JABS bleating over well argued points. Funny that.

"The Vaccine Book" by Dr Robert Sears has become a big hit among the worried well and University Of Google-educated American middle classes. It's written to sound like a reasonable discussion, but in fact repeats all the anti-vax lies that the JABS crowd spew out - it just suggests that they might be a problem, rather than stating them outright. Planting a seed of doubt - the most effective way of getting the anti-vax ideas propogated. At the end of the book, it suggests an alternative schedule of vaccination for children - one that sounds reasonable to those worried parents who don't have the critical faculties, or the time to actually read any primary sources.

Dr Paul Offit has written an excellent critique of the book, which has been published in Paediatrics.

It's well written, calm and collected, and extremely well referenced - and it acts as an excellent reference for debunking a lot of common anti-vax lies and misinformation that you might come across being spread by the likes of JABS, or parents at your child's school or pre-school.

For this reason (probably more than the takedown of the "alternative schedule" - which obviously isn't as anti-vaccine as the foaming JABS nutters would like), they're doing the usual trick of rubbishing it without producing any reasons why it's wrong.

Cybertiger is, unsurprisingly, banging on about trust:

Why not look again at 'trust' and the controversy Paul Offit has stirred up over 'trust' in the scientists who work for the great medico-pharma-vaccinology-industrial-complex.

Dr Paul Offit MD etc, reviewed 'The Vaccine Book' by Dr Robert Sears with its suggestions for boosting flagging trust in what the vaccinologists say about vaccines and their safety.

Um - because this isn't about your paranoia regarding the whole medical community; this is about keeping children and adults safe and healthy, not spreading lies about vaccination programmes. You twat.

Minority View throws a non-sequiteur in:

Ah! So it doesn't count if children end up dead, paralyzed or brain-damaged from vaccines. Glad to have that cleared up.

But, as I never tire of pointing out, there's no evidence that this happens, is there, MV? You'd like there to be - but there isn't. And you're worried that sensible writing like this points out the huge holes in your flimsy anti-vax arguments and lies.

Have a read of the pdf linked above - it's quite long, but well worth it.