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4.08 AVERAGE
4.08 AVERAGE
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
challenging
dark
funny
informative
sad
medium-paced
informative
slow-paced
For a profile of our age's medical charlatan par excellence, this book is great. Deer keeps a self-editing story of self-interest and opportunism in relative order, but frequently within a chapter would reference future revelations or discoveries.
Fraud is inherently obfuscating, so I commend him for managing to keep this tale somewhat clear. He also maintains a rather even tone towards the parents swept up into this movement, seeing them as victims exploited in their grief and guilt by Andrew Wakefield's long con. He does not mince words about his band however, relishing with snide delight at every mistake and bluster. Reading his reflections however, he comes off as a proud, if not at times vain man waging some one-man war against a snake-oil salesman.
I read this book to start getting some insight into why anti-vaccination attitudes have become vogue these days. More than just dogged refusal, its stories of pained and confused parents whose hurt is husbanded and shepherded by greedy men right into their wallets.
Andrew Wakefield burned his career inventing the problem, and coincidentally, his second career is selling the cure.
Fraud is inherently obfuscating, so I commend him for managing to keep this tale somewhat clear. He also maintains a rather even tone towards the parents swept up into this movement, seeing them as victims exploited in their grief and guilt by Andrew Wakefield's long con. He does not mince words about his band however, relishing with snide delight at every mistake and bluster. Reading his reflections however, he comes off as a proud, if not at times vain man waging some one-man war against a snake-oil salesman.
I read this book to start getting some insight into why anti-vaccination attitudes have become vogue these days. More than just dogged refusal, its stories of pained and confused parents whose hurt is husbanded and shepherded by greedy men right into their wallets.
Andrew Wakefield burned his career inventing the problem, and coincidentally, his second career is selling the cure.
medium-paced
If you are trying to inform someone w/anti-vaccine beliefs or sympathies, this is not the book you should suggest. Brian Deer is understanding of how and why parents come to believe in anti-vaccine rhetoric, but he has also spent over 20 years of his life doggedly exposing Andrew Wakefield as the deeply unethical and predatory man that he is, and in reading this, it is clear that it's taken a toll. He's exhausted and angry, and rightfully so.
Reading the original reporting is a better suggestion for anyone on the fence or sympathetic to Andrew Wakefield. If you're personally interested in how the MMR vaccine blew up as the one true evil in the anti-vaxx movement, how it gained such traction globally, and what some British guys have to do with it, this is worth a read.
The progression of the book follows the approximate pattern of when and how Brian Deer found evidence, which means that in the first half it will go forward in time and then backtrack a bit, but there's a helpful timeline of events in the back of the book to keep track of what happens when, should you need it.
Reading the original reporting is a better suggestion for anyone on the fence or sympathetic to Andrew Wakefield. If you're personally interested in how the MMR vaccine blew up as the one true evil in the anti-vaxx movement, how it gained such traction globally, and what some British guys have to do with it, this is worth a read.
The progression of the book follows the approximate pattern of when and how Brian Deer found evidence, which means that in the first half it will go forward in time and then backtrack a bit, but there's a helpful timeline of events in the back of the book to keep track of what happens when, should you need it.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism, Medical content, Medical trauma
Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Self harm
There are several doctors who commit medical malpractice at minimum, and in some cases it escalates to what I would call medical child abuse; some parents are actively complicit. There are also brief mentions of cases where caregivers assault and kill their children.
informative
sad
slow-paced
In some ways hard to rate this one. The subject matter is very interesting and extremely important. I wish everyone knew this information about how we got here with the anti-vax movement: a grifter with a series of accomplices motivated by greed manipulating a group of parents acting out of fear and desperation. Andrew Wakefield is a classic conman and should be in prison. But I wish this book had been written by someone else, maybe an experienced biographer or science non-fiction writer. Deer's prose is almost tabloid-like with multiple italicized words per page to drive home the DRAMA and SHOCK and weird physical descriptions of everyone that seem unprofessional and weirdly catty. Deer comes off as so, so smug. It's very off-putting.
dark
informative
slow-paced
there’s only so long i can read a non fiction book written by a man about a despicable man until i get fed up with it
informative
inspiring
fast-paced