Jenny McCarthy Clarifies Vaccine Stance. Too Little, Too Late?

The View” co-host Jenny McCarthy is under attack again — not for her infamous anti-vaccination stance, but her apparent lack thereof. In a Chicago Sun-Times op-ed titled “The Gray Area on Vaccines” published Saturday, the 41-year-old television personality claimed she is not “anti-vaccine,” despite practically becoming the celebrity face of the cause.

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“I am not ‘anti-vaccine,’ writes McCarthy. “This is not a change in my stance nor is it a new position that I have recently adopted. For years, I have repeatedly stated that I am, in fact, 'pro-vaccine' and for years I have been wrongly branded as ‘anti-vaccine.’ What happened to critical thinking? What happened to asking questions because every child is different? I believe in the importance of a vaccine program and I believe parents have the right to choose one poke per visit. I’ve never told anyone to not vaccinate.”

More on Yahoo: Jenny McCarthy Faces Twitter Backlash For Vaccine Stance

Regardless, Twitter users went on the offensive, calling her latest claims “dangerous” and “nonsense.”  For years, McCarthy has been synonymous with the autism cause, specifically known for her views on the link between the developmental disorder and vaccines. It’s true that in the past, McCarthy has carefully couched her stance — in 2010, she told Larry King that she doesn’t wish to ban vaccines, and during a 2013 CNN interview, she said vaccines are a trigger, not a cause of autism (in the case of her now 12-year-old son Evan, whose diagnosis, says McCarthy, has been reversed due to diet and lifestyle changes). She also told Time Magazine in 2009 that, “People have the misconception that we want to eliminate vaccines,” but “Please understand that we are not an anti-vaccine group.”

However, McCarthy has also publicly defended Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the British doctor who penned the 1998 research linking autism and vaccines, despite his work deemed an “elaborate fraud” by the scientific journal BMJ. According to a report published by CNN, Wakefield had his medical license revoked in England after misrepresenting or altering the medical histories of the children in the study and the research had actually been funded by a law firm that was suing vaccine manufacturers. The study was ultimately retracted from the scientific journal The Lancet. In the Time article, McCarthy also said, "If you ask a parent of an autistic child if they want the measles or the autism, we will stand in line for the f___ing measles."

Health officials say that vaccination fears are largely responsible for the resurgence of preventable diseases such as measles and whooping cough — but does McCarthy share those fears? According to Salon, her Generation Rescue autism organization has quietly removed its statement of support for Wakefield, along with her son's experience with autism. That's left many on both sides of the debate wondering which side she's on. Maybe the answer is that she's just not sure anymore.