Largent, Mark Aaron (Author)
Johns Hopkins University Press
Physical Details: 222 pp.
Language: English
Since 1990, the number of mandated vaccines has increased dramatically. Today, a fully vaccinated child will have received nearly three dozen vaccinations between birth and age six. Along with the increase in number has come a growing wave of concern among parents about the unintended side effects of vaccines. In Vaccine, Mark A. Largent explains the history of the debate and identifies issues that parents, pediatricians, politicians, and public health officials must address. Nearly 40% of American parents report that they delay or refuse a recommended vaccine for their children. Despite assurances from every mainstream scientific and medical institution, parents continue to be haunted by the question of whether vaccines cause autism. In response, health officials herald vaccines as both safe and vital to the public's health and put programs and regulations in place to encourage parents to follow the recommended vaccine schedule. For Largent, the vaccine-autism debate obscures a constellation of concerns held by many parents, including anxiety about the number of vaccines required (some for diseases that children are unlikely to ever 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 for critical reflection, and provides recommendations for moving forward.
...MoreReview Conis, Elena (2013) Review of "Vaccine: The Debate in Modern America". Bulletin of the History of Medicine (pp. 491-492).
Review Glassford, Sarah (2014) Review of "Vaccine: The Debate in Modern America". Canadian Bulletin of Medical History/Bulletin Canadienne d'Histoire de la Medecine (pp. 221-222).
Similar Citations
Article
Conis, Elena;
(2013)
A Mother's Responsibility: Women, Medicine, and the Rise of Contemporary Vaccine Skepticism in the United States
(/isis/citation/CBB001213524/)
Article
Ren, Jie;
Peters, Hans Peter;
Allgaier, Joachim;
Lo, Yin-Yueh;
(2014)
Similar Challenges but Different Responses: Media Coverage of Measles Vaccination in the UK and China
(/isis/citation/CBB001420070/)
Book
Willrich, Michael;
(2011)
Pox: An American History
(/isis/citation/CBB001212485/)
Book
Robin Wolfe Scheffler;
(2019)
A Contagious Cause: The American Hunt for Cancer Viruses and the Rise of Molecular Medicine
(/isis/citation/CBB660913926/)
Book
Stern, Alexandra;
(2012)
Telling Genes: The Story of Genetic Counseling in America
(/isis/citation/CBB001213529/)
Book
Hoyt, Kendall;
(2012)
Long Shot: Vaccines for National Defense
(/isis/citation/CBB001210034/)
Article
Derek Cameron;
(2021)
“Imagine the Perfect Vaccine”: Homeopathic Vaccine Alternatives and Vaccine Discourse in English Canada
(/isis/citation/CBB605278051/)
Book
Anna Kirkland;
(2016)
Vaccine Court: The Law and Politics of Injury
(/isis/citation/CBB053136475/)
Article
Day, Alison;
(2009)
“An American Tragedy”. The Cutter Incident and Its Implications for the Salk Polio Vaccine in New Zealand, 1955--1960
(/isis/citation/CBB001232089/)
Book
Eugenia Tognotti;
(2020)
Vaccinare i bambini tra obbligo e persuasione: Tre secoli di controversie. Il caso dell'Italia
(/isis/citation/CBB142911314/)
Book
Smith, Matthew;
(2011)
An Alternative History of Hyperactivity: Food Additives and the Feingold Diet
(/isis/citation/CBB001420219/)
Article
Brewer, Paul R.;
Ley, Barbara L.;
(2011)
Multiple Exposures: Scientific Controversy, the Media, and Public Responses to Bisphenol A
(/isis/citation/CBB001320111/)
Book
Berezow, Alex B.;
Campbell, Hank;
(2012)
Science Left Behind: Feel-Good Fallacies and the Rise of the Anti-Scientific Left
(/isis/citation/CBB001213203/)
Thesis
McLeod, Kari Suzanne;
(2007)
Health Matters: Public Understandings of Health in 1950s America
(/isis/citation/CBB001561516/)
Article
Cushing, Nancy;
Markwell, Kevin;
(2010)
“Watch Out for These KILLERS!”: Newspaper Coverage of the Sydney Funnel Web Spider and Its Impact on Antivenom Research
(/isis/citation/CBB001232078/)
Book
Halliwell, Martin;
(2013)
Therapeutic Revolutions: Medicine, Psychiatry, and American Culture, 1945--1970
(/isis/citation/CBB001550188/)
Article
M. Francesca Vardeu;
Antonello Zanda;
Natalino Virdis;
(2020)
Forme di comunicazione in sanità rurale in Sardegna: l’uso dei filmati nelle campagne di prevenzione per echinococcosi e anchilostomiasi nella seconda metà del Novecento
(/isis/citation/CBB438057714/)
Article
Rubin, Lawrence C.;
(2014)
Introduction: Mental Health and Illness in American Culture
(/isis/citation/CBB001202129/)
Thesis
Conis, Elena;
(2011)
Calling the Shots: A Social History of Vaccination in the U.S., 1962--2008
(/isis/citation/CBB001562821/)
Article
Nabel, Gary J.;
Wolinsky, Steven M.;
Haynes, Barton F.;
(2012)
Norman L. Letvin (1949--2012)
(/isis/citation/CBB001320471/)
Be the first to comment!