Defending vaccines in the autism debate

Bad Science, Risky Medicine
and the Search for a Cure

By Paul A. Offit

Columbia University Press.

328 pp. $24.95

But despite the indisputable track record of vaccines in lowering mortality and morbidity here and around the world, the American public has been embroiled, over the last decade, in a heated debate about whether vaccines are safe. In particular, the notion that vaccines cause autism has taken hold of the public imagination and refuses to let go, even in the face of growing scientific evidence to the contrary.

In Autism's False Prophets, Paul A. Offit, co-inventor of the rotavirus vaccine and chief of infectious disease at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, helps to explain why. He has done a huge public service by exposing the tragic and dangerous place the anti-vaccine hysteria has taken us.

Offit's account, written in layman's terms and with the literary skill of good storytellers, provides important insight into the fatal flaws of the key arguments of vaccine alarmists, including such well-known names as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I., Conn.), and Sen. John Kerry (D., Mass.).

Offit rightly takes major news organizations to task for failing to stress that the overwhelming majority of the scientific community has rejected the hypothesis that vaccines cause autism. But the book's chief failing is that it does not hold scientists sufficiently accountable for their failure to communicate well enough with the media and the lay public.

On the face of it, it's not so unreasonable to look for a possible causal link between vaccines and autism. Two decades ago, autism was diagnosed in one in 10,000 births; today, the ratio is one in 150. During roughly the same period, the number of vaccines routinely given during childhood has doubled, from 7 to 14.

Moreover, the signs of autism often appear during the infant toddler years, the very time when children get most of their vaccinations. And despite the best efforts of science, no one has yet pinned down a cause of autism, although studies in twins point strongly to a genetic basis.