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Jenny McCarthy Is Wrong—
If you think medicine should focus on prevention…think vaccines.
New book offers an evolutionary argument for vaccination and an explanation why those who avoid them want to turn the clock back to the Dark Ages.
“By skipping vaccination, parents may believe they are protecting their children from autism or other dangers. The sad truth is that they are making their children vulnerable to preventable and deadly diseases,” says William Meller, MD. Meller explains the connection between the importance of vaccination and our evolutionary heritage in his new book, Evolution Rx: A Practical Guide to Harnessing Our Innate Capacity for Health and Healing (Perigee; May 2009, hardcover). “Our bodies are designed to be challenged by frequent infections. In the Stone Age every infection set off an arms race between the bug’s and our human defenses; the germ often wreaked havoc, killing its caveman host before the immune response could kick in,” says Meller. “Vaccines prepare our age-old immune systems by injecting tiny amounts of weakened strains of ancient germs.” These small warnings cause us to develop critical resistance to germs that in the past were disfiguring or even deadly. “Vaccination is one of the best ways to turn the evolutionary tide in our favor.”
Unfortunately, the anti-vaccination movement using hearsay, bad science and outright lies, has gained steam over the last few years and their most public spokesperson, Jenny McCarthy, has unnecessarily frightened parents and may even unwittingly help to undermine one of the greatest public health triumphs in history. “In U.S. today we don’t have to deal with the scourges of polio, measles, rubella, and smallpox thanks to vaccines,” says Meller, “If enough well-meaning parents stop vaccinating their children there will be a tragic return of these illnesses.”
Meller is available to discuss this new perspective on vaccination. Here’s just some of what he can discuss:
- WHY UNDERSTANDING EVOLUTION HELPS US UNDERSTAND THE VALUE OF VACCINATION
- JUST HOW BAD WERE ALL THOSE CHILDHOOD DISEASES ANYWAY?
- CASE CONFUSED: THE TRUTH ABOUT THE 2008 COURT CASE IN WHICH A FAMILY THAT CLAIMED A VACCINATION-AUTISM LINK WON A FINANCIAL AWARD
- THREE THINGS THAT EVERY PARENT SHOULD UNDERSTAND ABOUT VACCINES
- THE TOLL THAT SMALLPOX, POLIO, AND OTHER DISEASES HAVE TAKEN ON HUMANKIND
- WHAT THE SCIENCE REALLY SAYS ABOUT THE VACCINATION-AUTISM LINK
- THE THREE BIGGEST MYTHS ABOUT THE DANGERS OF VACCINES
ABOUT WILLIAM MELLER, MD
Dr. William Meller is a board certified internist as well as one of the nation’s leading practitioners of evolutionary medicine.
Having explored health customs and traditions in Nepal, Bhutan, Thailand, Myanmar, China, Mongolia, Peru, Argentina, and many other countries, Meller has discovered many connections between ancient indigenous medical practices and our evolutionary roots in the robust, nomadic tribes of the Stone Age. He has in turn integrated these discoveries with the most up to date medical research into his successful medical practice at the MedCenters of Santa Barbara (CA), a clinic with three offices and some 36,000 patient visits annually.
He is a member of the American College of Physicians and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and also served for more than a decade as a clinical instructor at the University of Southern California. He also co-teaches a pioneering course on evolutionary medicine in the College of Creative Studies at the University of California Santa Barbara. Dr. Meller received his undergraduate degree from UCSB and his MD from the Georgetown University School of Medicine.