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Vax-Unvax: Let the Science Speak by Robert F Kennedy Jr. and Brian Hooker is a book that really disappointed me. Admittedly, I haven’t finished reading it and I don’t plan to but I don’t think that disqualifies me from writing a brief review explaining why I don’t think it is worth my time or yours.
The description of the book on the inner cover tells us that it analyzes over one hundred studies and, “health differences among infants, children, and adults who have been vaccinated and those who have not are presented and put in context.” (inner cover) Further down it states, “this book is timely and necessary for individuals to make informed choices for themselves and their families.” (inner cover) I believe these statements are examples of false advertising as the book fails to provide much context for things and only presents one side of the pro-vax vs, anti-vax argument so any decision one makes based solely off of this book is not an “informed choice.”
While I am being critical of this book it is not because I am critical of Kennedy and Hookers’ “anti-vax” stance. I’m biased against vaccines myself but I realize the controversial nature of that bias means I need to do more research into the topic, I was hoping this book would give me some new and useful insights into the issue (ideally insights that I could share with pro-vax people to get them to think more about their position), but it didn’t.
Let’s look at Chapter 2 to illustrate this. It is titled “Health Outcomes Associated with the Vaccination Schedule” and it “analyzes” eight studies which compared vaccinated and unvaccinated children. I put the word “analyzes” in quotes there because I feel like it is a strong word for what Kennedy and Hooker really do there, because all they really did was pick out the data from the studies and present it to us in graphs then explain the graphs (the explanations aren’t necessary for anyone who knows how to read a graph). The data they present shows that, compared to unvaccinated children, vaccinated children had higher rates of ADHD, allergies, asthma, autism, eczema, ear infections, gastrointestinal disorders, respiratory infections, seizures, among other things.
This is all good data to know, but this data alone is not useful for anything other than fear-mongering. From Dune we see that “Fear is the mind killer,” we shouldn’t be trying to scare people into decisions, nobody feels like they’ve made an “informed choice” when they’ve been scared into it. In order for a person to make a good decision they need to have data from both sides and this book doesn’t provide that. The studies that Kennedy and Hooker pull their data from do, there are a few times in the chapter where they admit that vaccinated children don’t get chicken pox and whooping cough as much as the unvaccinated do but they don’t show us any numbers related to those statements. I would have liked to see those numbers.
The biggest problem I see with the vaccine debate is that it seems the people arguing either want all the vaccines or none of them and I don’t think those are the only two options, the best course of action for most people is probably somewhere in the middle. I was hoping this book would be able to give me the pros and cons of each vaccine so when I have kids I can make “informed choices” on each individual shot.
An example of what I was hoping for can be found in a segment of a recent episode of the Shawn Ryan Show with Peter Attia. In it Shawn Ryan asked Dr. Attia what his thoughts were on vaccines. Despite his general disinterest in the topic Attia has spent a good amount of time looking into the vaccine issue and has analyzed the pros and cons of a number of vaccines independent of each other. Hepatitis B is one of the first vaccines typically given to children but Attia says that if a child’s mother does not have Hepatitis B then the child has an incredibly low risk of contracting Hepatitis B so the risk associated with taking the Hepatitis B vaccine is much greater than going without so most children should go without that shot. However the MMS vaccine, (which Shawn Ryan brought up) Attia says, is a more beneficial one because, according to his research, the risk of going without that shot is much greater than the risk of taking it.
Vax-Unvax doesn’t give you that sort of insight. It has a whole chapter on the Hepatitis B vaccine but all it talks about is the risks of taking the vaccine, there is no discussion on the potential risks of not taking it which is necessary for people to make an “informed choice” on these vaccines. If Kennedy, Hooker, and the Children’s Health Defense (which I believe funded this book) want to be taken more seriously on the vaccine issue they need to be having actual discussions, like Peter Attia (who doesn’t care if your kid gets vaccines or not) did with Shawn Ryan. They can’t just continue to fear-monger and expect rational people to join their side of the debate.
Vax-Unvax is not the book I hoped it would be, I’m not sure the book I hoped it would be even exists and I might have to be the one to write it if it ever exists. The Hepatitis B chapter of the book that I hoped this would be would have spent some time explaining what Hepatitis B is, how Hepatitis B is contracted, the rates of Hepatitis B in the population, and the risks of taking the Hepatitis B vaccine; that is the information a person needs to make an “informed choice” on a vaccine. Vax-Unvax only gives you the risks of taking vaccines, and I do admit that this book is a good resource for finding that data, especially since the healthcare industry won’t give it to you. But unless you are trying to write a hit piece on vaccines this book is not worth reading.