Section One: Jenny McCarthy (301 words) One of the main characters, Jenny McCarthy, is a celebrity and anti-vaccine activist in Paul A. Оffit’s book that can be directly connected to the field of public health. This character serves to describe the kind of social and behavioral activities involved in the influencing of public hysteria surrounding the anti-vaccine movement. Jenny McCarthy, a well-known Chicago native, was born on November 1, 1972. She attended college to study nursing at Southern Illinois University in the city of Carbondale, but eventually dropped out to pursue her dream of becoming a model.
In 1993, without much effort, her success was realized as she landed Playmate of the Month in Playboy magazine, and later went on to become Playmate of the Year in 1994. Her success continued as she became the host of multiple television shows and also began appearing in big-screen films. People magazine even named her one of the fifty most beautiful people in the world in 1996. McCarthy then married John Asher in September 1999, and gave birth to their only child, a son, on May 18, 2002.
She quickly noticed that her son was different, thanks to help from her tarot cards, and soon after he became diagnosed with autism. McCarthy claimed that vaccines were solely responsible for her sons’ autism, and blames the MMR vaccine, a vaccine for measles, mumps, and rubella, for the change in his behavior. Although multiple studies were conducted proving that the MMR vaccine did not cause autism in patients, McCarthy was highly doubtful and soon began her tirade as an anti-vaccine activist.
She later changed her stance on vaccines being the culprit of her child’s autism when she decided that it was actually the vaccine toxins, like mercury, aluminum, and anti-freeze, that was the main cause of negative health effects from administering vaccines. Section Two: SocialBehavioral Sciences (222 words) This book connects back to the field of public health in the form of social and behavioral science because the anti-vaccine movement is based on the spread of fear and false information instead of the use of scientifically proven facts.
Social-behavioral science is the most significant connection between the book and Jenny McCarthy because she uses her fame and celebrity status to bash the use of vaccines and promote her unsupported beliefs about the cause of her sons’ autism. She actively speaks out against vaccines and has been successful in influencing the behavior of society in regard to whether or not they should vaccinate their children, even though she has no medical background and no scientific evidence to support her statements.
McCarthy also often resorts to profanity when attem mpting to influence the anti-vaccine movement and to intimidate the medical community into developing “safer” vaccines. In fewer words, she is an anti-vaccine bully of sorts. Her celebrity prestige has dubbed her the face of an anti-vaccine organization called “Generation Rescue” that often portrays provaccine doctors and manufacturers as evil, and instead pushes the use of multi-vitamins from other drug companies even though they have unproved efficacy.
The support she has gained from others for the anti-vaccine movement has originated strictly from social-behavioral influence, and completely disregards factual proof provided by the medical community. Section Three: Real-Life Application (1,040 words) Article #1: Social Marketing as a Strategy to Increase Immunization Rates. This article from the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics explains that most cases of vaccinepreventable diseases are often attributed to parents who have requested an exemption from routine immunization practices.
This kind of immunization resistance is a result of the increased concern of possible negative vaccine side effects, which has been supported by anti-vaccine activists like Jenny McCarthy, who have made a career of playing into the publics fear. This study decided to use a similar strategy and use social marketing as a way to address common concerns, encourage vaccine immunization, and to help rebuild the public’s trust in the medical community.
Opel, Diekema, Lee, and Marcuse explain that “In 2004, 93% of pediatricians reported that there was at least one parental refusal of a recommended vaccine in the last year, and a recent analysis of data from the 2004 National Immunization Survey found that 28% of parents were unsure about, delayed, or refused vaccines” (2009, p. 433). These statistics are undoubtedly attributed to the increased media attention gained by the anti-vaccine movement and proves that a new strategy is needed to promote behavioral change in the public.
This article is connected to the public health branch of socialbehavioral science because it describes the usefulness of using a social marketing strategy to reverse the decline in vaccine immunization and improve the protection of public health. By focusing on the message they intend to deliver and the response from the community, medical doctors will have a better chance in improving the rates of immunization and reduce the amount of children who are asking for exemptions because of personal or religious beliefs.
