When It Comes To Autism, Jenny McCarthy Might Be Sincere...But She's Wrong

I have nephew who is profoundly autistic. He isn't some kind of numbers-spouting Rain Man and he isn't blessed with some artistic talent that offsets his other tragic issues. He's a three-year-old kid trapped in a man's body. Someone who can't go outside without wearing headphones and who will probably spend his entire life in the care of his family.

I also have a seven-year-old son with mild Aspergers. Thanks to some exceptional help from the local school district, he is spending most of his time in a mainstream class and in the majority of situations, you would just think he's a bit shy.

When you have a child with autism, you look anywhere you can for answers. Not that finding a possible cause will alter the trajectory of your child's life. But there's this part of you that always feels as if it's your fault. And finding some other factor to blame makes the sadness seem just a bit more bearable.

I know what's like to have a child with autism and I'm not going to argue against anyone's attempts to find their own ways of coping. Which is why I haven't written about actress Jenny McCarthy in the past. Her son is autistic and she has to process that as best she can.

But McCarthy has become a leading proponent of this movement that argues vaccines may have caused autism. She also apparently believes that megadoses of some supplements can help "cure" the worst symptoms of autism.

She'll be in Chicago over the Memorial Day weekend headlining a conference that seeks to offer families the chance to "learn more about treatment for their children with autism."

This conference is like a Woodstock for half-baked science. The panels are heavy on claims about the dangers of vaccines and here are just some of the ones being offered:

* More Vitamin D, No Vaccines, Virtually No Autism
* Know Your Vaccine Exemption Rights
* Hurt and Healing After Mercury-containing Vaccines
* Vaccine Nation: A Novel Dramatizing the Vaccine Safety Debate
* Vaccine Manufacturing Practices and Residual Vaccine Contaminants
* Hidden in Plain Sight: the Role of Vaccines in Chronic Disease
* Prospects for Justice for Children Injured by Vaccines: The Experience of the Omnibus Autism Proceeding

And then there are the speakers.

Mark and David Geier will be heading up a panel entitled "The Biological Basis of Autism: Causation and Treatment." This is the same father-son team that opened clinics that administered a drug used to chemically treat sex offenders to kids with autism as part of a "cure."

I'm not going to go through all the scientific reasons why McCarthy is wrong. Spend about five minutes on Google and you'll find more than enough debunking. I'm also not arguing that McCarthy isn't sincere--I think she truly believes what she says.

But I am suggesting that if you have a child with autism, spend time examining the facts before attending a conference such as this one.

False hope really can be worse than no hope at all.