As the anti-vaccine movement garnered Hollywood momentum, science stood largely silent. However, Dr. Paul Offit, inventor of the Rotavirus vaccine, took to the helm to fight for children's health and safety. Here's an informative conversation with a true expert in the field.
Dr. Paul Offit
Every year when summer is right around the corner, ACSH typically provides health and safety tips that are practical and useful.
We also occasionally debunk junk science and medicine.
Today, you get two for the price of one.
Continuing the assault on anti-scientific beliefs and quackery that he thoroughly eviscerated in his previous book, Do You Believe in Magic-The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine, Dr. Paul Offit, the chief of the division of infectious diseases at Children s Hospital of Philadelphia, has now set his sights on another appalling practice the substitution of prayer for proper medical care.
The CDC recommends that children be vaccinated for 14 diseases before the age of 6. In total, 29 shots should be given, and sometimes several shots are given at once. The CDC states, The recommended immunization schedule is
Yesterday, we reported on Dr. Paul Offit s dead-on op-ed in the New York Times, where he thoroughly decimated the concept that there is a fundamental conflict between religion and modern medicine, specifically vaccination.
ACSH trustee Dr. Paul Offit takes on a very sensitive topic in his op-ed in today s New York Times: How is it possible to reconcile the clash of mandatory immunization and religion an impossible task if ever there was one.
Forbes Matthew Herper, who has been regularly covering the Ebola story since it broke, recently presented an in-print debate concerning the best way to handle this potentially scary situation.
We at ACSH have always considered ourselves to be honored to have a man such as Dr. Paul Offit on our board of trustees. His fierce commitment to public health, as well as his contributions to vaccine research makes him nothing short of a hero to our organization, and many others.
The HPV vaccine is one of two vaccines in existence that prevent cancer, yet only 38 percent of adolescent girls and 14 percent of adolescent boys have received all three doses of this vaccine. ACSH trustee Dr. Paul Offit
Although he is still a still a journalism student at the University of New Haven, Brandon Bisceglia s op-ed on the Science 2.0 website is dead on, and well worth the read.
He begins, Philadelphia was under attack through the winter and spring of 1991.The name of the enemy? Measles. The Philadelphia outbreak the city s first since 1954 - began in October 1990, and quickly spread throughout the unvaccinated population. Within six months, 938 cases of the highly contagious disease had been reported to the city's health department.
We at ACSH are happy to give a shout-out to Sheila M. Eldred, whose August op-ed on Discovery.com reflects what we have been screaming for years that the failure to have children vaccinated is a terrible mistake that is caused by a number of factors.
For children in the developed world (and their parents), rotavirus a childhood equivalent to norovirus (the stomach flu) is very unpleasant, but usually self-limiting.