# 5253
Regular readers of this blog are no doubt aware that while I accept there are some (mostly minor) risks to vaccines, that I am decidedly (and unapologetically) pro-vaccination.
Of course, I’m old enough to remember a time when American children were still being crippled by polio and miserable childhood diseases like measles, mumps, and chickenpox were practically rites of passage.
Thankfully, by the time I arrived on the scene - in the early 1950s - Pertussis, Diphtheria, and Tetanus (still common when my father was a boy) were no longer major disease players here in the United States.
And the reason for the decline of all of these (and many more) diseases in developed countries has been largely due to the use of vaccines.
While I’ve taken the anti-vaccination crowd to task a number of times in these pages (for example, see The Monsters Are Due On Vaccine Street), I don’t do so every day because my readers are generally pretty well informed on these issues, and I’d be preaching to the choir.
But I’m always pleased when I find a rational discussion of vaccines on the Internet.
Today, as an example, I’m listening to Vincent Racaniello’s latest TWiV (This Week In Virology) podcast, with co-host Rich Condit and special guest Seth Mnookin, author of The Panic Virus, which deals with the anti-vaccine movement, autism, and the media’s coverage of science.
TWiV 117: The Panic Virus with Seth Mnookin
23 January 2011
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, and Seth Mnookin
On episode #117 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent and Rich converse with Seth Mnookin, author of The Panic Virus, about vaccines, autism, thimerosal, and a contagion of human unreason run wild.
Right click to download TWiV #117 (69 MB .mp3, 96 minutes).
Well worth 96 minutes of your time.
And if you aren’t a regular listening to TWiV (and the newer TWiP - This Week in Parasitism) you should give them a shot.
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