Vaccines; A reappraisal

Dr. Moskowitz is a practicing physician [Harvard Graduate M.D.] with fifty years of experience, and the book he offers is clearly written and easily accessible for readers with or without a medical background. In addition to lessons drawn from his own practice and that of like-minded colleagues, it provides an extensive review of 1.   official pronouncements from industry and various government agencies; 2.   epidemiological and basic-science research from the scientific literature; 3.   tragic stories of real people and damaged lives; and 4.   news stories bearing on all of the above. There are many books critical of vaccines on the market today. What is unique about this one is its comprehensive analysis of the subject as a whole, from the much-loved but sadly vanishing perspective of an old-time family doctor. Dr. Moskowitz sees our present vaccine policy as a vast, costly, and dangerous experiment that is out of control, obscenely profitable, and badly in need of independent regulation. He catalogues the risks of each individual vaccine, as well as those of the vaccination process per se. He explains how the industry’s in-house safety trials, and the government’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) and National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP), systematically ignore and under-report important classes of injuries caused by vaccines, so that the true extent of their burden on the medical system remains hidden and to that extent unknowable. As a kind of bottom line, he emphasizes the basic right of every patient to free and informed consent.