San Antonio College Library

"The public has voiced concern over the adverse effects of vaccines from the moment Dr. Edward Jenner introduced the first smallpox vaccine in 1796. The controversy over childhood immunization intensified in 1998, when Dr. Andrew Wakefield linked the MMR vaccine to autism. Although Wakefield's findings were later discredited and retracted, and medical and scientific evidence suggests routine immunizations have significantly reduced life-threatening...

In the 1990s reported autism cases among American children began spiking. This trend coincided with the addition of several new shots to the nation's already crowded vaccination schedule, grouped together and given in the early months of infancy. Most of these shots contained the preservative thimerosal, which includes a quantity of the toxin mercury. This book explores the heated controversy over what many have called an "epidemic" of afflicted children....

The story of anti-vaccine activity in America, its origins, leaders, influences, and impact.

For Largent, the vaccine-autism debate obscures a constellation of concerns held by many parents, including anxiety about the number of vaccines required (including some for diseases that children are unlikely ever to encounter), unhappiness about the rigorous schedule of vaccines during well-baby visits, and fear of potential side effects, some of them serious and even life-threatening. This book disentangles competing claims, opens the controversy...