How bitter is the pharmaceutical industry over the anti-vaccine quackery of Jenny McCarthy? John Castellani, who leads the industry trade group PhRMA, would like to see her in cuffs.
“I am very angry about Jenny McCarthy,” Castellani, PhRMA’s president and CEO, told attendees of the MedCity ENGAGE conference Tuesday in Bethesda, Maryland. “That’s stupid. That’s from a public-health standpoint. That’s stupid. It’s based on a lie. It’s based on a myth. And we’re putting children’s lives in danger. The woman ought to be arrested.
“So much for Jenny McCarthy.”
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A smattering of the roughly 150 attendees in the room – a mix of patients, policymakers and members of the pharma, hospital, health insurance and tech sectors – applauded.
The consequences of anti-vaccination fervor reached an all-time this year. You can trace part of this problem to the media-savvy McCarthy, who about eight years ago started running rings around the healthcare in the popular press suggesting a link between vaccines and autism.
And that legacy continues: one in five millennials believe vaccines cause autism.
You judge how much steam Castellani is blowing off with that comment. Near the end of a half-hour conversation about the pharmaceutical industry and patient engagement, Castellani responded to my question about the need to confront negative public opinions about the pharmaceutical industry.
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I wrap up the question with, “How do you beat back the Jenny McCarthys of the world?”
You can hear his entire response to the question below, but he goes after McCarthy at the 1:11 mark.
