Offit - Autisms false prophets: bad science, risky medicine, and the search for a cure

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Table of Contents

Praise for Autisms False Prophets

Ever since psychiatrist Leo Kanner identified a neurological condition he called autism in 1943, parents whose children have been diagnosed with the most severe form of the illness... have found themselves desperately searching for some way not to lose their children to autisms closed-off world. Unfortunately, such parents often found misguided doctors, ill-informed psychologists, and outright charlatans eager to proffer help. Paul A. Offit... has gathered this sorry parade of self-styled samaritans for Autisms False Prophets.

LINDA SEEBACH, Wall Street Journal

No one has been more vocalor courageousthan Paul A. Offit in exposing the false and dangerous claims of the growing antivaccine movement. Offit lays waste to the sup- posed link between autism and vaccination while showing how easily Americans have been bamboozled into compro- mising the health of their own children. Autisms FalseProphets is a must read for parents seeking to fully under- stand the risks and rewards of vaccination in our modern world.

DAVID OSHINSKY, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History for Polio: An American Story

A sobering indictment.

ISABELLE RAPIN, Neurology Today

More than a book about a disease, it is an ode to uncorrupted science and a cautionary tale that data alone is never enough.

SEED magazine

[This] book doesnt just show that the antivaccine activists are wrong; it attempts to explain why, in our culture, they tend to win.

JASON FAGONE, Philadelphia Magazine

[Offit is] a brave and articulate champion of the truth.

DANIEL GESCHWIND, Nature Medicine

As chief of the division of infectious diseases at the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, [Offit] is the most prominentand some would say most fearlessspokesperson for vaccine science and vaccine safety in the United States today.

REBECCA COOMBES, British Medical Journal

A deeply disturbing depiction of how quack science based on falsified research quickly became a monstrous conspiracy theory.

GREG MARTINEZ, Skeptical Inquirer

Fascinating... eloquently and clearly written.

STAN L. BLOCK, Infectious Diseases in Children

Arguably the most detailed and thorough history available of the current antivaccine movement.

ROY RICHARD GRINKER, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders

A definitive analysis of a dangerous and unnecessary controversy that has put the lives of children at risk. Paul A. Offit shows how bad science can take hold of the public consciousness and lead to personal decisions that endanger the health of small children. Every parent who has doubts about the wisdom of vaccinating their kids should read this book.

PETER C. DOHERTY, St. Judes Childrens Research Hospital, and Nobel Laureate in Medicine for fundamental contributions in Immunology

Offit effectively pulls back the curtain on the antivaccine movement to reveal a crusade grounded less in fact and more in greed and opportunism.

RAHUL K. PARIKH, Salon.com

Every child has a right to be vaccinated against deadly diseases. We started Every Child By Two to protect children from diseases. It didnt occur to me that I would also have to protect them from misinformation about life-saving vaccines. Paul A. Offits book sets the facts straight.

ROSALYNN CARTER, former first lady, cofounder of Every Child By Two

Autisms False Prophets is a compelling story of heart-broken parents, understandably desperate for an explanation of autism, being taken in by false hopes unsupported by genuine science. This book goes to the heart of a question that affects every aspect of American culture and political life. Are public policies to be determined by evidence and reason or by emotions that, however intense they may be, have nothing to do with reality?

SUSAN JACOBY, author of The Age of American Unreason

Paul A. Offit unfolds the story of autism, infectious diseases, and immunization that has captivated our attention for the last decade. His lively account explores the intersection of science, special interests, and personal courage. It is provocative reading for anyone whose life has been touched by the challenge of autism spectrum disorders.

SUSAN K. KLEIN, Case Western Reserve Hospital, and Rainbow Babies and Childrens Hospital, Case Medical Center

A powerful book which should be read by all professionals working in the area of medicine.

MICHAEL FITZGERALD, Social History of Medicine

A fantastic read. I recommend it to all physicians and their patients and families.

BRIAN ALVERSON, Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine

Important insight into the fatal flaws of the key arguments of vaccine alarmists.

Buffalo News

Paul A. Offit is one of the most respected scientists and clinicians in a field of vital importance to public health.

PATRICIA M. RODIER, BioScience

What is the place of scientific and scholarly authority in the modern world, and how is it to be institutionalized in a democracy? Is it inevitable that the best should now lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity? What is the relation between information, on the one hand, and knowledge and wisdom, on the other? Cranks are often oversupplied with the former and deficient in the latter, not realizing that there is a difference between the two. Autisms False Prophets gives no easy answers, but it does provide a rich source of material for political philosophers and even epistemologists, who ought to assign it to their students.

THEODORE DALRYMPLE, City Journal

TO KATHLEEN SEIDEL, CAMILLE CLARK, MICHAEL FITZPATRICK, PETER HOTEZ, AND ROY RICHARD GRINKER: SOME OF THE REAL HEROESAND TRUE PROPHETSOF THIS STORY

When religion was strong and science weak, men mistook magic for medicine.

Now, when science is strong and religion weak, men mistake medicine for magic.

THOMAS SZASZ

PREFACE TO THE PAPERBACK EDITION

On August 30, 2009, Dateline NBC aired a show titled A Dose of Controversy. During the program, Matt Lauer, a cohost of the Today Show, interviewed Andrew Wakefield, the British surgeon who had claimed that the combination measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine caused autism; Brian Deer, the journalist who had published a series of articles in the Sunday Times of London showing that Wakefield had misrepresented data and, unknown to his coinvestigators, had received $800,000 from a personal-injury lawyer; and Arthur Krigsman, the American gastroenterologist who, like Wakefield, believed in the disproved notion that autism was caused by intestinal inflammation and could be cured by laxatives, enemas, restrictive diets, and antifungals. Lauer also interviewed me.

During my interview, which took place in a medium-sized apartment in New York Citys SoHo district, Lauer showed me a videotape of parents of autistic children. All had come to hear Andrew Wakefield give the keynote address at a meeting hosted by the Autism Research Institute. The camera panned across the room; parents were sitting in rapt attention, hanging on Wakefields every word. At the end of the talk they rushed forward, asking for autographs; to have their pictures taken with him; or to simply shake his hand, honored to be in the presence of greatness. More than just an autism researcher, Wakefield had become a cult figure. Fighting back tears, one admirer said, Dr. Wakefield is a hero. I dont know where wed be without himbecause no one would listen to us before him. After showing the videotape, Lauer looked at me and asked, Dont you just want to shake these parents? Actually, I didnt. I wanted to reassure them. To tell them that the medical profession hadnt abandoned them; that there was a wealth of excellent research on autism; that we were going to get there; and that they didnt have to settle for unproven and sometimes dangerous therapies.

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