Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

First, I am a pediatrician. I have also been a scientist before becoming a pediatrician. I firmly believe in vaccines and that their benefits far outweigh their risks. I have seen infants and children who were unvaccinated die from vaccine preventable diseases. It is not something I want to see again, nor should we have to in the US of A. I bought this book (on Amazon, so I'd like to hope whomever keeps blocking my reviews of this book might actually check the purchase history for my account and verify this) because a few years back I started seeing more and more parents coming in not wanting to vaccinate and citing "Dr. Sears" and his "vaccine book". So I bought it and read it and at the end could not believe such a biased and unscientifically judgmental book on vaccines could have been written by a pediatrician. Yet it was. Why do I dislike this book so? The best reasons can be found at [...], in an article written by Dr. Paul Offit and Ms Charlotte Moser titled "The Problem With Dr Bob's Alternative Vaccine Schedule". If you are going to buy Dr. Bob's book, then at least read this 8-page free PDF of the article available online (you can even send it to your Kindle for free). Dr. Bob Sears is not a scientist...and if he was, he would have tested his completely untested alternate vaccine schedule--but he hasn't and never will. It is unconscionable of him to promote this schedule or tell parents it's ok to skip vaccines, especially now that California is in the midst of the worst whooping cough (pertussis) outbreak since they started vaccinating for it over 50 years ago. And why? Because vaccination rates have fallen dramatically, thanks in large part to this book. Parents: if you read this book and follow its advice, you do so at your child's peril. There are 9 infants dead from whooping cough in California so far who provide the strongest argument yet against those Sears so recklessly advocates in his book. Chris Hickie, MD, PhD UPDATED REVIEW BASED ON 2nd EDITION (3/19/12) As much as it pained me to purchase the 2nd edition of this book (AMAZON, you may verify I bought it through you), I did it so I would better understand what misinformation parents will have from Sears when the come to me with this book in hand. There is nothing truly new in this 2nd edition. Yes, some stuff on HPV vaccine is here, but again, for all diseases discussed, Sears is clearly misinformed or just plain ignores how truly dangerous these diseases we give vaccines for are. This is truly sad given his pediatric pedigree, but maybe Dr. Bob has never seen a child die from Hib meningitis or cared for a child who spent a month in the hospital with whooping cough. It might change his perspective if he did. And although it was one of his unvaccinated patients that caused the 2008 Southern California measles outbreak of 11 cases that were spread in a doctor's waiting room (that is how contagious measles is, BTW), I guess Dr. Bob wasn't one of the pediatricians who had to treat these children, including the infant who was too young to be vaccinated and was sick enough to need hospitalization. Dr. Bob claims he wrote this book to help increase vaccination rates in this country. I do not believe this for one second, because I have never had a parent come to me with his book in hand saying "I didn't want to vaccinate, but after reading "The Vaccine Book", I now want to fully vaccinate my child, Dr. Hickie." Dr. Bob wrote this book simply to make a bunch of money exploiting the fear-mongering anti-vaccination groups by making himself appear to hold some sort of sacred middle ground between them and pediatricians. Well, there is no middle ground here, folks. Well-meaning parents come to me with this book, having been severely mislead by Sears about vaccines and vaccine-preventable diseases, and they have always decided to either undervaccinate or not vaccinate based on his book. And this is truly sad both for the risk it places upon children and public health in general. What I write here will not convince the rabid anti-vaccine crowd. I write this to reach parents who stand in the middle trying to do what is best for their child and, unfortunately are swamped with so much misinformation from anti-vaccine groups that it is hard for them not to be incorrectly swayed. Dr. Sears is not your answer. Sear's "alternate schedule" has has never, ever been tested by him against the CDC/AAP schedule, and since it delays/omits vaccines, it will sure put your child at much higher risk for vaccine preventable diseases. Ask yourself this: why won't Dr. Bob submit an NIH grant to test his schedule if it's so much better and "safer"? The CDC/AAP schedule is THE schedule, that has evolved over time and testing in numerous large-scale clinical trials, and it is the one you should stick with unless your child has one of only a few very rare medical reasons not to be on the schedule. As an FYI, there is currently a measles outbreak in Indiana that started with two unvaccinated people who contracted measles at the Super Bowl Village in Indianapolis. The total number of cases recently increased to 17, and all who contracted measles were unvaccinated. Dr. Bob's book will tell you measles is not that big a deal. Well, tell that to the families of the 164,00 people who died from measles worldwide in 2008, almost all of them unvaccinated and in countries with poor to no vaccination programs against measles. Again, to parents: if you read this book and follow its advice, you do so at your child's peril. Dr. Bob does you no favors with this book. -Chris Hickie, MD, PhD