With so much misinformation about vaccines confusing parents, it can be hard for some to know what to do and whether or not to vaccinate their kids. In addition to talking to your pediatrician, reading one or more of these books about vaccines—which are some of the best books about vaccines—can help you make the right decision, get your kids vaccinated on time, and help protect them from vaccine-preventable infections.
With a foreword by Dr. Paul Offit, this vaccine book includes everything from a history of vaccines to a guide to judging vaccine information on the internet. Complete and easy to read, Your Baby’s Best Shot is a must read for anyone doing their research on vaccines.
Do vaccines cause autism, asthma, or SIDS, or do they overwhelm a baby’s immune system? Not only does Do Vaccines Cause That?! give a clear answer to these questions, it backs them up with studies that should reassure you that vaccines are indeed safe.
Autism’s False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure, also by Paul A. Offit, M.D., provides an in-depth analysis of how vaccines and vaccine additives came to be blamed for the current rise in autism. It is one of the best books for anyone who wants more information about the quest for cures for autism, why vaccines were blamed for the rise in autism, and what may have motivated everyone involved in the autism debate.
Seth Mnookin’s The Panic Virus will help you understand why the anti-vaccine continues to influence so many parents.
Vaccines and Your Child: Separating Fact from Fiction greatly complements Dr. Offit’s other vaccine books, which deal more with the anti-vaccine movement but don’t have much information on individual vaccines.
Vaccine-Preventable Disease: The Forgotten Story, by the experts at Texas Children’s Hospital, tells the stories of children who have died or were severely sick from vaccine-preventable diseases, including the flu, whooping cough, and meningococcal meningitis, etc.
Immunizations & Infectious Diseases: An Informed Parent’s Guide was one of the first books to tackle the vaccine debate, with chapters on vaccine safety, immunizations schedules, and common questions and concerns parents have about vaccines.
Unfortunately, although Dr. Bob may have thought that his alternative vaccine schedule would encourage adolescent vaccination, the book is much more likely to influence and scare parents who may have fully vaccinated and protected their kids. Instead, they’re frightened into choosing untested and unsafe alternative vaccine schedules or not vaccinating at all.
This is clearly not a pro-vaccine book (many people call it The Anti-Vaccine Book), and any parent using it to decide against vaccinating their child should also read one or more of the vaccine books listed above.
