The Power of Fear

As many readers here know, one of the clients I am most proud to represent is Dr. Paul Offit, Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and the Director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and author of several books on vaccines. Paul's latest book, though, is about more than vaccines, it's about the controversy of vaccines and whether or not they cause autism. They do not, as Paul demonstrates very well in latest book, AUTISM'S FALSE PROPHETS.

Due to his stance on vaccines and autism, Paul has been on the receiving end of an enormous amount of grief and quite a bit of misinformation has been published about him. Recently, though, two items have appeared that help to counter that misinformation and I wanted to point you to those items so that you can see the primary resources.

Some of Paul's detractors call him "Dr. Proffit," because he helped invent a vaccine that was then purchased by a pharmaceutical company. Incorrect reports say that Paul received tens of million of dollars and that he helped ensure that the vaccine he helped invent became a part of the CDC recommended schedule of vaccines. This post, from the Countering Age of Autism blog, provides the correct information.

http://counteringageofautism.blogspot.com/2009/09/paul-offit-responds-to-press-release-by.html.

Next, well, there's this little magazine called WIRED, and they just published a cover story(!) about Paul and his efforts. You can read it online at http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_waronscience.

Z

Sometimes I am Just an Idiot

I just wrote an extensive--I mean EXTENSIVE--monthly round-up for the month of September, but various publishing headaches with Blogger made me abandon it and then it turns out the place I thought I had a draft saved, I did not. So, I'm going to go take a nap and perhaps I will think about writing it ALL OVER AGAIN! Or not. Oy.

Z