Apparently Vaccine Epidemic is Getting Under AAP's Skin

As you know, a few weeks ago our book, Vaccine Epidemic, was released to the public. It quickly rose through the ranks on Amazon to #117 on their bestseller list, and was the number one book in several categories, including Public Health. Three days after the launch, the book went into its second printing, as both Amazon and Barnes & Noble have requested more copies. Reports I get from people trying to buy the book in the stores is that they are finding it sold out.

Really pretty good for a little book like ours that has had no mainstream press what so ever.

By contrast, Paul Offit's most recent book attacking our community, Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All, has been out for more than two months, didn't break the #1,000 threshold on Amazon's list, and spent the weeks since our launch trailing our book in Public Health and the other related categories. That is, until yesterday.

On Sunday, someone sent me a link to this:

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Mass Bookbuying Event Tomorrow: Raise Awareness of Safety & Efficacy of Vaccines

A group of pediatricians are planning a mass book-buying event tomorrow, Monday February 21st.

Here's the action:

Go to Amazon and purchase a copy of Paul Offit's Deadly Choices: How the Anti-vaccine movement Threatens Us All. The hard-cover edition is $17.11 and the Kindle edition is $9.99.

Remember, Dr. Offit is donating all royalties from the book to the Autism Science Foundation.

Motive:

Moving Deadly Choices onto Amazon's Hot New Releases List. If his book is the biggest seller on Amazon on Monday the 21st, this will raise much needed publicity about the importance and safety of vaccines.

But I already have a copy of the book!

So? Buy another and donate it: to your local library, to a local high school library, to a high school or community college teacher of biology, health, or journalism, to your pediatrician...let your imagination be your guide.

On Personal Medicine, a blog that aims at, "enabling Primary Care Physicians to return to a simpler more gratifying method of medical practice, enhancing physician needs for lifestyle, professional satisfaction and income," we find that entreaty passed along. We also learn from Alison Singer's email that has been posted there, that the plucky "group of pediatricians" that are bravely banning together to get the urgent word out to parents that questioning vaccines is "deadly" is in fact the American Academy of Pediatrics. A 60,000 member strong, the Pediatricians Union, snuggled tightly into bed with Offit and Pharma, that once upon a time was concerned with the health of children and that would abruptly cease to exist if it ever admitted that the practices that it was prompting its doctors to practice were causing neuroimmune disorders in an entire generation of children.

Dear Friends:

AAP District 1 is promoting a mass book buying event on amazon.com for Dr. Paul Offit's most recent book, Deadly Choices. This event will take place on Monday Feb 21st (tomorrow). See the note from District 1 leadership below. Also, please know that Dr. Offit has generously agreed to donate all royalties from book sales to the Autism Science Foundation, so that we can fund research to learn the true causes of autism. Many thanks. Alison

Alison Singer
President, Autism Science Foundation

Apparently AAP no likey that the public is choosing the actual good faith arguments in Vaccine Epidemic over yet another propaganda screed like Deadly Choices.

We see that "Chip" at PedSource encourages pediatricians to:

GET THE WORD OUT.
From Dr. Jill Stoller:
In an effort to raise awareness for the importance of childhood vaccinations, the Section I chair for the American Academy of Pediatrics (the Section on Administration and Practice Management) is promoting a mass buying event on amazon.com for Dr. Paul Offit's most recent book Deadly Choices
Dr. Offit is the Chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He is a relentless in his advocacy for children's health and childhood vaccination. As a favor to me, and all the children you know and love, please purchase a copy of his book on Monday February 21 on amazon.com.
If his book is the biggest seller on Amazon on Monday the 21st, this will raise much needed publicity about the importance and safety of vaccines. Even if you don't have the time to read his book, purchase it and donate it to your local library!

Thank you for helping in this effort!
Update (5:30PM, Jan 21): Deadly Choices is #4 on the Amazon Movers and Shakers list and is now #28 on their sales list! A 40,000% increase - amazing.

Note that people are not expected to actually READ the book, just to buy it.

What is the medical equivalent of "astroturf?"

So Offits book shot to #27 on the Amazon best seller list yesterday.

Seth Mnookin's book got a bump as well, rising from the #5,000 neighborhood where he and Offit had been dwelling, despite all the media hype of their books (and Offit even appearing on Colbert), and Seth made it as high as #777 by my tracking.

So congratulations to Offit and Mnookin for getting the people whose asses you are covering by writing these books, to buy these books.

And to the AAP, you know what you could have done instead? You could have asked your doctors to read our book and actually started a real, common sense, good faith conversation with the HALF of the country that doesn't believe you on your vaccine safety claims, and begun to repair the damage that you have done by lying to the public. But once again, instead of course correcting, you double down.

I will end this as I have dozens of posts on this blog. By urging wise pediatricians to take back their profession. All those patients that you are arguing with in your offices are real people who want to have good faith conversations with you on vaccines. A bunch of them got together and wrote a book outlining many of the REAL problems in the vaccine program in this country. Realize that the AAP is not your friend if you want the truth on vaccine safety, read the book and (like Dr. Oz did last week) start the real conversations. Stop allowing yourselves to be propegandaized by Merck's boy Offit and the AAP who is trying desperately to prevent you from waking up to the fact they have lied to you for years.