Over the past few months, we have seen evidence that failing to vaccinate 
children causes significant public health problems. (See my essay, published on Envisioning 2.0, about this topic). Yet, despite the fact that scientific evidence has failed to find a link between common children’s vaccines and illnesses such as autism, an army of antivaccine parents, celebrities and journalists have dominated the debate.
Now, the New York Times highlights a new book by vaccine inventor and advocate Dr. Paul Offit, which it says is “rallying resistance to the Antivaccine Crusade.” Interestingly, celebrity Amanda Peet has become an outspoken critic of anti-vaccination proponents. According to the Times, She called antivaccine parents “’parasites’ because they relied on other children’s immunity to protect their own.”
Now that they have a celebrity spokesperson onboard, vaccine proponents should take their struggle online in a big way. Using the Internet to educate and organize parents could be one way to ensure that scientifically supported information regarding the benefits and risks of vaccines are communicated to the public in a balanced fashion.
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