You know about the Kevin Bacon thing, right?
Six degrees of separation? The idea that most people are connected by six or fewer degrees of separation.
Six Degrees of Anti-Vaccine Separation
Not surprisingly, you don’t have to beyond a few degrees to see the connection between many anti-vaccine folks.
“Parents from around Southern California choose Gordon for his outspoken and controversial stance on vaccinations, driving from as far away as Santa Barbara and Long Beach.
They know he will lend a sympathetic ear to their concerns about the possible adverse side effects of childhood vaccinations — even though several large scientific studies have failed to find a connection.
His openness to alternative approaches has earned him an avid following. With thousands of patients, his practice is so busy that he no longer accepts new patients.”
Los Angeles Times on Doctor Contrarian
Especially the vocal anti-vaccine folks.
Few folks likely remember, but in 2000, just after Andrew Wakefield released his now retracted study, Dr. Jay Gordon and Cindy Crawford appeared on Good Morning America to discuss vaccines and how she had decided to delay vaccinating her baby.
After the segment, Dr. Gordon stated:
They edited the segment to make me sound like a vaccination proponent. We also have to understand the impact of a person as well-known as Cindy Crawford delaying vaccines for over six months.
So while a lot of folks like to give credit to Bob Sears and Jenny McCarthy for starting the modern anti-vaccine movement, Dr. Jay and Cindy Crawford were on the scene far earlier.
Dr. Jay had even been featured in the LA Times before Wakefield published his paper!
Speaking of Jenny McCarthy, it is interesting to note that Jay Gordon was her pediatrician!
“Right before his MMR shot, I said to the doctor, I have a very bad feeling about this shot. This is the autism shot, isn’t it? And he said, “No, that is ridiculous. It is a mother’s desperate attempt to blame something on autism.” And he swore at me. . . . And not soon thereafter, I noticed that change in the pictures: Boom! Soul, gone from his eyes.”
Jenny McCarthy
Well, Dr. Jay is almost certainly not the pediatrician that swore at her after giving her child an MMR vaccine.
“Yes, there have been cases of Disney spread from Measlesland. I will give MMRs to kids 3 yrs+ if parents are worried.”
Jay Gordon
But it’s not hard to guess where she got some of her ideas about vaccines.
“Would any scientist give SIX vaccines at once to a baby? Asking for trouble. One at a time makes so much more sense.”
Jay Gordon
It probably makes even more sense if it is your pediatrician saying it…
“My name is Brittney Kara and my husband and I are parents who have chosen not to continue vaccinating our children. After thoroughly investigating and carefully weighing the risks and benefits of each vaccine, we have concluded that the current vaccines are not safe for our children and that they are not required for the optimum health of our children.”
Brittney Kara
Especially when you have a pediatrician who has said “I think that the public health benefits to vaccinating are grossly overstated” and who recommends that parents “Wait until a child is clearly developmentally “solid” before vaccinating because we just don’t know which children will react badly to immunizations.”
Is that where Brittney “Why Aren’t Vaccines Mentioned in the Bible?” Kara got her ideas about vaccines?
“I began researching vaccines in 2007 when I was pregnant with our first child. Dr. Jay Gordon was my pediatrician growing up and since I have always held him in a high regard he was the first person I turned to. He was very cautious about the current CDC schedule and his research inspired me to start my own. I began following the work of Dr. Russell Blaylock, Dr. Joseph Mercola, Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, and Dr. Suzanne Humphries, among others.”
Brittney Kara
What about Alicia Silverstone and Mayim Bialik?
How many celebrities got their ideas about vaccines from Jay Gordon?
How many other people have been influenced by the anti-vaccine celebrities that Jay Gordon has inspired?
More on Six Degrees of Anti-Vaccine Separation
- VAXOPEDIA – Why Aren’t Vaccines Mentioned in the Bible?
- VAXOPEDIA – What Is the Evidence for Alternative Vaccine Schedules
- VAXOPEDIA – Anecdotes as Evidence
- VAXOPEDIA – Explaining the Correlation of Autism After Vaccines
- VAXOPEDIA – The Moral Responsibility of the Anti-Vaccine Movement
- VAXOPEDIA – Vaccine Scare Stories and the Media
- VAXOPEDIA – What Are the Greatest Tricks Anti-Vaccine Folks Use to Persuade Parents to Skip Vaccines?
- Dr. Jay Gordon
- Dr. Jay Gordon defends Jenny McCarthy
- A Mother’s Denial, a Daughter’s Death
- Pediatrician Jay Gordon Talks Babies, Breast Feeding, Vaccines and Almost Flunking Out of Medical School
- Doctor Contrarian
- A Vocal Attack on Vaccines
- Why Do Affluent, Well-Educated People Refuse Vaccines?
- Measles Outbreak Makes Jenny McCarthy’s Anti-Vax Pediatrician Change His Tune
- A Jenny McCarthy Reader, Pt. 2: Jenny brings her anti-vaccine views to Oprah
- Jenny McCarthy and the Holy War
- Quoth antivaccine “warrior mamma” Brittney Kara: If vaccines are so great, why aren’t they mentioned in the Bible?
- Moms Who Vax: Mayim Bialik’s “Personal Decision”
- Has Mayim Bialik changed her stance on vaccines?
- Dr. Jay Gordon: No vaccines needed, just quit eating cheese and ice cream
- More Nonsense from Dr. Jay Gordon
- When another doctor stops behaving like one
- Epidemiology Night School: Introduction to Outbreaks (or “Don’t expect Dr. Jay to understand all this stuff”)
- Dr. Jay Gordon and “Irrelevant” Vaccines
- Poor, poor pitiful me: Jenny McCarthy and Dr. Jay Gordon after The Vaccine War
- Dr. Jay Gordon: Will you please stop claiming you’re not an antivaccinationist?
- A homeopath and Dr. Jay will teach you about vaccines—and, no doubt, autism
- Promoters of Questionable Methods and/or Advice