We live in an age where fame and media have led to the unlikely scenario that football players can tell me what type of aftershave I should wear and movie stars can encourage me to eat a particular type of potato chip.  It all seems a bit silly for someone with any scientific training but it seems to work - otherwise why would companies pay celebrities to advertise their goods.  Somehow being told something by a celebrity even if it's something one wouldn't expect the celebrity to know anything about makes it true.  It shouldn't work, but it does.

Because of this it is with great concern that I read about celebrities discouraging people from having their children vaccinated.  Jenny McCarthy is an example here.  The one time playboy model has decided, despite a complete lack of any scientific evidence, that 'vaccinations cause autism'.  She's been quite vocal about it - even getting quoted in Time magazine.  Hopefully most people realise that just because she's a playboy model doesn't necessarily mean she knows what she's talking about when it comes to medicine but there are some people out there almost as stupid as Jenny who just might believe her.

To document this a 'Jenny McCarthy body count' website has been set up and can be viewed here.  It documents the number of deaths, cases of preventable illness and cases of autism linked to vaccination since Jenny began her campaign of misinformation.  I think it's important for celebrities to realise that the are responsible for the stupid things they say.  Oh, and just in case you were wondering, last I looked there were NO cases of autism.