Vaccine wars

Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine specialist and a colleague of my father’s at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, has this feature article written about him in the latest issue of Philadelphia magazine.

I’m sorry but not entirely surprised to hear that he’s received death threats and hate mail for his status as a major influencer of our nation’s child vaccine program at the CDC, and for inventing a rotavirus vaccine which he developed at Merck and for which he received a substantial sum as its sole inventor. Citing a study done by a British gastroenterologist that claims a connection between autism and the MMR vaccine, certain members of the autism community remain very outspoken about their beliefs against vaccines.

And that’s just what this is about – belief, held so tightly as to wrench and twist scientific debate into a storm of emotions. Just read the comments after the article. Things get personal; the passionate language of Heroism and Villainy is tossed around. I disagree with author Jason Fagone’s highly personal portrayal of Dr. Offit as a piece of rather yellow journalism. But for some perspective, this article comes after waves of slanderous attempts from the other side to dehumanize him and blame him as a person. That Dr. Offit’s intentions as a doctor and scientist are being libeled as evil, elitist, and deliberately harmful by frustrated parents is repulsive and sad. He is not the enemy; he is an expert. The absolute worst he could be is wrong.

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Amazon – Vaccines: What Every Parent Should Know, by Paul Offit and Louis M. Bell