Dr. Paul Offit is the Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Maurice R. Hilleman Professor of Vaccinology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. His expertise is in the area of vaccines. 

 

In this episode, Therese Markow and Dr. Paul Offit discuss the MMR vaccine, the history of it, and the current decay of measles herd immunity today.  Many parents are refusing to vaccinate their children, referencing politicians, actors, and social activists who lack correct information regarding the vaccine.  Even if an unvaccinated child recovers from measles, they may, years later, develop a fatal encephalitis from the measles virus that has hidden in their brains. Dr. Offit thus discusses not only the serious potential complications of measles during the illness but the risks of later and seemingly unrelated fatalities in the unvaccinated.  

 Key Takeaways: 

• School vaccine mandates were born in the mid-1970s, especially in big cities, as outbreaks were often spread in schools.
• In a portion of children who recover from measles, the measles virus still remains hidden in the brain and can result in encephalitis.
• You have the right to make decisions about your own health, but you don’t have the right to make your child a martyr for your cause.
• Many of those activating against vaccinations are still referencing an invalidated and retracted paper from 1998.

  

"Medicine’s hard enough – there is so much we can’t do - but this we can do! We can prevent this disease, so watching parents, knowingly, put their children in harm’s way, and putting those their children come in contact with in harm’s way, has been very hard to watch." —  Dr. Paul Offit

 

Connect with Dr. Paul Offit:

Book: Bad Advice: Or Why Celebrities, Politicians, and Activists Aren’t Your Best Source of Health Information and More!

  

Connect with Therese: 

Website:   www.criticallyspeaking.net

Twitter: @CritiSpeak

Email: [email protected]

 

 

  

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