Andrew King

"One fact suffices to blow this foolish "review" out of the water - the claim that vitamin C "will cure all infections"

This book documents the detours and roadblocks thrown up against progress in autism research by a loud and politically connected minority, who've decided despite massive evidence to the contrary, that vaccines are the cause.

Offit puts this battle in perspective, providing hope that we can move forward to further defining causes and cures for autism, without wasting more time and resources on repetitive research demonstrating the safety and success of our immunization programs.

Oftentimes you hear people talk about having done "research" into a controversial health issue. What this commonly means for Internet users is a brief Google search followed by perusal of a few websites, which may or may not contain reliable information. Given the wilderness of competing claims online about benefits and drawbacks of vaccination, it is easy for parents to get confused about whether vaccines are right for their children.

This book offers a path through that wilderness. The authors, Stacy Herlihy and E. Allison Hagood have actually done research in the full meaning of the word, making the benefits and issues surrounding immunization readily understandable to non-medical readers with the bonus of a parent's perspective.

There is historical context, valuable in understanding the impact of once-feared infectious diseases now conquered or greatly reduced by vaccines. The book has an excellent section that explains vaccine ingredients and debunks the scaremongering on this subject by antivaccine activists. Other myths and false claims about vaccines are dispelled.

The result is a highly readable and easy-to-understand book, with all the information parents will need to make sound and sensible choices for their children.

Setting the tone for this diatribe against vaccination is a defense of Andrew Wakefield, the disgraced British researcher whose sloppy and fraudulent study led to a backlash against the MMR vaccine and resurgence of measles in Britain. It is telling that even after the journal that published Wakefield's "research" retracted it (and his fellow researchers on the study disavowed it), diehard antivaxers like Habakus and Co. are still clinging to Wakefield and attempting to scare parents away from one of the most effective public health measures ever created.

The authors, astoundingly enough, claim that "The book is not anti-vaccine". Of course it is - why attempt to deny the obvious?

If you do read this book, please also take the time to check out forthright and well-informed sources like Seth Mnookin's "The Panic Virus", Arthur Allen's "Vaccine" and "Your Baby's Best Shot" (a new book with a valuable parents' perspective). as well as the painstaking investigating reporting of Brian Deer - then decide for yourself who is presenting the facts on this important issue and has your children's best interests at heart.