Your Baby’s Best Shot: Why Vaccines Are Safe and Save Lives Reprint Edition

Journalist Herlihy and psychologist Hagood dispute the many myths surrounding vaccines in this extensively researched and forceful pro-vaccine text. The book covers a range of topics, including the history of vaccines and their ingredients, as well as detailed descriptions of vaccine-preventable diseases (chicken pox, diphtheria, Hib, mumps, whooping cough). The authors also defend against anti-vaccine arguments, devoting several chapters to the ‘myth’ surrounding a link between vaccinations and autism, and exploring the cognitive biases that have fueled the vaccine backlash. . . . Indisputably pro-vaccine, this resource will aid parents as they make decisions about vaccinating their children. (Publishers Weekly)

This thoroughly researched book should convince even ardent vaccine skeptics that the benefits of giving kids shots to prevent illnesses far outweigh any negatives. . . . [T]his book, with its extensive notes and bibliography, should go a long way toward convincing even the most leery that vaccines save lives. (Booklist)

Written for parents who are pro-vaccine or who just want information about what’s in all of those kids’ shots, this book is a great resource. The authors break down everything from ingredients to adverse reactions to the autism myth. This book is not for parents who agree with Jenny McCarthy. She still claims that there is a link between vaccinations and autism. This book whole-heartedly disagrees, and breaks down the medical research to back up their points.
(Parents Magazine)

Whichever side you fall on in the great vaccine debate, it’s always in your best interest to arm yourself with accurate information. This book discusses the real science behind vaccinations. (Foreword Reviews)

Herlihy and Hagood came to this book with many doubts and questions and a determination to provide something useful to parents who for one reason or another are worried about vaccinating their children. Anxious parents should take their honest, thorough examination of the subject as helpful advice from two good surrogates for a trusted neighbor or friend. (Arthur Allen, author, Vaccine: the Controversial Story of Medicine’s Greatest Lifesaver and Ripe: The Search for the Perfect Tomato)

Stacy Mintzer Herlihy and E. Allison Hagood have provided an exceptional and thorough explanation of vaccines, including what they are, their history, and how they have single-handedly changed the landscape for raising healthy children. This book is a must read for any new or expecting parent as it is a wonderful resource, giving parents and caregivers the opportunity to truly understand the real science behind vaccinations, as well as the positive impact they have had (and continue to have) on society. Thanks to these authors, I now have a new standard gift that I will be giving to all of my expecting friends, because the first step to making an informed parenting decision, especially when it comes to vaccination, is educating yourself. (Jeanne Garbarino, PhD, Biology Editor, Double X Science)

Written in a clear, concise, no-nonsense fashion, Stacy Mintzer Herlihy and E. Allison Hagood discuss how vaccines work, why they are safe, and why the misinformation spread by the antivaccine movement and alternative medical practitioners is without a basis in science, while describing some of the dangerous quackery that is being promoted to treat “vaccine injury” that is not really vaccine injury. It is essential reading for all new parents with any doubts at all about vaccines. (David Gorski, MD, PhD, associate professor of surgery at the Wayne State University School of Medicine, and medical director of the Alexander J. Walt Comprehensive Breast Center at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute)

Stacy Mintzer Herlihy is a freelance writer. Her work has appeared in many publications including Big Apple Parent Magazine and USA Today.

E. Allison Hagood is a psychology professor at a community college in Colorado. Before becoming a professor, she was a clinician and researcher specializing in adults with severe mental illnesses. She is a member of the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, and the Society for the Teaching of Psychology.

Foreword author Paul A. Offit, MD, FAAP, is the chief of Infectious Diseases and 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 professor of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He has published several books including Vaccinated: One Man’s Quest to Defeat the World’s Deadliest Diseases and Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All.