weekly show on an astronomy-related topic as part of IYA?

See Dr. Phil? I’m a not giving a dime to that quack. I’d rather donate money to research about pulsars!

Wow, so many ridiculous statements in such a short comment!

First, really, the racist misogyny card? Really? On what evidence in my post do you base that?

Second, as I point out, it’s clear Oprah is endorsing these nonsensical medical beliefs of her guests. It’s clearly spelled out in my post. Did you not read it?

Third, I never said her audience is too stupid to handle controversial ideas. That’s a strawman on your part and totally false. I said that her saying her audience will seek out other advice is baloney. We have evidence that a vast number of people do whatever she says when it comes to consuming what she’s endorsing.

Fourth, if I have a talk show where I pet puppies all the time, but once a year have a special show where I eat them live, is that OK with you? Will that get a pass?

Fifth, I don’t ridicule Oprah’s show as a whole, only the nonsense she endorses.

But gee, besides all that, you have a point.

She simply advocates testing babies to make sure they have the immune system to handle vaccines at the current rate.

Do you have the name of that test, and the papers showing how effective it is in predicting their immune system? Plus, can you share the papers in the medical literature that support a connection between autism and vaccines? Because, these show the opposite (and they is only for the MMR, there are also similar ones for thimerosal):

Lack of Association between Measles Virus Vaccine and Autism with Enteropathy:
A Case-Control Study. Hornig M et al. PLoS ONE 2008; 3(9):
e3140 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0003140 *Subjects: 25 children with
autism and GI disturbances and 13 children with GI disturbances alone
(controls)

Measles Vaccination and Antibody Response in Autism Spectrum Disorders.
Baird G et al. Arch Dis Child 2008; 93(10):832-7. Subjects: 98
vaccinated children aged 10-12 years in the UK with autism spectrum
disorder (ASD); two control groups of similar age: 52 children with special
educational needs but no ASD and 90 children in the typically developing
group

MMR-Vaccine and Regression in Autism Spectrum Disorders: Negative
Results Presented from Japan. Uchiyama T et al. J Autism Dev Disord
2007; 37(2):210-7 *Subjects: 904 children with autism spectrum disorder
(Note: MMR was used in Japan only between 1989 and 1993.)

No Evidence of Persisting Measles Virus in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear
Cells from Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. D’Souza Y et
al. Pediatrics 2006; 118(4):1664-75 *Subjects: 54 children with autism
spectrum disorder and 34 developmentally normal children

Immunizations and Autism: A Review of the Literature. Doja A, Roberts
W. Can J Neurol Sci. 2006; 33(4):341-6 *Literature review

Pervasive Developmental Disorders in Montreal, Quebec, Canada:
Prevalence and Links with Immunizations. Fombonne E et al. Pediatrics.
2006;118(1):e139-50 *Subjects: 27,749 children born from 1987 to
1998 attending 55 schools

Relationship between MMR Vaccine and Autism. Klein KC, Diehl EB.
Ann Pharmacother. 2004; 38(7-8):1297-300 *Literature review of 10
studies

Immunization Safety Review: Vaccines and Autism. Institute of Medicine.
The National Academies Press: 2004 (w w w . nap.edu/books/030909237X/
html) *Literature review

MMR Vaccination and Pervasive Developmental Disorders: A Case-
Control Study. Smeeth L et al. Lancet 2004; 364(9438):963-9 *Subjects:
1294 cases and 4469 controls

Age at First Measles-Mumps-Rubella Vaccination in Children with Autism
and School-Matched Control Subjects: A Population-Based Study
in Metropolitan Atlanta. DeStefano F et al. Pediatrics 2004; 113(2): 259-
66 *Subjects: 624 children with autism and 1,824 controls

Prevalence of Autism and Parentally Reported Triggers in a North East
London Population. Lingam R et al. Arch Dis Child 2003; 88(8):666-70
*Subjects: 567 children with autistic spectrum disorder

Neurologic Disorders after Measles-Mumps-Rubella Vaccination. Makela
A et al. Pediatrics 2002; 110:957-63 *Subjects: 535,544 children vaccinated
between November 1982 and June 1986 in Finland

