Book Review–White Lies: A Tale of Babies, Vaccines, and Deception
A few months ago, Sarah Collins Honenberger joined in the discussion about whether the HPV vaccine Gardasil should be mandated for American girls. Shortly thereafter, she was kind enough to send me her novel, White Lies: A Tale of Babies, Vaccines, and Deception
Despite the obvious negative light in which this book paints mandatory vaccines, Honenberger is not explicitly anti-vaccine. She’s pro-education for parents.
In a prepared interview that accompanied the book, she said,
Vaccines save lives and keep babies healthy so they can grow to their full potential. But there are risks in everything and babies can’t make decisions to protect themselves. Parents need to educate themselves about the risks. Because the government and the manufacturers knew the risks, they made dertain promises. In White Lies, the mother of an injured baby has to fight to get the government to honor those promises.
My point in White Lies is that if the government and the manufacturers ask you to assume those risks for the greater good, and if your child suffers as a result of the known risk, then you ought to be able to rely on their promises to help you.
In light of the current autism epidemic in the US and the growing link between autism and childhood vaccines, Honenberger believes that parent education about vaccines is more critical now than ever before. Honenberger advises parents to keep medical records and and carefully track any changes they see in their children following standard vaccines. “Ask questions before the vaccine, not after,” she says.
Beautifully and compellingly written, White Lies tells the story of what happens when a parent’s worst nightmare becomes her reality. Pick it up today at your local library, or order it from Amazon.com. And always, always make well-researched, educated health decisions for yourself and your family.
Tags: autism, DPT, epidemic, Gardasil, mandate, mandatory, Sarah-Collins-Honenberger, vaccination, vaccine, White-Lies, woman, women, Womens-HealthRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Books, Health, Medicine, Parenting, Real life, Recommended reading, Safety
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2 opinions for Book Review–White Lies: A Tale of Babies, Vaccines, and Deception
Melissa
Jul 31, 2007 at 12:38 am
and the growing link between autism and childhood vaccines
Um, that’s not at all what that link says, nor do the majority of medical studies (although the studies are not always reported accurately in the media). Although Dr. Ben Goldacre tends to be rather…abrasively opinionated, he is quite good at going to the original studies and interpreting the statistics correctly over at Bad Science.
If you look at the actual amount of mercury in childhood vaccines in the U.S., most contain none–only a couple contain trace amounts, and parents can request the (more expensive) single-dose Thimerosol-free versions. On the subject of informing parents, I’d like information like that to be more readily available than buried in the CDC website.
This is not to say I think vaccines are 100% safe and never have side effects–that’s not true at all–but I have yet to see convincing evidence of a connection between vaccines and autism, and I think many parents underestimate the effects of the serious diseases many vaccines prevent.
Arthur Allen’s Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine’s Greatest Lifesaver presents a pretty comprehensive history, nasty parts and all, although it’s not very kind to some anti-vaccine parents.
Kristen King
Jul 31, 2007 at 1:18 pm
Melissa, I’m confused. Are you saying that the medical link doesn’t say what Honenberger believes it does, or are you talking about the article I linked that phrase to? I’m sorry for being daft. :]
kk
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