Controversy Sparked Over Jenny McCarthy Joining 'The View'

Jenny McCarthy's new gig on The View is raising concern among some health professionals and others. INSIDE EDITION has the scoop. 

The announcement that Jenny McCarthy will be The View’s new co-host is stirring concern among some in the medical profession.

“We love her because she's fun and she's uninhibited and she's, of course, opinionated enough to help us begin the latest chapter in The View history,” said Barbara Walters.

Public health experts say the former Playmate of the Year now has a national platform for her controversial claim that childhood vaccinations cause autism.

It’s a decision that “could cost lives” says the headline on a Boston.com blog.

The New Yorker magazine’s Michael Specter actually calls McCarthy “a homicidal maniac” and “very dangerous."

McCarthy first announced on The View in 2007 that he son Evan was autistic. She said, “I plan on using my big, giant, controversial mouth to blow the lid off a lot of things relating to autism."

McCarthy and her then-boyfriend, actor Jim Carrey, led a 2008 demonstration in Washington, D.C., even as scientists debunked her claims that vaccinations cause autism.

Pediatrician Dr. Paul Offit is the author of Do You Believe in Magic? The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine.

Dr. Offit told INSIDE EDITION, “When Jenny McCarthy says ‘don't get vaccine because that way you can avoid autism,’ that's terrible advice.”

McCarthy's fans on the internet are rallying to her defense, with one parent of an autistic teenager writing, "She has a story, just like the other hosts of The View, so let her tell hers and don't bash her."

McCarthy starts her co-hosting gig on The View September ninth.

Reacting to the growing firestorm, an ABC spokesperson said in a statement, “We are celebrating the announcement of her joining the show. That is our focus today.”