Book review: Paul Offit’s “Autism’s False Prophets”
by Lynn
Follow the money. It’s a common thread in many mystery books. And so it goes with Dr. Paul Offit’s book Autism’s False Prophets, which details the history of how autism and immunizations have been linked, who benefited from that link and what motivated them to encourage the public to believe there was a link.
It also opens for scrutiny the science and facts that clearly dispel the belief that immunizations/mercury cause autism. The book exposes the manipulation of science and the purposeful misleading of parents, politicians, lawyers, and the press of these false theories and conjectures. Those who were misled spent millions of dollars to prove their theories and develop alternative therapies, wasting time and resources that could have been spent on finding and refining evidence-based treatments and even helping to find a cause.
Dr. Offit’s book is easy to read, what I would call a quick read. His writing is fully footnoted — 35 pages of them, so there is no question about where his information has been derived and what can be “backed up” by scientific facts. While reading the book it is almost unbelievable that the connection between autism and immunization could have gotten as out of control as it did. Understanding the money trail sheds a whole new light on why it happened. While reading the book and learning, again, my 8th grade science facts about the null hypothesis, it helped me understand why good, well known immunization and pediatric specialists were unable to address this proposed link in a way that would have clearly sent a message that autism is not caused by immunizations.
In the book we learn the financial benefits accrued to those who propagated the theory of a link between autism and immunizations and/or mercury. We also learn the truth about preservatives and how they work and the amounts and types actually in a dose of an immunization.
This book is worth reading, if for no other reason than to clearly understand the counter argument to the notion that “immunizations are the cause of autism.” This book also leaves readers better equipped to decide what the real causes of autism might be and to choose the correct treatments for a child with autism.