The Dangerous Doctors of the G.O.P.
What on earth was he talking about? Today, the C.D.C. advises that American children be vaccinated for fourteen diseases before age six—and each of those diseases can, in Carson’s infelicitous words, cause “death or crippling.” “The only one you could reasonably say does not kill is mumps,” Paul Offit, a physician in the division of infectious diseases at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told the Times last week. Offit, who is among the nation’s most outspoken vaccine advocates, added that mumps can, however, cause permanent deafness and sterility in men after puberty. “Tetanus kills, rubella kills unborn children, measles kills, hepatitis B virus kills,” Offit said.
.. This notion, that the vaccine schedule for children has become so crowded that it puts extra pressure on their immune systems, is immensely popular among American parents—and, increasingly, pediatricians are yielding to their requests to delay vaccines.