The Vaccine Issue is About Vaccines

by Kristina Chew · 2009-01-13 04:31:00 UTC
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If you'd like to know what I think about autism and vaccines (not that you want to know), you might go to the ScienceBlogs book club where, back in October, I was pleased to be part of a panel reviewing Dr. Paul A. Offit's recently published book, Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure. The book is reviewed in today's New York Times, where it's referred to as "galvanizing a backlash against the antivaccine movement in the United States."

I've written, written, and written, and posted, posted and posted so regularly about this particular notion of autism causation that I used sometimes to wonder if my old blog's name should really have been "Autism Vax." I quite agree with Dr. Offit's statement in the New York Times that

"Opponents of vaccines have taken the autism story hostage."

Despite what you might hear, people are listening (it's hard to avoid it), public health officials, scientists and researchers and doctors and pediatricians and nurse practitioners are quite aware of the fears about a speculative, but scientifically unproven, "link" between vaccines and autism. (Certainly, why else would Dr. Offit---who is not a specialist in autism, but in infectious diseases---have written his book?)

'Nuff said.

(At least till next week when the New York Times notes that "in the Personal Health column, Jane E. Brody will write about efforts, so far fruitless, to find a cure for autism." Here we'll go again........)

Photo from the CDC website on vaccines.

Kristina Chew
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