Harvard Book Store Channel |
-
September 28, 2012
Steven Johnson
discusses Future Perfect: The Case For Progress In A Networked Age -
September 28, 2012
Natalie Hopkinson
discusses Go-Go Live: The Musical Life and Death of a Chocolate City -
September 21, 2012
Daniel Kantstroom
discusses Aftermath: Deportation Law and the New American Diaspora -
March 7, 2012
The Future of Black Politics
A panel discussion with Michael Dawson and William Julius Wilson, moderated by Eugene Rivers -
October 18, 2011
Ron Suskind
discusses Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President -
March 4, 2011
Maya Jasanoff
discusses Liberty's Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World -
February 25, 2011
Siva Vaidhyanathan
discusses The Googlization of Everything (And Why We Should Worry) -
February 24, 2011
Dani Rodrik
discusses The Globalization Paradox: Democracy and the Future of the World Economy -
February 18, 2011
Izzeldin Abuelaish
discusses I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity -
February 17, 2011
Parag Khanna
discusses How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance -
February 14, 2011
Dambisa Moyo
discusses How the West Was Lost: Fifty Years of Economic Folly and the Stark Choices Ahead -
February 10, 2011
Daniel Rasmussen
discusses American Uprising: The Untold Story of America's Largest Slave Revolt -
February 4, 2011
Sherry Turkle
discusses Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other -
January 27, 2011
Robert and Ellen Kaplan
discuss Hidden Harmonies: The Lives and Times of the Pythagorean Theorem -
January 24, 2011
Seth Mnookin
discusses The Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear -
January 22, 2011
Christian Lander
discusses Whiter Shades of Pale: The Stuff White People Like, Coast to Coast, from Seattle's Sweaters to Maine's Microbrews -
January 14, 2011
Richard Wolffe
discusses Revival: The Struggle for Survival Inside the Obama White House -
December 7, 2010
Chris Kimball
The cast of America's Test Kitchen discusses their Healthy Family Cookbook -
November 3, 2010
The Best American Short Stories 2010
Series editor Heidi Pitlor joins guest editor, Richard Russo, and contributors Brendan Mathews and Steve Almond -
November 1, 2010
Gal Beckerman
Gal Beckerman discusses When They Come for Us, We'll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry -
October 26, 2010
The Best American Essays 2010
Series editor Robert Atwan joins contributors John Summers and Jerald Walker -
October 25, 2010
Robert Kaplan
Robert Kaplan discusses Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power -
October 15, 2010
Timothy Snyder
Timothy Snyder discusses Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin -
September 23, 2010
Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan
Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan discuss The Fall -
April 17, 2010
Mark Oppenheimer
Mark Oppenheimer discusses Wisenheimer: A Childhood Subject to Debate -
March 23, 2010
Christopher Hitchens and Rabbi David Wolpe
Christopher Hitchens and Rabbi David Wolpe weigh in on The Great God Debate -
February 17, 2010
Kevin Sampsell and Justin Taylor
Kevin Sampsell and Justin Taylor discuss A Common Pornography and Everything Here is the Best Thing Ever -
February 8, 2010
John Callahan and Adam Bradley
John Callahan and Adam Bradley discuss Ralph Ellison's Three Days Before the Shooting -
February 2, 2010
Rebecca Newberger Goldstein
Rebecca Goldstein discusses 36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction -
January 8, 2010
Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough
Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough discuss All Things at Once -
December 3, 2009
Harry Evans and Jason Epstein
Harry Evans and Jason Epstein discuss My Paper Chase and Eating -
October 29, 2009
Harriet Reisen
Harriet Reisen discusses Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women -
October 23, 2009
Thomas Cathcart
Thomas Cathcart discusses Heidegger and a Hippo Walk Through Those Pearly Gates
-
December 19, 2013
Don’t Watch This If You Are a Bookseller’s Cousin or Mom
What is our discerning staff giving for the holidays? -
September 22, 2011
Minimum Paige: A Harvard Book Store Comic Anthology
A project this heroic could only be accomplished by the most dynamic of duos. -
September 16, 2011
Lucy the Wonder-Pup Picks the Booker
Can this adorable puppy predict the winner of the Man Booker Prize? -
January 21, 2011
HBTV Presents: Jurassic Books
A short film that ponders the possibilities of a large scale book printing robot... -
January 14, 2011
HBTV Is On The Air!
Cambridge's only local, fictional television station that's based out of an independent book store. -
September 8, 2010
Carole
recommends Wrestling with Moses and The Death and Life of Great American Cities
Gift Cards |
-
Add a gift card to your order!
-
The Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear
by Seth MnookinOur Price $26.00Hardcover
On Its Way
Seth Mnookin
Seth Mnookin uncovers The Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear
Harvard Book Store is pleased to welcome journalist SETH MNOOKIN as he discusses the controversy around childhood vaccines and his new book The Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear.
In 1998 Andrew Wakefield, a British gastroenterologist with a history of self-promotion, published a paper with a shocking allegation: the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine might cause autism. The media seized hold of the story and, in the process, helped to launch one of the most devastating health scares ever. In the years to come Wakefield would be revealed as a profiteer in league with class-action lawyers, and he would eventually lose his medical license. Meanwhile one study after another failed to find any link between childhood vaccines and autism.
Yet the myth that vaccines somehow cause developmental disorders lives on. Despite the lack of corroborating evidence, it has been popularized by media personalities such as Oprah Winfrey and Jenny McCarthy and legitimized by journalists who claim that they are just being fair to "both sides" of an issue about which there is little debate. Meanwhile millions of dollars have been diverted from potential breakthroughs in autism research, families have spent their savings on ineffective "miracle cures," and declining vaccination rates have led to outbreaks of deadly illnesses like Hib, measles, and whooping cough. Most tragic of all is the increasing number of children dying from vaccine-preventable diseases.
In The Panic Virus ,Seth Mnookin draws on interviews with parents, public-health advocates, scientists, and anti-vaccine activists to tackle a fundamental question: How do we decide what the truth is? The answer helps explain everything from the persistence of conspiracy theories about 9/11 to the appeal of talk-show hosts who demand that President Obama "prove" he was born in America.
"In this searching exposé, the recent hysteria over childhood vaccinations and their alleged link to autism becomes a cautionary tale of bad science amplified by media sensationalism.... Mnookin presents a thorough and lucid debunking of the claims of a link between vaccines and autism and the charlatanism and profiteering of those who publicize it. The result is a hard-hitting contribution to the debate and a troubling portrait of a public sphere that elevates intuition and emotion above reason and evidence." —Publishers Weekly
Seth Mnookin is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and a former senior writer for Newsweek, where he covered media, politics, and popular culture. His writing has appeared in The Washington Post, New York magazine, and many other publications. He is the author of Feeding the Monster: How Money, Smarts, and Nerve Took a Team to the Top and Hard News: The Scandals at The New York Times and Their Meaning for American Media. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.