The Human Experience · Episode

Episode 20 – Dr. Paul Offit

A conversation with Dr. Paul Offit

Paul A. Offit, MD is a Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases and the Director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. In addition, Dr. Offit is the Maurice R.…

Published
March 18, 2015
Runtime
32:23
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Paul A. Offit, MD is a Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases and the Director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. In addition, Dr. Offit is the Maurice R. Hilleman Professor of Vaccinology and a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of PennsylvEpisode source imageania School of Medicine.

Episode source imageHe is a recipient of many awards including the J. Edmund Bradley Prize for Excellence in Pediatrics from the University of Maryland Medical School, the Young Investigator Award in Vaccine Development from the Infectious Disease Society of America, and a Research Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Offit has published more than 140 papers in medical and scientific journals in the areas of rotavirus-specific immune responses and vaccine safety. He is also the co-inventor of the rotavirus vaccine, RotaTeq, recommended for universal use in infants by the CDC; for this achievement Dr. Offit received the Luigi Mastroianni and William Osler Awards from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, the Charles Mérieux Award from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases; and was honored by Bill and Melinda Gates during the launch of their Foundation’s Living Proof Project for global health.

In 2009, Dr. Offit received the President’s Certificate for Outstanding Service from the American Academy of Pediatrics. In 2011, Dr. Offit received the Humanitarian of the Year Award from the Biologics Industry Organization (BIO), the David E. Rogers Award from the American Association of Medical Colleges, the Odyssey Award from the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, and was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

In 2012, Dr. Offit received the Distinguished Medical Achievement Award from the College of Physicians of Philadelphia and the Drexel Medicine Prize in Translational Medicine fro the Drexel University College of Medicine.

In 2013, Dr. Offit received the Maxwell Finland award for Outstanding Scientific Achievement from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and the Distinguished Alumnus award from the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Dr Offit was a member of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and is a founding advisory board member of the Autism Science Foundation and the Foundation for Vaccine Research.

He is also the author of five medical narratives: The Cutter Incident: How America’s First Polio Vaccine Led to Today’s Growing Vaccine Crisis (Yale University Press, 2005), Vaccinated: One Man’s Quest to Defeat the World’s Deadliest Diseases (HarperCollins, 2007), for which he won an award from the American Medical Writers Association, Autism’s False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure (Columbia University Press, 2008), Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All (Basic Books, 2011), and Do You Believe in Magic?: The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine (HarperCollins, 2013).

Dr. Paul Offit and the effects of vaccines, vaccine for children, Flu vaccines and Immunity, ADHD, Effects of Vaccines

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Find Dr. Offit’s Work here: http://paul-offit.com/

Find the raw unedited transcript here: https://thehumanxp.com/dr-paul-offit-transcript/

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Transcript

A full transcript has been published for this conversation.

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Ideas worth returning to

Quotes

Five substantial excerpts from the published transcript, lightly edited for clarity without changing their meaning.

  1. “Vaccine development is expensive and has historically required organizations with substantial expertise and resources. When asked how many antigens an infant immune system could theoretically handle, I gave a very large estimate to illustrate capacity—not a recommendation to administer thousands of vaccines. Actual schedules are evaluated vaccine by vaccine through safety and effectiveness data.”
    From the conversation
  2. “Parents have rights, but children also have a right to protection. The Fourteenth Amendment’s principle of equal protection raises the question of whether a child should bear preventable risk because a parent holds a false medical belief. Ideally, accurate understanding would make mandates unnecessary, but policy must also consider people who cannot choose for themselves.”
    From the conversation
  3. “A false claim repeated often enough can feel true, especially where trust in medicine is already weak. Transparency and clear evidence matter because distrust searches for facts that confirm itself. Institutions do not rebuild credibility by demanding obedience; they have to explain decisions, disclose uncertainty, and correct errors openly.”
    From the conversation
  4. “When faith healing becomes medical neglect, legislation must protect the child. Other countries impose serious consequences when parents deny necessary care in the name of religion. Religious liberty should not make a child in one household less entitled to lifesaving treatment than a child in another.”
    From the conversation
  5. “I do not believe in a supreme being or accept the Gospels as literal historical records, yet the figure of Jesus remains impressive. One can reject theological claims and still take seriously a moral teacher’s influence, character, and cultural legacy. Admiration does not require pretending to share a belief one does not hold.”
    From the conversation

About the guest

Dr. Paul Offit

Paul A. Offit, MD is a Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases and the Director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. In addition, Dr. Offit is the Maurice R. Hilleman Professor of Vaccinology and a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of PennsylvEpisode source imageania School of Medicine.

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