How to Communicate Vaccine Science to the Public
Dr. Paul Offit
September 10, 2019 at 2:00 P.M. in the Pearl Young Theater
(video within Langley firewall only.)
Abstract
We live in an age where people simply declare their own truths: climate change is a hoax; vaccines cause autism; the Earth is flat; the Moon landings were faked. As a consequence, science is losing its place as a source of truth. Dr. Offit will discuss the 10 challenges to communicating science to the public. His lecture will include numerous examples gleaned from personal (often painful) experiences combating medical misinformation.
Speaker
Paul A. Offit, MD is the Director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia as well as the Maurice R. Hilleman Professor of Vaccinology and a Professor of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He 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 160 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 was honored by Bill and Melinda Gates during the launch of their Foundation’s Living Proof Project for global health. Offit is also the author of eight medical narratives including Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All (2011), which was selected by Kirkus Reviews and Booklist as one of the best non-fiction books of the year, and Do You Believe in Magic?: The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine (2013), which won the Robert P. Balles Prize in Critical Thinking from the Center for Skeptical Inquiry and was selected by National Public Radio as one of the best books of 2013.