As an Infection Control Nurse - I am often asked by yoga teachers or energy healers -or those seeking to live a naturalistic, holistic lifestyle - about immunizations. Because I know the evidence and science to support their use as a prevention measure for serious infections, I recommend them and have had all my children immunized. I also was intrigued with the possibility of the preservative used in older vaccines as a possible culprit in the increasing rates of autism (now at about 1 in every 60 kids in Mass.!!!) So I kept abreast of it and saw the papers that clearly did not find and support scientifically a correlation. A new book has been published on the topic and an article in the British Gazette about the topic that I thought I would publish here so you can make the decision to immunize or not immunize your child with both sides of the story.......
Book blasts anti-vaccination scaremongers.
Autism's False Prophets exposes the opportunism of lawyers, journalists, celebrities, practitioners, politicians, and miscellaneous cranks who are promoting the myth that vaccines cause autism. Written by Paul A. Offit, M.D., co-developer of the rotavirus vaccine, the book chronicles the irresponsible behavior of Andrew Wakefield, M.D., Mark Geier, M.D., Geier's son David, Congressman Dan Burton, author David Kirby, former Playboy bunny Jenny McCarthy, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and other misguided zealots and reveals how lawyers and "experts" involved in anti-vaccine litigation have collected large amounts of government money. Offit also castigates Oprah Winfrey, Larry King, "Good Morning America,"
and other major news outlets for giving McCarthy widespread and undeserved exposure.
Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure - by Paul Offit
From the British Gazette 10/01/08
Medical research academic and doctor turned newspaper columnist Ben Goldacre has warned that “the incredibly poor quality of British journalism coverage of health and science issues is a serious public health issue”.
In an interview for this month’s print edition of Press Gazette Goldacre has condemned journalists for fuelling what he calls the “MMR hoax” by giving widespread coverage to Doctor Andrew Wakefield’s claims that MMR jabs caused autism. He points out that vaccination rates have dropped from 92 per cent to 73 per cent prompting serious disease outbreaks since Wakefield’s research was first reported in 1998.
Goldacre told Press Gazette: “There’s not a proposition in the world so stupid that I could not find a doctor or Phd student somewhere who could endorse it for me.”
Citing what he sees as a number of spurious pseudo science stories reported by the national press, such as the mathematical formula for the sexiest walk put out by the PR company for hair removal cream Veet, Goldacre said: “PR agencies know that science is an area where you can bullshit national newspaper newsdesks. They know this is a way to get entirely bogus stories into the pages of national newspapers.”
He urged journalists to instead focus on what he sees as real science stories: "There are some quite serious cover ups and scandals in the world of science,” he said pointing to the 'extraordinary' case of drug companies that had hid significant data about the dangers of SSRI anti depressants, such as Prozac, and also hiding evidence that they didn't work any better than a placebo.
“That story is incredibly important, and true, but shockingly it only had a half life of about five days, then it disappeared forever,” he says. “Meanwhile your MMR hoax has been alive and well for 10 years.
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