Tag: disease

Protect your kids – vaccines, medicine, fear

Protect your kids – vaccines, medicine, fear

The recent outbreak of a measles in the unvaccinated made me think of a book I read several years back (The Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear by Seth Mnookin) and briefly mentioned it on this blog. See Protect the kids or why people do dumb things.

It was a good book as I recall but the issue of parents doing a dumb thing in not getting their children vaccinated is still very much with us. My article has link to an article by Seth Mnookin that covers some of the same ground he covered well in his book. I don’t think either of us is calling people dumb. Even smart people can do dumb things.

Another good article that specifically covers the current measles out break is The Vaccine Lunacy: Disneyland, Measles and Madness by Frank Bruni.

There is quite a bit of information out there. Some of it is very good and some of it is misleading. If you are a parent, read it, consider the sources, and act to protect your kids.

Protect the kids or why people do dumb things

Protect the kids or why people do dumb things

Last year I read a good book, The Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear by Seth Mnookin.

But for some reason I did not review it on my book review site. But here is a review of this and some related books from New Scientist. I don’t recall why I didn’t write a review but Mnookin’s book came back to mind when I saw Parade magazine this weekend.

Seth Mnookin wrote an article “Why So Many Parents Are Delaying or Skipping Vaccines” which covered some of the ground he covered so well in his book but the emphasis was clearly on the problems parents cause for both their children and other children when they do not vaccinate their children as recommended. [Update: The link went bad. Looks like Parade reorganized the site. The new link is given.]

Study after study has show vaccination to be safe, yet many are hesitant. How can people ignore the evidence and do a dumb thing ? I am not calling people dumb. Even smart people can do dumb things.