'CHOP' Dr.: Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - A leading voice in the pro-vaccine movement is out with a new book about how his fight is yours also.
Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All is the latest salvo from Dr. Paul Offit, Children's Hospital researcher and vaccine creator, countering charges that vaccines hurt more than they help.
Although broadly dismissed scientifically, anti-vaccine concerns create uncertainty in parents who may be less afraid of the disease than what prevents it.
But there's also another sort, he says, "You're starting to see parents who are upset that decisions that are being made by other parents -- either for themselves or their children -- are affecting them. There are parents that are now testifying in front of Congress that they're having trouble finding a day care center where there aren't a significant number of children who aren't vaccinated."
The book lays out a history of vaccines and refutes their critics.
Dr. Offit says this is more than an academic discussion. "We've had a measles epidemic in 2008. It was bigger than anything we'd seen in more than a decade. We have a whooping cough outbreak in California now that's bigger than anything we've seen in 55 years. It involves 55,000 people and killed 10 children. We've had outbreaks of bacterial meningitis and we've had a mumps epidemic."
Reported by John Ostapkovich, KYW Newsradio
