Customer Reviews
Very poorly researched to the extent that it is possibly dangerous - By: The Lay Scientist, 07 Jan 2009 
If you are a parent thinking of buying this book, then don't.
I'm an expertin immune system modelling, & I received a copy last week to review. I was shocked that anybody would release something so poorly researched. To the layman many of the claims made inside may sound reasonable, butin fact the "science" presented is deeply flawed, & some of the advice - such as deliberately exposing children to chicken pox - is extremely dubious.
Vaccines to some extent are a victim of their own success. We have grown complacent of a number of childhood illnesses that were once common, & we have forgotten that, for example measles killed hundreds & left thousands brain damaged until recently. Suggesting that parents skip or delay vaccination, rather than explaining that the overwhelming majority of evidence shows their safety, simply feeds parents' fears, & endangers public health.
For a detailed review of why this book is fundamentally wrong, go to the website of the scientific journal "Pediatrics" & search for the title.
0 out of 5 is too high for this nonsense.
Complete nonsense preying on the fears of parents - By: Chris Smith, 06 Jan 2009 This book has recently been comprehensively debunked by an articlein the American scientific journal 'Pediatrics', it's full of factual mistakes & the usual 'Big pharmaceutical companies are making lots of money, therefore everything your doctor says is suspect' drivel.
For instance, he states: "A new medication goes through many
years of trialsin a select group of people to make sure it
is safe. . . . Vaccines, on the other hand, don't receive the
same type of in-depth short-term testing or long-term
safety research.". This is simply not true, vaccines generally are tested on larger numbers of people for longer periods of time.
He also mistakenly gives the numbers of reports to VAERS (equivalent to the UK's 'Yellow Card' system of reporting side-effects) as CASES of serious side-effects from vaccines. They are not, they are simply people saying "My child had the vaccine, then later had one or more symptoms", these reports may or may not be reports of side-effects of the vaccine, or just the normal background number of kids getting ill.
Let's be clear, vaccination has saved countless lives, these kind of books are not scientifically researched, they're opinions, & their purpose is to sell more books. They're calling on parents to take risks with their children's lives. Thanks to the MMR hoax, there have already been unnecessary suffering, disability & deaths.
Of course, the kind of parent who buys & believes these books aren't going to take proper scientific research like that done about the faultsin this book seriously, because they generally form an opinion early on & don't let anything as trivial as evidence & hard fact interfere with it.
A factual, non-hysterical, medical overview of vaccines - By: A. N. Mackay-james, 12 Sep 2008 
Thank goodness for Dr Sears! At last we have a non-hysterical, factually based book, clearly setting out the pros & cons of each vaccine. Each chapter addresses a different vaccine & includes a section on whether the disease is common, serious and/or treatable; how the vaccine is made, the final ingredients & its side effects. At the end of each chapter he gives reasons why people choose to get the vaccine or decline it.
At the end of the book he discusses vaccine ingredientsin detail. He suggests a sensible & age-appropriate alternative vaccine schedule for parents who want to fully vaccinate their children, as well as a schedule including only what he considers to be the most necessary vaccines.
Good research, but I disagree with his conclusions - By: Tenna Merchent, 23 Jan 2008 
I really liked this book. It is written by a mainstream, famous medical doctor. He's the darling of La Leche League, has written several books, & been on TV. He provides a lot of good research as to why we don't need to follow the traditional vaccine schedule.
Chapter 1-A note to fellow physicians
He says "we receive little information on vaccines, other than that they are safe & effective..." He also says that a number of pediatricians have dismissed families who won't vaccinate, & that goes against what the American Academy of Pediatricians says a doctor should do. Instead, continued refusal to vaccinate after adequate discussion should be respected, & doctors should avoid dismissing patients from their practice simply because they don't vaccinate.
I don't like the order he uses to discuss each vaccine. If I were doing it, I would have gonein the order the vaccines are given. I have no idea how he chose his order. But chapter 2 is about the HIB.
Chapter 2-haemophilus influenzae type B & the HIB vaccine
Haemophilus influenzae type B is a bacterium that normally remainsin the nose, ears or throat & only causes cold symptoms. Only rarely does it invade further into the body, but it can on occasion & has been know to cause serious illness such as meningitis, blood infections, bone infections & pneumonia. There are only about 25 serious cases a year today, althoughin the `80s there were about 200,000 cases per year. Of the serious cases there is about a 5% fatality rate &in 25% of the cases there is residual brain damage. A serious infection is rare beyond age 3. It is treated with intravenous antibiotics.
In vaccine trials more babies who received the vaccine caught a serious infection than the unvaccinated.
Dr. Sears also points out that a breastfed baby that does not go to day care is at particularly low risk of contracting this illness.
He says on page 11 that to be get protection from a vaccine, for instancein the case of travel, you need to have it 3 months prior to the event.
Some versions of the HIB have aluminum as high as 1500 micrograms. He discusses aluminumin great detail later. He points out on page 195 that a toxic dose of aluminum for a newborn can be as low as 10 to 20 micrograms.
Unfortunately, even given all this information, he still recommends this particular vaccine, which I disagree with.
This is just a synopsis of 2 chapters, there are 17 others, most of them with loads of good information. There are several vaccines that he does not think are necessary & he provides detailed insight into why. I do recommend you read this book, but don't just blindly follow his advice. Look at the facts yourself before you decide if the risk is worth it.
If you are considering vaccinating I also recomend Vaccines: What CDC Documents & Science Reveal & Vaccines: Are They Really Safe & Effective.
Review written by Tenna Merchent, author of He's Not Autistic, But...
