Jenny McCarthey is set to take Elisabeth Hasselbeck's seat on "The View," and the decision has received backlash for the former Playboy model's uninhibited and opinionated stance on child vaccinations.
Barbara Walters confirmed on Monday that McCarthy'a first day as a co-host on "The View" will be on Sept. 9.
"We love her because she's fun and uninhibited and opinionated enough to help us begin the latest chapter in 'The View' history," Walters told the on air viewers.
McCarthy, 40, has become the face of the anti-vaccine crusade in recent years since her son was diagnosed with autism. According to the Los Angeles Times, the theory that childhood vaccination causes autism has been "discredited," but she continues to be a strong advocate. She is president of Generation Rescue, a nonprofit group that supports this view.
Her organization has also publicly defended Andrew Wakefield, the former doctor who authored the 1998 journal article suggesting a link between the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine and autism. The research paper provoking vaccination fears has since been retracted, and Wakefield was banned from practicing medicine in the United Kingdom, according to the LA Times.
"McCarthy has been a leading and very prominent proponent of the concept that vaccines are somehow causally related to the development of autism in children," Dr. William Schaffner, chair of the department of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University, told the LA Times. "From the point of view of the scientific and the public health community and clinical family doctors and pediatricians, that concept simply is false."
Hasselbeck was known for her conservative opinions, but she may not have stirred up as much controversy as McCarthy's views on vaccinations. With many current events and hot topics discussed on the show, it's likely for childhood vaccinations to become the day's subject. Critics of McCarthy fear her new national platform will spread the "wrong message."
"I think a network hiring a homicidal maniac, giving her a forum in front of people who have young children and are impressionable, is the most irresponsible thing I've heard of in a long time," Michael Specter, a New Yorker magazine staff writer and author of the book, "Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives," told the LA Times.
According to the LA Times, McCarthy's association with the anti-vaccine movement lead to the creation of the website "The Anti-Vaccine Body Count" (originally titled "The Jenny McCarthy Body Count") "charting the number of deaths due to preventable diseases since 2007, when McCarthy first began to speak out on the subject."
