The Panic Virus

In recent years rates of vaccination against childhood diseases have declined in the United States and around the developed world as allegations that vaccination can lead to autism have frightened parents of young children. Preventable childhood illnesses have increased, in some cases with fatal consequences. The tragedy is that these allegations are demonstrably false. The Panic Virus shows how a group of activists manipulated a compliant media into covering this false story. Seth Mnookin lays much of the blame at the feet of media outlets that failed to report a science story accurately and intelligibly.