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“I think it boils down to a feeling of betrayal. You trust your child’s doctor to know what is best for your child. You trust the medical researchers to do their jobs and release safe medicines/vaccines. You trust your government to provide adequate oversight to protect you and your family.”

More than a few bloggers have reached this same conclusion regarding the overwhelming fears and sadness surrounding autism and the still hotly-debated autism-vaccine link, which is the subject of Dr. Paul Offit’s latest book, Autism’s False Prophets.

Most of us either know a child with autism or have a child on the spectrum ourselves. On the other hand, most of us have parents or grandparents who knew children or had children who were crippled by polio or who struggled with complications of measles, mumps, rubella, or whooping cough.

They welcomed the advent of vaccinations. We fear them, or delay them, or avoid them altogether.

One blogger writes about the dichotomy behind this feeling of betrayal, breaking down in clear terms what has become clouded by emotion:

“There’s no doubt that the medical establishment has failed to own up to its own role in engendering public mistrust. Doctors often speak with frustration, and not a little condescension, about those average folks who choose rumor and wives tales over cold hard facts, but they forget how often average folks have seen cold hard facts reversed by doctors themselves, and how often they’ve seen statistically significant studies contradict each other.”

“So parents can be forgiven for thinking that not vaccinating their children is the more conservative route. But Autism’s False Prophets makes it clear that the great predominance of evidence suggests that there is no link between vaccines and autism, and that not vaccinating your child, far from being a conservative option, puts him or her at great risk. It’s hard, after all, to find a doctor who doesn’t vaccinate his kids, and this book makes a strong argument as to why.”

The gist of what Offit continues to fight against: Scientific studies and the evidence they produce are placed on par with personal anecdotes. As one blogger notes: “Offit is concerned - as am I - that lately our culture is one in which belief, or faith, in something is perceived to be as valuable as, and perhaps more valuable than, scientific evidence.”

Another blogger’s review illustrates that concern perfectly. She writes: “I said above: I’m not a scientist. But the general negativity of this book made me glad that I’m not a scientist. I prefer hope.” She wanted to believe Offit’s words, but “his condescending tone made me want to side with the people he was mocking. His general air of superiority really put me off. And his total lack of hope for parents and children dealing with autism left me feeling, well, hopeless.” Despite how Offit strives to demonstrate the science behind his conclusions - or perhaps because of how he does so - emotion gets in the way and clouds the points he seeks to make.

They’re good points, too. This blogger reports: “The crux of the issue is that autistic symptoms are often first observed in children in their second year of life - which is precisely the time that they receive many of their immunizations against childhood diseases. This is a coincidence, pure and simple. But frantic parents, desperate to understand why their toddlers are withdrawing from the socioemotional arena, cast about for anything that might bear on the often alarmingly sudden appearance of autistic behaviors in their kids. (Twenty percent of children with autism develop typically and then regress during the second year of life - with little or no warning.)” Another notes that “Recent studies are now making it clear that the cause of autism is genetic - but identifying the genes will not necessarily make treatment easier because it seems to be related to many genes. Two incurable diseases, cystic fibrosis and sickle cell anemia, are tied to one gene. Autism is much more complex.” Much more progress must be made in order to answer those nagging questions and assuage those lingering doubts.

Dr. Offit continues to work toward that end, in spite of the way his words can be received and the opposition they can generate. “Offit brings light to the bad science that seems to surround this debate. Whenever emotions get intertangled with science, more times than not, you end up with bad science,” states one blogger. Another agrees: “He made me realize how easy it is to be swayed by the moving stories of individual parents, but their stories are not science.”

Dr. Offit will donate all royalties from the sales of Autism’s False Prophets to autism research.

Thanks to all of our bloggers who took the time to read this book and write such thoughtful reviews. Thanks also to the commenters, both here and on their individual posts. The randomly drawn winner of a copy of Autism’s False Prophets is Liz, from Flint Family. Please email us to claim your prize!

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 29th, 2008 at 5:00 am and is filed under Autism, Books. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.