When you're in the womb, you're in a sterile environment. When you enter the birth canal and the world, you're not. Very quickly, you have, living on the surface of your body, trillions of bacteria, literally trillion.
Paul A. OffitIf you've had a cough that lasted weeks, a cough that just doesn't seem to go away, chances are it was pertussis.
Paul A. OffitToday, however, anti-vaccine activists go out of their way to claim that they are not anti-vaccine; theyโre pro-vaccine. They just want vaccines to be safer. This is a much softer, less radical, more tolerable message, allowing them greater access to the media. However, because anti-vaccine activists today define safe as free from side effects such as autism, learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, strokes, heart attacks, and blood clotsโconditions that arenโt caused by vaccinesโsafer vaccines, using their definition, can never be made.
Paul A. Offit