The Panic Virus

Earlier this week we at the School of Public Health, in partnership with the New York State Writers Institute, had the privilege of hosting Seth Mnookin, author of The Panic Virus:  A True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear published in January, 2011 by Simon and Schuster.  Two years ago, before Seth was even a father (he now has a 16-month old child), he heard his friends talk about their concerns related to childhood vaccinations and the dangers they thought were associated with them.  He was curious and began to look into the topic; the result is this excellent study which not only champions what public health professionals have been saying all along but also explores a very important issue in today's internet environment:  how people decide what is true.

A Simon and Schuster piece on Mnookin's book says:  "Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the myth that vaccines cause developmental disorders [including autism] lives on.  It has been popularized by media personalities and legitimized by journalists who claim that they are just being fair to 'both sides' of an issue about which there is no real debate . . .

"Mnookin explains how dishonest researchers and snake-oil salesmen have taken advantage of desperate parents, and how the media--by ignoring facts and pretending that all points of view are equally valid--has through its irresponsible coverage fueled a controversy that never should have arisen in the first place.  He explores how cultural relativism and insular online communities have blurred the distinction between facts and feelings to the point that the traditional American ethos of individualism has been transformed into one in which individualized notions of reality, no matter how bizarre or irrational, are repeatedly validated.  In addition, he gives readers fresh and fascinating insights into the scientific process, the nature of knowledge, and the subconscious forces that drive much of our daily lives."

Mr. Mnookin, who has an undergraduate degree in the History of Science from Harvard, was right at home speaking to a small group of journalism students and faculty members during an afternoon seminar and an outstanding presenter at the evening event we held on our campus which attracted public health professionals, students, parents, and others from the community interested in this topic.  Seth spared no one:  he was articulate about public health's failures in combating this myth and urged us to become much more skilled and capable of working with the media to get our side of the story out to the public.  Hear!  Hear!

I think every public health student and professional should read this book!

100 Years and Counting

Last weekend I attended Alice O'Brien's 100th birthday party, an extraordinary event.  I suppose it's not so unusual now to reach the age of 100 but Alice is among the most remarkable older individuals I know.  She was born March 5, 1911 in Buffalo's First Ward.  I first met Alice when several years ago her neice, my good friend Mary Lou Woelfel, invited me to have dinner at her home with Alice and Alice's younger sister, Jean, who were visiting Albany from their home in Westchester County.  The sisters, both at that time women "of a certain age," were remarkable even then.  I loved their stories of growing up in Buffalo which was ethnically diverse and an industrial powerhouse at that time.  The two women pursued education and began a life of travel and interesting adventures, attending Columbia University for graduate degrees and living in Berlin after the Second World War.  Alice, a teacher in Westchester County schools even lived for a period of time in Kenya to learn about African culture to be better prepared for integration of the that school system.  When asked about her current interests she recently cited happy hour (a glass of white wine), reading the local newspaper every morning, and gathering with her new friends at the Daughters of Sarah Nursing Center for bingo and TV watching on the big screen.  She's also looking for a boyfriend, a woman after my own heart.  Among her secrets of longevity are Godiva truffles eaten daily.  As I said . . .

One of the things that struck me is Alice's memories of the 1918-19 flu epidemic.  She would have been about 7 years old. She recalls that every neighboring family was impacted including her own immediate family of nine children, her parents, and many relatives.  Her sister Margaret suffered the greatest and they feared she would die but she began to slowly rally and, after a prolonged period, recovered.  When one considers all the childhood diseases that individuals of that generation had to survive to make it through childhood:  measles, mumps, rubella, pertussis, polio, diphtheria, tetanus, and on and on, you realize the power of public health advances and immunizations.  Alice had good genes but she also survived all those childhood diseases as well as the most major influzenza epidemic ever known. 

Way to go, Alice!  Continue to enjoy the chocolate and happy hour (although red wine is supposed to be better than white for increasing longevity--something to think about!)

President Clinton's Visit to UAlbany

I have been a fan of Bill Cinton since he became a candidate for President.  I visited Hope, AR with friends from Sheveport, LA (the visit coincided with a mid-summer watermelon festival in Hope--it was very HOT) to attend the grand opening of the Clinton "museum" there, a restored building (which, if I remember correctly, was a former railroad station) where I saw again the film, "The Man From Hope" which had been used so effectively during his first campaign.  Later that summer I bought a full size cutout of Bill in Atlanta and carefully transported it on my flight home.  Bill  has been a permanent guest in my home in Albany since then staying primarily in the guest bedroom.  However, he always joins us downstairs for parties and he never fails to enjoy the action.  In fact, if he hasn't been brought to the party, one guest or another generally asks about Bill and requires his presence. 

So I was especially eager to have the opportunity to be among those who attended his presentation at the University at Albany on Wednesday night.  He was, as always, a compelling speaker, one that had us alert throughout his hour-long speech and the extended Q & A session that followed.  You have probably seen reports of his address:  his suggestion that we imagine the upstate economy in ten years fueled by graduates of major public universities like ours.  In fact he mentioned some areas of study that will be essential to this growth:  nanoscience, public policy, and public administration.  I was disappointed he didn't include public health; after all, his daughter is studying public health at Columbia and his Foundation is accomplishing so much in the field of public health.  That criticism aside, I found his speech very forward thinking and made me hopeful for the future.

I know there's been some grousing about the amount paid by the Student Association to President Clinton for one evening's work.  However, I have four degrees from the University of Albany and over many, many years, I have paid a lot of student activity fees--I think I got my money's worth on Wednesday night!