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Web edition: December 17, 2010
Print edition: January 1, 2011; Vol.179 #1 (p. 34)
Vaccines, once the darlings of medical science, lost their reputation for safety in the 1980s and 1990s. After a flurry of disturbing "news-you-can-use" segments, some parents refused to get their kids immunized. For vaccines, the journey back to credibility has been slow.
Physician Paul Offit provides a road map for that voyage. In a meticulously researched tour de force, Offit exposes the lack of science underlying the claims of the anti-vaccine movement. Some fears were legitimate — polio and rotavirus vaccines, he notes, posed real risks for certain people. Both were replaced by safer vaccines.
But over the past 25 years, vaccines have been accused of causing multiple sclerosis, diabetes, learning disabilities and attention disorders. Under attack were shots for whooping cough, meningitis, measles and hepatitis B — all of which were later found to be safe.
The cause célèbre was a 1998 scare in which a British physician claimed to link autism in 12 children with the measles vaccine. Several subsequent studies proved this claim false. But by then four unvaccinated children had died of measles and many more had gotten sick. "We've reached a tipping point," Offit writes. "Children are suffering and dying because their parents are more frightened by vaccines than by the diseases they prevent."
In 2009 and 2010, U.S. courts ruled against claims linking autism with vaccines. Still, many vaccine opponents aren't persuaded, and they have talk show access and Hollywood friends. To level the playing field, every doctor's office should have a copy of Offit's book, giving parents the other side of the story.
Basic Books, 2010, 288 p., $27.50.
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The GMC hearing against Wakefield et al was always a circus and it is bound even now to unravel.
John Stone UK editor, Age of Autism
I'm sure the pharma reps who love to shower MDs with gifts will consider buying up loads of Deadly Choices
to give out to doctors.
Seppa neglects to inform readers that Offit is hardly independent. He's personally profited millions from his rota virus vaccine
patent.
There is no such thing as the ANTI-VACCINE MOVEMENT. There are however countless parents across the U.S. who report
that their children were healthy and normally developing until they received certain routine vaccinations.
These parents are trying to sound the alarm over an unchecked, unsafe vaccine schedule. The damage has to stop.
One percent of our kids now have an autism diagnosis. Parents need to educate themselves. There are experts who
dispute every claim Offit makes----And they don't come with any financial bias.
Anne Dachel
Media editor: Age of Autism
What does he know about autism? Nothing. More and more parents will be turning down vaccines(and not because they are anti-vaccine) but because they no longer trust the government with its connection to pharma money and the well indoctrinated doctors of this county who actually are brain-washed into believing that vaccines are the greatest invention since the wheel. Instead read: The Age of Autism-just out in bookstores--by Dan Olmsted and Mark Blaxill. You won't be sorry you did.
Maurine Meleck, SC
Indeed, the "new normal" childhood development problems are autism, allergies, asthma, juvenile type 1 diabetes, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, ADD, ADHD .. some of them life-threatening as well as life-long afflictions .. requiring public schools to assign precious resources to training and equipping staff to take emergency measures should a child suddenly suffer a life-threatening diabetic, allergic or asthma attack.
Until/unless public health officials conduct an independent, scientific study of "vaccinated vs. unvaccinated" populations to ascertain, once and for all, if BOTH populations suffer the same inexplicable increase in these childhood development problems .. the widespread and growing numbers of parents suddenly questioning the safety of vaccines will continue to grow.
Both of my sons have been diagnosed in the autistic spectrum (one with Asberger’s, the other is autistic). My wife and I have done extensive research into the causes and treatments of autism. We have examined, with great objectivity, information on autism from many sources. We have concluded that there is not an established, scientifically credible link between vaccines and autism. Unfortunately, the public is more receptive to the misinformation promulgated by D-list celebrities than by the expertise and experience of the physicians, researchers and scientists who are dedicating their lives to saving and enhancing ours.
I would hope the public understands that thousands of parents of autistic children who, like my wife and me, have examined the “vaccine-autism issue” with open minds and have come to the conclusion that not only do vaccines not cause autism, but to not vaccinate your child is needlessly putting them in harm’s way.
In 2010, 10 infants in California died from pertussis. They were too young to be vaccinated and probably would not have contracted the disease if they had not been exposed to other children or adults who were infected or carrying the infection. This outbreak was only one of several in the United States within the past few years. Due to an unfounded fear of vaccines, we have lost “herd immunity,” and children have needlessly died.
If you are a parent who is concerned about vaccine safety, I highly recommend reading Deadly Choices. Dr. Offit is to be commended for his courage and tenacity. Hopefully his message will make a difference and, ultimately, save the lives of innocent infants and young children. He is also donating proceeds from his book to the Autism Science Foundation, an organization that is bringing real hope to the autistic community and their families.
In response to previous posts: Olmstead and Blaxill’s book is one I will never read. I stopped reading anything posted on “Age of Autism” a long time ago as I have not found the information there to be credible or worth the time to consider. Therefore I will not waste my money or time reading this book. By virtue of the very few copies that have been sold and by the reviews that have been written a bout this book, I am not alone. The view shared by many is that “Age of Autism, the book,” will be shared by few.
Dr. Offit is the Chief of the Division of Infections Diseases and Director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia. He has never claimed to be an “autism” doctor.
Finally, a “study of "vaccinated vs. unvaccinated" would be immoral and unethical. It would put the lives of the unvaccinated children at risk of several potentially fatal diseases. Is the anti-vax crowd concerned about ethics or the lives of children?
As the father of two autistic boys, I would like to day “Thank You” to Dr. Offit. Mark Twain said a lie can go half way around the world before the truth ties its shoes. Thanks to Dr. Offit, the truth about vaccines is starting to catch up.
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