Deadly Choices

This is a powerful defense of science in the face of fear, by a noted vaccine researcher standing up for fear's real victims: our children. There's a war going on out there - a silent, dangerous war. On one side are parents, bombarded with stories about the dangers of vaccines, how they overwhelm the immune system. Then, they watch their children get as many as 26 vaccines, sometimes five at a time. They hear, from celebrities, politicians, journalists, and friends who they trust, that vaccines cause autism, learning disabilities, developmental delays, and autoimmune diseases. Understandably, parents are backing away from vaccines. On the other side of this struggle are doctors, scared to send children out of their offices unvaccinated, and concerned that their waiting rooms will become sites for disease transmittal. They're fighting back. The stakes are high. Caught in the middle are children, suffering the diseases of their grand-parents. During the past five years, several outbreaks of whooping cough have occurred in under-vaccinated communities. How did we get to a place where vaccines are viewed with horror rather than as life-saving medicine?
The answer is rooted in one of the most powerful citizen activist movements in our America's history-a movement that, despite recent epidemics and deaths, continues to grow. This is the story of anti-vaccine activity in America - its origins, leaders, influences, and impact. With strategies to avoid returning to an era when children routinely suffered and died from infections, "Deadly Choices" is a vigorous rebuttal of anti-vaccine arguments. While putting this movement in current and historical perspective, Offit sounds the alarm of what is to come if we continue to allow preventable deaths.