Book review for
“The Panic Virus: The True Story Behind the Vaccine-Autism Controversy” is a book that developed a reasoned argument about the vaccines versus autism debate. The writer of the book, Seth Mnookin, is aware that the vaccine has been an explosive issue not only in the United States but also across different cultures in the world. Mnookin provides an insight on the effects of biotechnology and how parents, scientists, sociologists, and politicians, among others have perceives it. In other words, the author injects a dose of reality to into the commonly known myth about the link between vaccination and autism (Taylor et al. 396). He utilizes logic, reason and investigative reporter perspective to shed light on the both side of the argument.
Mnookin illustrates how parents and community had developed misleading myth as a rejection of the biotechnology and the science in large. The parents choose not to get their children to be vaccinated suggesting that this is a health-conscious choice. While some people lost their trust in the medical establishment, the controversial media highlighting on the possible adverse outcome of vaccination were misleading others. For instance, on “February, 2002, the BBC TV news magazine show ‘Panorama’ aired a special report title ‘MMR: Every parent’s Choice” (Mnookin 160). The TV program also included a "controversial doctor” who held “MMR should not be used until researchers rule out the possibility the triple jab could cause autism” (Mnookin 160). This illustrates how the media and some scientists are instilling fear to the community claiming that there exist a relationship between vaccination and other negative outcomes (Plotkin, 460).
Mnookin reveals that not only media has been spreading the unverified message to the public, but also the scientists themselves. The scientists too are viewing vaccines as the stepping-stone for modern public health, but targets for misinformation and fear to the public. For instance, a London gastroenterologist, Andrew Wakefield, has been in the frontline of spreading the misinformation about the link between measles, MRR vaccine, and autism. He was the co-author of a study conducted in the British Medical Journal that associated vaccines with adverse medical situations such as autism. However, according to Mnookin, his research was not scientifically proven, and his idea was profit oriented. Wakefield and his co-authors’ study was challenged from different angles to show that their work was invalid and contained misinformation. According to Mnookin, the lab used “produced false positives at a rate that indicated massive contamination; and the tissue samples used for the study were of poor quality they were not suitable for PCR testing in the first place” (Mnookin 161).
Ideally, Mnookin emphasis on the scientific truism on the core of his analysis to help people understand the concept of vaccination and hence embrace biotechnology. Essentially, people tend to forget that there are “one-in-seven-hundred ratio of adverse reactions to the total vaccinations” (Mnookin 70). In other words, the author reasonable suggests that it is practically impossible to immunize a significant large population without encountering a small percentage of random adversative reactions. Therefore, some children will benefit from the vaccination while others will experience adverse effects. Mnookin also shows that not all adverse effects are produced by immunization. For example, due to the anti-vaccine argument in Atlantic, the rate of immunization dropped. As a result, an outbreak of measles increased while some kids died from vaccine-preventable diseases. Therefore, cases of children suffering and even dying from the disease that can be prevented through immunization show the tremendous success of the vaccines. Throughout the chapters of the book, Mnookin shows that vaccines have successfully helped the children to remain healthy contrary to the opposing debates.
Mnookin has also provided an insight on how the science and health reporters should be narrating important scientific views to promote public health. Science and health journalists should be responsible for the translating scientific terms and theories into simple and clear language that the public can understand. They should also provide scientific and rationale comments suggesting whether different study methods are misleading or effective. As Mnookin suggests, the scientific reporter “has to come across as a reporter and not someone advocating for one side” (Mnookin 208). The reporters should explain not only the fundamental but also the essential difference between causation and correlation. In other words, the author implies that because children had started exhibiting symptoms of another disorder after being vaccinated, it does not imply the vaccine caused the disorder.
The book does not heavily provide details of the impact of the public health, epidemiology of ever-changing arrays of conditions or science of vacation. Instead, the book heavily focuses on the individuals involved in the story. It is about how, media, politicians, and scientist perceive on the issues of vaccination. However, Mnookin puts one point clear the parent from both sides, are protective of their children, and they would like to give them the best they can afford. Importantly, the author does not criticize the parents who are refuting the idea of vaccination; rather he sheds light to how educated and loving parent can be misled by untested results and misinformation. However, Mnookin strong emphasis on how the media has failed to provide stories that have substantial and scientifically proven information. According to Mnookin, the media house should be criticized for communicating the message of the stories that they have not conducted scientific research on.
There are plenty of reporters who are manufacturing stories intended not to educated the public or provide the truth about science, but to earning a profit. Media figures such as Don Imus, Oprah Winfrey, and Jennie McCarthy are just examples of the media reporters that base their stories on manufactured facts about public health (Mnookin 244-252). Mnookin noted that there is spreading alarmism and fear through the “media outlets that eschew nuance and depth in favor of attention-grabbing declarations.” Therefore, Mnookin provides a piece of advice to the parent that they should not wholly rely on the media as a source of information related to the public health.
Mnookin highlights that were it not for the media, the controversial debate about vaccination and autism could have been so strong. The media have successfully helped the debate to stay in power despite their uncritical and scientifically tested reports. He argues that the debate would not have “occurred has it not been for the press’s willingness to parrot quack claims under the guise of reporting on citizen concerns” (Mnookin 58). This implies that much of the media coverage fails to portray the essential concept of the vaccination. The media believes in the information gathered by the activists that campaign against the vaccination.
Mnookin suggests, “The activists’ tactics was using specious arguments that appealed to the press’s love of simplicity” (Mnookin 59). The relationship between the media and the activists is that the activists have been strategically convincing media by giving what they want. On the other hand, the love of simplicity by the press indicates that the press does not require the complexity of the matter. Press love to cover simple contents that may lack substantial information, and hence inaccurate data. Mnookin argues that the issue of vaccination is not a simple issue but a complex one. According to Mnookin, the issue is complex because “individual choice doesn’t prohibit other members of a community from being inoculated, but it does put everyone who can’t be vaccinated at risk” (59). Therefore, the issue of vaccination should be approached in the more serious manner in order to understand the essential difference between causation and correlation.
The book effectively provides an insight of the anguished and isolated parents who has been raising their autism children. From the author’s view, it is clear to see families harmed by the anti-vaccination movement are the victims of the baseless debate that has wasted significant resources. The author in the shoes of a journalist refutes the argument that there is a link between autism and vaccines through the provision of scientific evidence. The author wants to advise the parent that when they formulate decisions not to immunize their children because of untrusted information, they can end up affecting their children’s health. Therefore, it is significant for all parents to understand the risks involved in autism from valid scientific view. In general, the book is well-written, well research and contains information that can be easily understood by the public.
In my opinion, the “The Panic Virus: The True Story Behind the Vaccine-Autism Controversy” is a strong book that provides the realism of the relationship between autism and vaccination. The use of over 200 sources as reference indicates that the author had conducted sufficient research to support his thesis autism is not caused by vaccination. However, the book focuses on the community and the emotional outcome related to the subject to help the audience understand how vaccination has become a significant belief in autism society. Therefore, the book spreads the message that there is no reason to interfere with vaccination, and it is important to seek a real cure from the science side rather than the side of dangerous anti-vaccine society.
Works Cited
Mnookin, Seth. The Panic Virus: The True Story Behind the Vaccine-Autism Controversy. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2012. Print.
Plotkin, Stanley, Jeffrey S. Gerber, and Paul A. Offit. "Vaccines and autism: a tale of shifting hypotheses." Clinical Infectious Diseases 48.4 (2009): 456-461.
Taylor, Brent, et al. "Measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination and bowel problems or developmental regression in children with autism: population study." Bmj 324.7334 (2002): 393-396.
