Vaccine: The Debate in Modern America
Mark Largent brings a moving personal story, acute cultural observation, and deep historical scholarship to the festering and dangerous vaccine debate. His is a fresh new voice from which we can all learn much.(Jonathan D. Moreno, Ph.D., Center for Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania, and author ofThe Body Politic: The Battle over Science in America)Any health collection catering to parents, health professional or the general public needs this fine survey of the history and contentions of the vaccine debate.(Midwest Book Review)This is an important book in the context of the current vaccine wars. Every pediatrician and pediatric specialist should not only read this book but also take to heart its message.(Roger A. BrumbackJournal of Child Neurology)This book provides a fantastic overview of both sides of the vaccine debate... This knowledge and understanding could improve [physician's] success in alleviating concerns for parents with anxiety toward vaccinatino of their children.(Sarah S. NypJournal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics)Largent’s fluid prose makes this 222-page book an easy read. It will interest vaccine proponents and detractors alike, along with parents and policymakers who have questions about the long list of mandated vaccines, and health professionals who must explain benefits and risks to anxious parents.(Life Sciences)In an era of polarized debate over vaccines—as over so much else—Vaccinecan potentially lead us toward a promised land of dialogue and substantially greater mutual understanding.(Robert D. JohnstonIsis)An important overview of scientific research on the safety and side effects of vaccination. Largent also incorporates his own decisions about his daughter's vaccinations as an example of how one parent has navigated the competing claims about vaccines... Parents need to educate themselves and make well-informed decisions about their children's vaccinations.(Andrea RusnockNature Medicine)Largent's reasoned, evidence based exploration is a worthy and important contribution to a public debate too often built upon flimsy claims and perpetuated by hyperbole.(Sarah GlassfordCanadian Bulletin of Medical History)