Actress Maureen McCormick Fires Back At Use Of 'The Brady Bunch' In Anti-Vaccination Memes

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — The Brady Bunch is being dragged into the vaccination debate, just as the number of measles cases reaches its highest levels since 1994 and since measles was declared eliminated in 2000.

Since January, there have been 704 cases of measles across 22 states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday. Locally, the measles has hit two local universities hard, prompting both UCLA and Cal State LA to quarantine students and staff.

But anti-vaccination activists remain defiant in the face of the growing epidemic and are using a 50-year-old episode of "The Brady Bunch" to make their point in memes, videos, even a T-shirt.

The episode, "Is There A Doctor In The House?" features the entire family coming down with the measles, with the six Brady kids making the most of their sick day.

"Boy, this is the life, isn't it?" Greg Brady says.

"Yeah. If you have to get sick, you sure can't beat the measles," Marcia Brady replies.

Maureen McCormick, who played Marcia, tells NPR she got the measles as a child and it was nothing like the Brady Bunch episode. She says she made sure her own daughter was vaccinated.

"I think it's really wrong when people use people's images today to promote whatever they want to promote and the person's image they're using they haven't asked or they have no idea where they stand on the issue," McCormick told NPR.

The CDC says three-quarters of the people now infected with measles have never been vaccinated.