A Population-Based Study of Measles, Mumps, and Rubella Vaccination
and Autism. Madsen KM et al. N Engl J Med 2002; 347(19):1477-82
*Subjects: All 537,303 children born 1/91–12/98 in Denmark

Relation of Childhood Gastrointestinal Disorders to Autism: Nested
Case Control Study Using Data from the UK General Practice Research
Database. Black C et al. BMJ 2002; 325:419-21 *Subjects: 96 children
diagnosed with autism and 449 controls

Measles, Mumps, and Rubella Vaccination and Bowel Problems or Developmental
Regression in Children with Autism: Population Study. Taylor
B et al. BMJ 2002; 324(7334):393-6 *Subjects: 278 children with
core autism and 195 with atypical autism

No Evidence for a New Variant of Measles-Mumps-Rubella-Induced
Autism. Fombonne E et al. Pediatrics 2001;108(4):E58 *Subjects: 262
autistic children (pre- and post-MMR samples)

Measles-Mumps-Rubella and Other Measles-Containing Vaccines Do
Not Increase the Risk for Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Case-Control
Study from the Vaccine Safety Datalink Project. Davis RL et al. Arch Pediatr
Adolesc Med 2001;155(3):354-9 *Subjects: 155 persons with IBD
with up to 5 controls each

Time Trends in Autism and in MMR Immunization Coverage in California.
Dales L et al. JAMA 2001; 285(9):1183-5 *Subjects: Children
born in 1980-94 who were enrolled in California kindergartens (survey
samples of 600–1,900 children each year)

Mumps, Measles, and Rubella Vaccine and the Incidence of Autism Recorded
by General Practitioners: A Time Trend Analysis. Kaye JA et al.
BMJ 2001; 322:460-63 *Subjects: 305 children with autism

Further Evidence of the Absence of Measles Virus Genome Sequence in
Full Thickness Intestinal Specimens from Patients with Crohn’s Disease.
Afzal MA, et al. J Med Virol 2000; 62(3):377-82 *Subjects: Specimens
from patients with Crohn’s disease

Autism and Measles, Mumps, and Rubella Vaccine: No Epidemiological
Evidence for a Causal Association. Taylor B et al. Lancet 1999;353
(9169):2026-9 *Subjects: 498 children with autism

Absence of Detectable Measles Virus Genome Sequence in Inflammatory
Bowel Disease Tissues and Peripheral Blood Lymphocytes. Afzal MA et
al. J Med Virol 1998; 55(3):243-9 *Subjects: 93 colonoscopic biopsies
and 31 peripheral blood lymphocyte preparations

No Evidence for Measles, Mumps, and Rubella Vaccine-Associated Inflammatory
Bowel Disease or Autism in a 14-year Prospective Study.
Peltola H et al. Lancet 1998; 351:1327-8 *Subjects: 3,000,000 doses of
MMR vaccine

Exposure to Measles in Utero and Crohn’s Disease: Danish Register
Study. Nielsen LL et al. BMJ 1998; 316(7126):196-7 *Subjects: 472
women with measles

Immunocytochemical Evidence of Listeria, Escherichia coli, and Streptococcus
Antigens in Crohn’s Disease. Liu Y et al. Gastroenterology
1995; 108(5):1396-1404 *Subjects: Intestines and mesenteric lymph
node specimens from 21 persons from families with a high frequency of
Crohn’s disease

Look at how her political endorsement turned out…

And shame on you dkmnow for your disgusting rant against Oprah. You obviously don’t watch her and know nothing at all about her.

But that right there is the problem, Oprah “read a statement” disputing McCarthy. She didn’t bring on a doctor or a scientist to contradict her.

McCarthy wasn’t “confronted” about her ignorance she was allowed to spew and then Oprah said “Well to be fair, there are some that disagree and this is what they might say…if we actually let them on here.” And read a stock statement that was not tailored to directly contradict McCarthy.

Jenny McCarthy got to testify, the scientific community got hearsay.