The researchers elaborate in stating that “A communication strategy that goes beyond the pediatrician’s office requires that the messengers (whether groups or individuals) be likeable, trustworthy, and seen as working toward the same goal as the parents. Jenny McCarthy has been an effective messenger for the antivaccination movement precisely because she is perceived this way” (Opel, Diekema, Lee, & Marcuse, 2009, p. 435). Although this tactic may be labeled as a method of coercion or manipulation, it is the best way to reduce disease risks among the population and will ultimately benefit the big picture of public health.
This article connects back to the book because social influence in the form of media has served a huge part in the decision making of the public in regard to whether or not they accept vaccine immunizations. The social-behavioral science aspect can be seen in the anti-vaccine following gained by Jenny McCarthy and the other anti-vaccine activists. When certain influential people are given a media platform to express their beliefs and opinions on a topic, regardless of having any backing from the scientific community, there is a higher chance that their message will be received well and continue to grow on society.
The public may not be receiving accurate information on vaccine immunization, but they will continue to believe what they want to because it fits their agenda and they have a significantly large group supporting their same claims. Article #2: The Age-Old Struggle against the Anti-vaccinationists. This article published in the New England Journal of Medicine describes how there has been resistance to vaccine immunizations since the time they were first introduced, regardless of published beneficial evidence.
The issue of smallpox disease vaccination goes back as far as 1910, and the medical community suffered setbacks due to the distrust from anti-vaccinationists before successful eradication in 1980. For short time, the anti-vaccine movement receded because of improved vaccine science, efficient manufacturing, a strong public awareness of infectious disease and the desire to protect young children from severe outbreaks. However, this quickly changed in the 1970’s when false claims regarding vaccine harm began being pushed by the media.
As a result, proven scientific data became ignored and outbreaks of some diseases, like pertussis, began to flourish once again. Poland and Jacobson (2011) explains that “Countries that dropped routine pertussis vaccination in the 1970s and 1980s then suffered 10 to 100 times the pertussis incidence of countries that maintained high immunization rates; ultimately, the countries that had eliminated their pertussis vaccination programs reinstated them” (p. 98).
Although these vaccine programs were reinstated, they were still met with resistance from some members of the public. This article connects back to the public health branch of socialbehavioral science because it acknowledges the power of media and the influence it has had in creating the anti-vaccine movement since its creation. Over the last decade, methods of media have continued to explode in the forms of television, film, internet, and social media, which has only made it easier for anti-vaccine activists to relay their message and spread false information.
They use these methods of communication to sway the mass opinion of the public through the promotion of fear. This vaccine hysteria has served to distract a significant portion of society from the scientific evidence that supports the usefulness of vaccines and encourages the behavior of vaccine refusal. This journal article on the age-old struggle against anti-vaccine supporters connects back to the book because it addresses some specific examples of media used to aid in the panic caused by the anti-vaccine movement.
Both the book and the article confront the false and detrimental information spread by a video documentary called Vaccine Roulette by Barbara Loe Fisher, whose main purpose is to smear the pro-vaccine community and discourage the use of vaccination among children. The article states that “A 1982 television program on diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus (DPT) vaccination entitled ‘DPT: Vaccine Roulette’ led to a national debate on the use of the vaccine, focused on a litany of unproven claims against it” (Poland & Jacobson, 2011, p. 97).
This has led to the increase of participants in the anti-vaccine movement, which generally consists of individuals ignorant to health science, and extremists who use threats and intimidation to shut down their detractors, just like Jenny McCarthy. This type of social behavior is selfish and only puts innocent individuals such as young children, the sick, and the elderly at an increased risk for developing these deadly diseases. This is a huge reason why it is so important to acknowledge that something must be done to eliminate this fear of vaccination for the sake of protecting the countries overall public health.
