Bad advice Or why celebrities, politicians, and activists aren't your best source of health information

Vaccines have saved countless lives, and the record of their efficacy and safety has been supported by the sheer number of successes. Yet there are groups of anti-vaccine activists and fundamentalists who shun this evidence and insulate their children from this disease-preventative course. A pediatrician, immunologist, virologist, and science educator, Offit (Univ. of Pennsylvania) stresses the need for scientists to find ways to communicate with the public about the importance and value of childhood vaccines to safeguard individuals and the public against the scourges of polio, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis, influenza, diphtheria, tetanus, and other life-threatening germs. As a spokesperson advocating the importance of vaccines, Offit chronicles his experiences in debates with anti-vaccine zealots such as Andrew Wakefield and his followers. When the public relies on emotion, as with Wakefield's discredited study linking autism to the MMR vaccine, fact-based counterarguments to frightening claims are vehemently denied. The media prefer to cater to audience interest, so sob stories tend to supersede hard data. The author's droll account of attempts to inform the public about vaccines through the media and even before a congressional hearing make for compelling reading. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers and undergraduates.--Rita A. Hoots, emeritus, Sacramento City College

Physician and medical researcher Offit (Pandora's Lab), cocreator of a rotavirus vaccine, recounts the travails of educating the public about science and health issues in his enlightening treatise. Science provides a valuable "antidote to superstition," but because scientists often lack the polish to put across their ideas and "the scientific method doesn't allow for absolute certainty," people often can't sort out good from bad science; consequently, "fringe scientists with winning personalities" wreak havoc on truth. With disarming candor, the author shares his own mistakes from interviews, such as becoming flustered when Charlie Rose took umbrage at his assertion that Steve Jobs's pancreatic cancer could likely have been treated successfully. After each example, Offit provides a lesson learned (in the case of Rose: "Don't panic. The facts are your safety net"). His chapter on Andrew Wakefield, infamous for falsifying data that he argued linked autism to the MMR vaccine, is thorough, fascinating, and damning. His chapter on debating creationists, Holocaust deniers, homeopaths, and anti-vaxxers is invigorating. "Science is under siege," Offit states, but "science advocates are fighting back," and his own book provides a sterling example of this stand in the name of empirical truth. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.