What Would Amanda Peet Do?

Lately there’s been a lot of talk about a teen vaccine schedule. Apparently the drug companies realized they were leaving lot money on table by not going after teens with the same vigor as they currently go after infants and toddlers. Additionally the government do-gooders probably realized there was a lot of do-gooding left to be done and additional budget resources to be claimed by targeting our twelve through eighteen year olds.

My daughter falls into this twelve to eighteen year old group, so all this talk got me to thinking, “What if we were wrong all along? What if vaccines actually were the right choice?”

I raised the issue with my wife who, insightful as always, said, "You know whose opinion I‘d like to get?" 

"No, who?" 

"Amanda Peet." 

"Yes that’s it! Amanda Peet."

My wife had hit the nail on the head

I’d been impressed by Ms. Peet since she burst onto the entertainment scene back in the 90s, appearing in both a Skittles television commercial and an episode of Law & Order

“But, maybe her voice would echo those of other celebrites, celebrites who questioned the safety of vaccines,” I told my wife.

“Amanda peet isn’t like other celebrites!” she snapped. “We’ll just have to sit tight until we find out where she stands on the issue.” 

So I got to work and googled Amanda Peet and vaccines and vaccination and discovered she was actually quite active speaking out for vaccines, even calling parents who don’t vaccinate parasites. Additionally I found she was affiliated with a shadowy vaccine activism group known as Every Child by Two and under the tutelage of noted vaccine guru Dr. Paul Offit.

With Amanda Peet, supported by a respected medical professional, firmly behind vaccines, my wife and I agreed: it was time for the catch-up schedule. Since Dr. Offit says that a child can theoretically receive 100,000 vaccines at one time and that those that space out vaccines risk their children’s lives by increasing the time to which they are vulnerable to largely non-existent infections illnesses, I hoped we could get my daughter in for all forty-five or so doses she’d missed over the last fifteen years.

But when I called the pediatricians office, the receptionist said the doctor couldn’t actually give all the vaccines one day.

That’s strange I thought, so I looked a little more deeply into Offit’s background. What I found was troubling to say the least. Offit, I discovered, was on record stating that vaccines were safer than vitamins. But I’d never heard of vitamins causing seizures or hours of non-stop high-pitched crying. There wasn’t even a National Vitamin Injury Compensation Program

Additionally, I learned that Offit, responding to concerns that vaccines might cause autism, said studies comparing vaccinated and unvaccinated had been done (It’s common knowledge that they haven’t. Only one vaccine, the MMR, and one vaccine ingredient, thimerisol, have ever been studied to any great extent) Additionally Offit, in another interview, contradicts himself by stating studies comparing vaccinated and unvaccinated children would be both unethical (some children would not have the protection of vaccines) and even if such studies were performed, they would be "fraught with bias."

Furthermore, it came to my attention that Dr. Offit, when discussing the risks posed by vaccine-preventable illnesses, is often wildly off base. For example he states that, in the pre-vaccine era,  deaths as a result of measles-related complications numbered 3,000 while in reality the number was only about 450.

So if Offit was clueless and he was Peet's mentor, how could we trust her opinion? I was crestfallen. With my faith in Amanda Peet crushed, I had to look to myself and trust the information that I, and not vaccine special interests such as ECBT, had gathered over the years: information that said vaccines didn't deliver enough reward to offset the risks they presented.  Ms. Peet, Dr. Offit and ECBT could have their shots, but for us and our teen, there would be no vaccine.