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by: Paul A. Offit  List Price: $24.95 Amazon.com's Price: $16.47 You Save: $8.48 (34%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Binding: HardcoverDewey Decimal Number: 618.9285882 EAN: 9780231146364 Edition: 1 ISBN: 0231146361 Label: Columbia University Press Manufacturer: Columbia University Press Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 328 Publication Date: September 05, 2008 Publisher: Columbia University Press Studio: Columbia University Press Related Items:
Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display Editorial Review: Product Description: A London researcher was the first to assert that the combination measles-mumps-rubella vaccine known as MMR caused autism in children. Following this "discovery," a handful of parents declared that a mercury-containing preservative in several vaccines was responsible for the disease. If mercury caused autism, they reasoned, eliminating it from a child's system should treat the disorder. Consequently, a number of untested alternative therapies arose, and, most tragically, in one such treatment, a doctor injected a five-year-old autistic boy with a chemical in an effort to cleanse him of mercury, which stopped his heart instead. Children with autism have been placed on stringent diets, subjected to high-temperature saunas, bathed in magnetic clay, asked to swallow digestive enzymes and activated charcoal, and injected with various combinations of vitamins, minerals, and acids. Instead of helping, these therapies can hurt those who are most vulnerable, and particularly in the case of autism, they undermine childhood vaccination programs that have saved millions of lives. An overwhelming body of scientific evidence clearly shows that childhood vaccines are safe and does not cause autism. Yet widespread fear of vaccines on the part of parents persists. In this book, Paul A. Offit, a national expert on vaccines, challenges the modern-day false prophets who have so egregiously misled the public and exposes the opportunism of the lawyers, journalists, celebrities, and politicians who support them. Offit recounts the history of autism research and the exploitation of this tragic condition by advocates and zealots. He considers the manipulation of science in the popular media and the courtroom, and he explores why society is susceptible to the bad science and risky therapies put forward by many antivaccination activists. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Information a parent of autistic child needThis book contains information which every parent of an autistic child should read. As a father of an autistic girl I am really grateful to have this thorough go-through of false hopes. It is too easy to thrust a false hope and even damage your child if you do not have enough good information. No matter how you think now. Read this book, I recommend it. Rating:  - Walk in my shoes and then talk!Why is it that people who have never experienced Autism firsthand feel so compelled to disprove alternative approaches to healing autism? Your children are healthy and vaccinated, yet you want to kick the parents of children with autism while we are down? Count your blessings and leave us alone. Don't you think we WANT to vaccinate our kids? We did vaccinate our kids and look what happened! We were just like you all, until autism changed out lives. We brought our babies to doctors who told us, "Sorry ... Read More Rating:  - Excellent account of the mechanisms behind False Prophets and the people who fall for themI had been waiting for this book for a while (indeed, due to the long delivery times, I waited longer than anticipated). Paul Offit's Autism's False Prophets was absolutely worth the wait, and as it is with such books, did not last very long after I received it, since it is so unputdownable. Offit takes us through a journey through the various hypotheses of the etiology of autism. He gives a detailed, well researched, accurate account of the associated history of autism "therapies" and their protagonists. ... Read More Rating: - Offit doing a major disservice. He is VERY 'one-sided'.The problem with myopic people like Offit is that they are very one-sided, and their studies tainted by corporate/big money bias. Years ago, before it was possible to determine, most people believed the world was flat. They also believed smoking was totally safe. They believed Thalidomide was safe. They believed RF (close proximity to transmitted radio frequency energy) was entirely safe (it's not). The list goes on. The vaccine-autism connection has unqestionably NOT been disproved. The fact is, young ... Read More Rating: - Finally! The whole story...If you read the negative reviews they are people who had clearly already made up their mind before reading the book. I am so greatful to have found the answers to my questions between these covers. I hope those with open minds find this as interresting and informative as I did. This book provides the details behind the controversy. In the press it is hard to know what is fact and what is hype. Dr. Offit does a great job of clarifying the issues in an easy to understand, straight-forward, and very interesting ... Read More 
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