When Dr. Paul A. Offit published “Autism’s False Prophets” in 2008, he
elected to skip the usual round of book signings. His defense of childhood vaccinations so enraged some people who
consider them a cause of autism that he was getting credible
death threats.
Others might have chosen to flee the public arena after
that, but not Dr. Offit, the chief of infectious diseases at Children’s Hospital of
Philadelphia, whose appetite for the good fight seems only to have grown. Over
the last decade he has become a leading debunker of mass misconceptions
surrounding infections and vaccines, and now he is taking on the entire field
of alternative medicine, from acupuncture to vitamins. …..some of vaccination’s rabid
opponents are enthusiastic supporters of unconventional medical interventions…..Dr.
Offit…. speaks for rational, scientific medicine (and medicines) whose efficacy
has been confirmed in impartial, reproducible clinical trials. Everything else,
no matter how venerable, highly recommended or self-evidently 100 percent
terrific, he places on the spectrum between unproved and dangerous. …….Then there are the public figures, often actors, who reinvent themselves as
medical authorities…[like] Suzanne
Somers and… Jenny McCarthy…. charismatic and dangerous are the great scientists
who launch themselves off the cliff of plausibility and never return. Linus
Pauling…..went on to champion megadose vitamin treatment for all ills, and
despite study after study showing they were worthless, he never publicly
recanted......To Read More….
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