Jenny McCarthy took to her Twitter account to slam rumors that claimed the actress had suggested her 11-year-old son is not autistic.
Playboy star Jenny McCarthy is touted to be the most active anti-vaccine spokesperson in the world and she has good reason for her cause. Reportedly, the star claimed that it was a vaccine dose gone wrong that led to her 11-year-old son Evan being diagnosed with autism.
However, a controversial news report released over the weekend claimed that Evan never had autism. According to a Time Magazine report, the boy was misdiagnosed and instead suffers from a rare neurological disorder. The report also suggests that Evan is getting better and that he now displays no signs of autism.
An Us Weekly report also suggested that McCarthy had "changed her position" on her son's autistic condition but didn't apologize for misdirecting people against vaccination. Slamming all such rumors, McCarthy took to her Twitter account to claim that her son did indeed have autism.
"Stories circulating online, claiming that I said my son Evan may not have autism after all, are blatantly inaccurate and completely ridiculous. Evan was diagnosed with autism by the Autism Evaluation Clinic at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Hospital and was confirmed by the State of California (through their Regional Center)," she tweeted. "The implication that I have changed my position, that my child was not initially diagnosed with autism (and instead may suffer from Landau-Kleffner Syndrome), is both irresponsible and inaccurate. These stories cite a "new" Time Magazine interview with me, which was actually published in 2010, that never contained any such statements by me. Continued misrepresentations, such as these, only serve to open wounds of the many families who are courageously dealing with this disorder. Please know that I am taking every legal measure necessary to set this straight."
Whether or not Evan is autistic remains unknown but what people have overlooked are the millions of mothers who have been carried away by McCarthy's strong opinions against vaccination and didn't have their children vaccinated. Her voiced opinion against immunizing children has rubbed many health organizations the wrong way, so much so that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention went on record to call the star "a menace to public health."
