Nobody has done more to educate the public, and the news and entertainment media, about vaccines and autism than Dr. Paul Offit. He’s granted scores of interviews, spoken at dozens of conferences, and still finds time to see patients, all while enduring the slings and arrows of an unhinged minority of anti-vaccine zealots. His book, Autism’s False Prophets, almost single-handedly changed the media narrative from “vaccines might cause autism” to “vaccine rejectionism is dangerous.”
So it’s fitting that the American Academy of Pediatrics, an organization that is itself at ground zero in the autism wars, should recognize Offit’s service.
WASHINGTON, DC – The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) will present Paul Offit, MD, FAAP, with the President’s Certificate for Outstanding Service at the National Conference and Exhibition of the AAP. The award recognizes an individual’s outstanding service and long-term, personal dedication to the mission of the AAP and to the health, safety and well-being of children. Dr. Offit is a pediatrician, chief of infectious diseases and the director of the vaccine education center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The AAP is honoring Dr. Offit in recognition of his ongoing commitment to promote immunization
Congratulations to Offit, and the Academy.
6 responses so far ↓
1 K // Oct 23, 2009 at 3:12 pm
“Nobody has done more to educate the public, and the news and entertainment media, about vaccines and autism than Dr. Paul Offit. ”
No one else has been given the platform of Dr. Offit so its not surprising. I’d put Autism Diva up there as someone that educated Offit on autism and woke him up to the vaccine autism controversy.
2 autblog // Oct 23, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Good point, K. But we are all standing on the shoulders of giants, aren’t we?
3 K // Oct 23, 2009 at 9:10 pm
Offit is not a giant to me. The kids that struggle and survive are the giants to me. Not someone given every opportunity on a silver platter.
4 isles // Oct 29, 2009 at 7:05 pm
If you call a career’s worth of work that establishes one as a credible expert, followed by the work of researching and writing an actual published book, “being handed opportunity on a silver platter,” then, um, sure.
5 ericg // Nov 6, 2009 at 3:08 pm
K, you’re going about it all wrong. if you are bitter at someone else’s success, take Ellsworth Toohey’s advice: Don’t set out to raze all shrines, you’ll frighten men. enshrine mediocrity-and the shrines are razed.
either that, or go get a PhD or an MD and tell me “its no big deal”
6 Joseph // Nov 6, 2009 at 8:38 pm
K is presumptuous more often than not. I doubt K knows enough about Dr. Offit’s personal history to proclaim that he’s been handed every opportunity on a silver platter.
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