This is a great book. Quick, easy read. I didn't know that the anti-vaccine movement has existed for so long. It really seems to be growing and picking up steam in this era of social media but it was all started in 1982 by a television program.
This book seems to really tie in with an article I read the other day- The end of expertise. Social media is allowing everyone to shout their "informed opinions" from the rooftops. Who should you listen to about your child's health- the other parents you know on facebook, or little ole' me without kids but with a degree in public health? You should listen to me. I know how to read scientific articles and I have done so and examined the evidence. The internet is chock full of information. A lot of it is wrong. Many people still quote the very discredited Andrew Wakefield. Every anti-vaccine movement seems to anoint one doctor to be the crowning researcher to discover the horrible side-effects. That was Andrew Wakefield was to the autism- thimerosal crowd. At this point, his doctors license has been removed and his articles have been redacted from the journals that published them. Now the people that are anti-vaccine are conspiracy theorists so they believe that this is because the medical establishment is HIDING them. Instead, this is the standard that scientists hold each other to, they found that he had changed his data which is completely unacceptable. Yes, that is right, I called anti-vaccers conspiracy theorists. I put them on the same plane as people who think 9-11 was a conspiracy or that the JFK assassination was a set-up.
Now you may ask what is the real danger of some parents making bad choices for their own children? Well the problem is the kids that can't get a vaccine. AV have even twisted this to show that it implies that vaccines don't work. The problem is that vaccination rates are now really really low in some areas. The flu strain this year is a resurgence of H1N1. This strain can kill young, healthy people aka the people least likely to get the vaccine.
http://news.discovery.com/human/health/h1n1-flu-strain-on-the-attack-this-season-140121.htm
http://theinvisiblegorilla.com/blog/2011/01/02/book-review-deadly-choices-by-paul-offit/
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2014/01/map-day-high-cost-vaccine-hysteria
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Paul Offit
