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A review by joanna_banana
Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All by Paul A. Offit
5.0
An excellent look at the culture around vaccines in the U.S. using historical examples to show how the ideas of the anti-vaccine movement are not new, how litigation and personal injury lawyers play a role, how the media gives so much more print and face time to anti-vaccine activists (who not only disregard science but sometimes misrepresent it altogether) than to scientists or vaccine experts, and how distrust in the government, pharmaceutical companies and science perpetuates the movement.
I think it's easier to understand the importance of vaccines when you've seen a child die from dehydration due to rotavirus infection, or from typhoid, or be paralyzed from polio--these types of diseases have largely disappeared from the U.S. because of vaccines. So, parents who choose not to vaccinate rely on "herd immunity" to keep their unvaccinated children healthy. But what about kids who are too young to get a vaccine and are exposed? Or kids with leukemia or other conditions that make vaccines ineffective or dangerous to them? They are at risk because of the choices of other parents.
Dr. Offit proposes to three solutions to the crisis: One, wait until these terrible infectious diseases make even more of a comeback than they are now and convince parents to vaccinate out of desperation; two, do away with religious and philosophical objections to vaccine mandates; three, change the culture around vaccines. The third solution is the only one he sees as viable.
I'd highly recommend this book to anyone interested in public health or those interested in seeing why "we are all part of a large immunological cooperative."
I think it's easier to understand the importance of vaccines when you've seen a child die from dehydration due to rotavirus infection, or from typhoid, or be paralyzed from polio--these types of diseases have largely disappeared from the U.S. because of vaccines. So, parents who choose not to vaccinate rely on "herd immunity" to keep their unvaccinated children healthy. But what about kids who are too young to get a vaccine and are exposed? Or kids with leukemia or other conditions that make vaccines ineffective or dangerous to them? They are at risk because of the choices of other parents.
Dr. Offit proposes to three solutions to the crisis: One, wait until these terrible infectious diseases make even more of a comeback than they are now and convince parents to vaccinate out of desperation; two, do away with religious and philosophical objections to vaccine mandates; three, change the culture around vaccines. The third solution is the only one he sees as viable.
I'd highly recommend this book to anyone interested in public health or those interested in seeing why "we are all part of a large immunological cooperative."