Telling Truth To Stupid

A few weeks ago, Angelina Jolie announced that she had had a preventative double mastectomy, based on test results indicating that she was at high risk for breast cancer. Some of the resulting press coverage expressed concern that her announcement could lead to an increase in unnecessary surgeries, as women might rush out to have the same procedure even though the specific genetic indicator is actually extremely rare. At the time I was thinking, Really? Do people really take medical advice from or make health decisions based on what a celebrity says/does? To be clear, Jolie wasn't actually giving medical advice, at least not about treatment, but still. Would any woman really have her breasts removed because Angelina Jolie did?

I'm thinking about that today as I read some of the reactions to Jenny McCarthy's selection as the new co-host on ABC's The View. McCarthy strongly advocates that parents not vaccinate their children because she claims vaccines cause autism. She's entitled to think whatever she wants, of course, but because she's famous, at least in a C-list kind of way, she has a microphone. She's written some books and appeared on Oprah and I think she has (or had) a blog or website. Serious people, including James Poniewozik at Time magazine, Michael Specter at the New Yorker and Alex Pareene at Salon are criticizing ABC for hiring McCarthy, saying that she could cause the deaths of real children whose parents don't vaccinate because Jenny McCarthy tells them not to. Once again I'm saying, Really?

Sounds to me, as Aaron Sorkin says in The Newsroom, that it's time for someone to tell truth to stupid. I'm not talking about McCarthy. She sounds like an idiot but that's not my point. I'm talking about the parents. Taking medical advice from Jenny McCarthy? That's the real stupid.