Marina Hyde at the Guardian wrote a hilarious article on the rise of celebrity spokespeople on matters of science and health, focusing on the claims of Madonna, Stella McCartney and Gwyneth Paltrow, concerning subjects such the healing powers of “energy injected” Kabbalah water, nuclear waste, “chemical-free” food and “biological foods (whatever those terms mean), among other things.
I recommend having a read of it, (here*) as it is an amusing distraction. I’m a bit puzzled, however as to why she does not mention the efforts of their esteemed colleague Jenny McCarthy. While the above three are maybe encouraging people to waste their time and money, McCarthy’s contributions to the field (on matters of vaccination and autism) are probably actually killing people.
-cvj
*I spotted it at Skepchicks.
I agree with the fact that when all these ‘actors’ (or anyone else) get involved with things that are outside of their realm of understanding can actually cause a lot more harm than any good that they intend to do. Childhood vaccinations are there in order to prevent the undo loss of life to these infectious diseases, and if one is overly worried about thiomersol(mercury based preservative) causing autism, there are plenty of alternative vaccines that don’t use that particular ingredient any longer.
Funny. I wonder if anyone is trying to cure us from “blonde celebrity” taking on a “world” cause. 🙂