Scientists warn about celebrity mumbo-jumbo

Musicians, actors and models should check their facts before using their status to promote alternative health theories and fad diets, scientists say.

There have been far-reaching consequences often leading to children being sick or dying following wrong advice by celebrities who peddle the cause for personal fame. Three years ago the actress Juliet Stevenson told of her fears that the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) triple vaccine could trigger autism, based on a 1998 study of 12 children that is now widely discredited. Immunisation rates crashed after the controversy and cases of measles, mumps and rubella rose. Francis Wheen, the author of How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World: A Short History of Modern Delusions, said: "Celebrities' endorsements of quackery and mumbo-jumbo reach a huge audience. "Pointing out that these latter-day emperors that have no clothes is not merely a pleasure: it's an urgent necessity."