I Regret to Inform You That Oprah Is at It Again

Is another Oprah-fueled trend peddling pseudoscience? Plus: the latest wellness news & trends

Oprah and Dr. Oz.

In 2007, The Oprah Winfrey Show, the no. 1 talk show for 23 consecutive seasons, welcomed former Playboy model and MTV host Jenny McCarthy. 

The program gave McCarthy carte blanche to share a theory: that her son’s autism resulted from vaccines laced with hazardous chemicals. Despite a lack of concrete scientific evidence, McCarthy was lauded for her “warrior spirit” to speak up for other concerned moms. 

McCarthy possessed zero qualified credentials. In fact, McCarthy admitted she received her doctorate from the search toolbar, where she came across eye-opening information that “sadly, your pediatrician is not going to give you.” Here’s an excerpt from the episode, via Seth Mnookin’s excellent book The Panic Virus:

McCarthy: First thing I did—Google. I put in autism. And I started my research.
Winfrey: Thank God for Google.
McCarthy: I’m telling you.
Winfrey: Thank God for Google.
McCarthy: The University of Google is where I got my degree from. ... And I put in autism and something came up that changed my life, that led me on this road to recovery, which said autism—it was in the corner of the screen—is reversible and treatable. And I said, What?! That has to be an ad for a hocus-pocus thing, because if autism is reversible and treatable, well, then it would be on Oprah.

Over the next hour, Oprah failed to offer contrary evidence from reputable doctors or meaningfully challenge McCarthy’s assertions. It was an open-ended forum for a “warrior” to air misinformation. Even the episode write-ups on Oprah’s website, still public today, lack any significant information to counter McCarthy’s claims. 

McCarthy would be given multiple opportunities to disperse her theories; Oprah had her on the show more than once, gave her additional space on her website, and at one point, offered her a production deal. 

At the very same time, McCarthy was carrying on about curing her son through detoxes, vitamin supplements, and specialized “free-from” diets. On her now-defunct website, she sold books, consumer products, and something called a “quantum prayer wheel.” All this, supposedly, was essential to being a good mom—to fighting the good fight. 

Oprah also hosted Katie Wright and Alison Singer, two activists from the advocacy group Autism Speaks. As Mnookin recounts, producers asked guests not to discuss their theories on the root causes of autism because they were not scientists. But Oprah personally invited them to share their thoughts. 

“I don’t want you to go home feeling like you didn’t get to say what you wanted to say,” Oprah reportedly told the pair during a commercial break. 

Once back on the air, Wright stated, “We give thirty-seven vaccines to babies under the age of eighteen months. Nobody has shown that that’s safe, a wise idea … My son is sick all the time, he has constant immune reactions to everything, his allergies are exploding. I mean, if you look at food allergies, asthma, autism, it’s all connected.” 

This was inaccurate: researchers had shown vaccines were safe, though that information certainly wasn’t passed on to the audience. Since 2003, the CDC has funded or conducted nine studies that found no link between vaccine ingredients and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children. And Wright had no proof there was a connection.

With an extra push from Oprah, the anti-vaccine movement sprouted new legs. By 2008, the percentage of parents who delayed or refused vaccinations climbed to nearly 40 percent, in comparison to 22 percent in 2003. At the American Academy of Pediatrics national conference, pediatricians “shared story after story of parents who have refused shots on the basis of what they had seen on Oprah and elsewhere in the media.”

Oprah has since been called out for megaphoning misinformation and legitimizing quacks. The longest-reigning queen of daytime television promoted New Age scams, pushed unsustainable fad diets, and anointed problematic faith healers like John of God (now imprisoned) or pseudoscientific doctors like Dr. Oz. She sold us on magical thinking. 

Indeed, before the “Goop-ification of wellness,” there was the “Oprah-fication of medicine.”

In the ‘80s, Oprah helped fuel the satanic ritual abuse / repressed memories panic by interviewing folks like the author of the later-debunked memoir Michelle Remembers. In the ‘90s, she had “women’s health expert” Christiane Northrup—a quack physician who spewed nonsense like thyroid dysfunction stems from women not speaking up enough (an “energy blockage”), that love can heal AIDS, and mammograms aren’t safe—on her show 12 times. In the early aughts, she promoted the feel-good gibberish that is The Secret, insinuating positive thoughts were all that separated you from success, riches, and yes, even medical recoveries.

And remember when Oprah notoriously hosted Suzanne Somers in 2009? The actress touted injecting hormones directly into one’s vagina to stave off aging and menopausal hot flashes, along with downing 40 supplements daily. 

Oprah responded, naturally, with enthusiasm. “Many people write Suzanne off as a quackadoo,” she told the audience. “But she just might be a pioneer.” 

Later, in a nod to an anti-establishment ethos, Oprah said, “Suzanne swears by bioidenticals and refuses to keep quiet. She'll take on anyone, including any doctor who questions her.” (Yep, another “warrior.”)

Now, another Oprah-fed trend is coming under greater scrutiny.