Mayim Bialik Swears She’s Not In The Celebrity Anti-Vaxxer Crew
After several months and sixteen guest hosts, Sony Pictures Television has finally found the person who will ascend to game show legend Alex Trebek’s vacant throne and become the new host of Jeopardy!. In a move that had many saying, “Meh,” it was decided that they were going with two choices: Jeopardy! executive producer Mike Richards and actress-slash-former neuroscientist Mayim Bialik. Mike will be the host of Jeopardy! in syndication, and Mayim will be the host for all primetime episodes and spin-offs. Naturally, after Mike’s name popped up, the internet went digging into his past and found the kind of stuff that had Sony nervously tugging at their collars. It turns out Mike was named in several discrimination lawsuits while working as a producer on The Price is Right. Then it was Mayim’s turn, and the internet proceeded to produce several receipts that show Mayim might be a supplement-pushing anti-vaxxer. Mayim has jumped into the conversation, and she wants everyone to know that despite what comes up in a simple 1-minute Google search of her name, she is most certainly not an anti-vaxxer.
This talk of 45-year-old Mayim’s vaccine beliefs stems from an interview she did in 2009 with People magazine, where she discussed all things parenting, including her choice to be a vaccine-free family. She said:
“We are a non-vaccinating family, but I make no claims about people’s individual decisions. We based ours on research and discussions with our pediatrician, and we’ve been happy with that decision, but obviously there’s a lot of controversy about it.”
Then in 2012, Mayim released a holistic parenting book titled Beyond the Sling, where she confirmed her stance on vaccines, which is that she wasn’t doing them for herself or her kids. In October 2020, Mayim backpedaled hard on her anti-vaccine stance in a video posted to her YouTube channel, saying that she was 100% going to get the COVID-19 vaccine, and not only that but that she would also be getting a flu shot for the first time in her life. Also, that her two kids would be getting jabbed as well. via Yahoo! News:
“This year I’m going to do something I literally haven’t done in 30 years. I’m going to get a vaccine. I know! And guess what? I’m actually going to get two. Number one vaccine that I’m going to get is the COVID vaccine. I can’t wait for it, bring it on. Number two vaccine I’m gonna get: a flu vaccine. My 12 and 15 year old children have never received a flu vaccine. This year? Roll up them shirtsleeves boys, vaccines for everyone!”
Clearly, not everyone saw that YouTube video and those old interviews and book passages are still out there for people to peep at. Not to mention the numerous people pointing out that Mayim has been known to promote some “brain boosting” snake oil. But we’re not going to get Mayim reading a clue like: “For $400, this common cocktail of chemical poisons, synthetic toxins, and necrotic fetal tissue is injected into your child’s arm UNLESS YOU ARE SMART AND DO YOUR RESEARCH FIRST!“. Mayim’s rep released the following statement assuring everyone that Jeopardy! didn’t just hire Jenny McCarthy with a Ph.D. via The Wrap:
“She has been fully vaccinated for the COVID-19 virus and is not at all an anti-vaxxer,” a spokesperson for Bialik told TheWrap Wednesday.
In her 2020 YouTube video, Mayim notes that she addressed the speculation that she was an anti-vaxxer, saying that “ten years ago” she wrote a parenting book, and that nowhere in the book did she say that vaccines weren’t necessary or not valuable, and that while her children didn’t receive the typical schedule of vaccines, but that she chose to skip some and delay others, and that her children are very much vaccinated. She also described the media’s reporting on her vaccine stance at the time as “inaccurate.” This is the video:
There you have it. Mayim isn’t an anti-vaxxer and future Jeopardy! contestants won’t pull their necks back a good 12 inches when Mayim approaches their podium to chat. But I’m glad Mayim clarified her stance on vaccines. Had she not, the producers of Jeopardy! might have had a lawsuit on their hands. There’s no way guest host Dr. Oz was going to lose the hosting job to someone with less experience peddling pseudoscience bullshit.
Pic: Sony Pictures Television