I have to admit, I’m not the biggest follower of popular culture. I couldn’t pick a Kardashian out of a crowd if my life depended on it. I don’t know who Brad Pitt is currently married to, if he’s married. And I have no idea how many kids Natalie Portman has, if she has any at all. (In full disclosure, I was blanking on names and pulled up People.com to find some examples.)
While I appreciate the music, films, and TV shows that celebrities produce, I’ve never devoted much mental energy to following their personal lives. And I certainly don’t turn to them for advice on, well, anything. But a lot of people do.
Parents Magazine recently published an article called, “Where 13 Celebrity Parents Stand on Vaccinating Their Kids” (intentionally not linked, but you can find it if you must). As you might imagine, not all of their opinions were grounded in science. This may seem innocent enough at first glance, but Parents has an enormous audience, with 2.1 million followers on Facebook and 4.7 million on Twitter. Using that platform to spread myths about vaccines makes parents worry more, makes it more difficult for physicians to do our jobs to keep kids healthy, and may very well result in illnesses or deaths that could have been prevented.
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