This past October, actress and neuroscientist Mayim Bialik released a YouTube video in which she told viewers that she was going to do something she hadn't done in 30 years: Get a vaccine. Specifically, vaccines for the coronavirus and flu.
"Now you might be saying, 'Hey wait a second, Dr. Mayim Bialik, you don't believe in vaccines. You're one of those anti-vaxxers! I know it because I read it online,' " Bialik said in a jovial tone, waving her hand dismissively. "Well folks, let's finally talk about it."
Bialik was referring to the many headlines that have appeared since her 2012 parenting book revealed her two sons were not on the "typical" vaccine schedule - and when she has offered quotes such as one to People magazine in 2009, saying "we are a non-vaccinating family." While Bialik has long fought back against the anti-vaccine label, this video was the most in-depth defense yet. "I have never once said that vaccines are not valuable, not useful or not necessary - because they are," she said, adding her children did receive some vaccinations, which she delayed for reasons she doesn't want to share publicly.
But her comments are making the rounds once again as Bialik is suddenly in a bigger spotlight in 2021 than anyone could have predicted. Bialik, who drew rave reviews when she guest-hosted "Jeopardy!" earlier this year, was tapped on Aug. 11 as the host for the show's prime-time specials and spinoffs alongside executive producer Mike Richards as the daily syndicated host. When Richards was forced to step down days later after the revelation of his offensive comments on his former podcast, Sony Pictures Television announced that Bialik would fill in and film 15 episodes this week as executives continue their search for a permanent host.
Now that Bialik is officially embedded in a legendary television institution, "Jeopardy!" fans and social media users are digging into her past: Her 2017 New York Times op-ed about disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein that was criticized for victim-blaming, or her book that promoted the hotly debated attachment parenting philosophy ("Beyond the Sling: A Real-Life Guide to Raising Confident, Loving Children the Attachment Parenting Way").
When Richards was originally involved in the host search process, he said that social media response would play a role, but not a particularly big one - after all, plenty of the "Jeopardy!" core audience does not spend a lot of time on Twitter. But that appears to be changing, as the online backlash with Richards was too overwhelming for Sony executives to ignore.
"Everybody cares about it, whether you're 'Jeopardy!' or 'Big Brother.' That's our world today," said Marc Berman, who runs the website Programming Insider. "The world has changed - it's not just about watching a television show. It's about people interacting."
Two of Bialik's stances drawing the most ire are her quotes on vaccines and her role as a "science ambassador" for Neuriva, an over-the-counter supplement marketed as a way to improve brain health, which has been slammed as pseudoscience. Bialik, who rose to fame as the starring role in the 1990s NBC sitcom "Blossom" and then CBS's monster hit "The Big Bang Theory," also earned her PhD in neuroscience from UCLA in 2007.
"Neuriva is backed by real science and vetted by a real neuroscientist: Me! I really am. Check your phone," Bialik cheerfully says in one of the commercials, adding the supplement helps with everything from memory to concentration. "Don't trust your brain to any old supplement - trust the one backed by America's favorite neuroscientist. Again, that's me!"
