Cindy Ord/Getty Images for Ringling Bros. And Barnum & BaileyJenny McCarthy asked her 1.13 million Twitter followers an innocuous question on March 13: "What is the most important personality trait you look for in a mate? Reply using #JennyAsks." Big mistake.
The answers, as one might imagine, weren't very kind. "Somebody who gets that refusing vaccines because of 'toxins' and then shilling for e-cigs makes you a pathetic hypocrite," one user replied. Another person told McCarthy, 41, "Someone who doesn't spread false info causing disease."
Somebody who gets that refusing vaccines because of 'toxins' and then shilling for e-cigs makes you a pathetic hypocrite #JennyAsks
? Becky (@KiwiLawBird) March 15, 2014Someone who think vaccines are safe, Botox is poisonous and who doesn't pick their nose and eat it on MTV #JennyAsks
? Michael Rops (@SkepticalBelg) March 14, 2014Someone who puts the interests of the community ahead of preserving their own absurd, unshakable ignorance. #JennyAsks
? Bob Blaskiewicz (@rjblaskiewicz) March 15, 2014A basic grasp of statistics @JennyMcCarthy: What is the most important personality trait you look for in a mate? #JennyAsks
? Adam Coppelman (@coppela) March 15, 2014My ideal partner understands that 'doing my own research!!1!' isn't cherry picking blurbs from blogs. #JennyAsks
? Kellie Bauman (@KellieRyanB) March 15, 2014My mate knows that anti-vax catastrophizing rhetoric& fearmongering hurts Autistic people like us IN ADDITION TO killing children #JennyAsks
? Divergent Swarm (@DivergentSwarm) March 15, 2014Someone who vaccinates, b/c I'd want our kids to survive. @JennyMcCarthy: Most important trait you look for in mate? Reply w/ #JennyAsks
? Seth Mnookin (@sethmnookin) March 15, 2014McCarthy waited until Monday to respond to the backlash, tweeting, "Thank you to all the haters who tweet my name. You make my Q SCORE higher and higher," the former Playboy model wrote. "It's because of you I continue to work. Thank you!"
The View co-host, whose son Evan was diagnosed with autism in May 2005, has often argued that vaccines are linked to autism in children. McCarthy has since clarified that she "and the autism community" are not anti-vaccine per se, but they are without question "anti-toxin and anti-schedule."
In a 2008 interview with Larry King, McCarthy asked, "Isn't it ironic, in 1983 there were 10 shots and now there's 36 and the rise of autism happened at the same time?" She continued, "We need to get rid of the toxins, the mercury—which I am so tired of everyone saying it's been removed. It has not been removed from the shots." By contrast, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that in the 2012-2013 season, 90 percent of children who died from the flu had not been vaccinated.
McCarthy came under fire in January when rumors surfaced that her son doesn't actually have autism. At the time, she debunked the "blatantly inaccurate and completely ridiculous" allegations via Twitter.