Paul Offit

Life

Offit grew up in Baltimore, the son of a shirtmaker. He went to his father's sales meetings and reacted negatively to the tall tales told by salespeople, instead preferring the clean and straightforward practice of science. When he was five years old, he was sent to a polio ward to recover from clubfoot surgery; this experience caused him to see children as vulnerable and helpless, and motivated him through the 25 years of the development of the rotavirus vaccine.

Offit decided to become a doctor, the first in his family. Offit earned his bachelor's degree from Tufts University and his M.D. from the University of Maryland, Baltimore. One of his mentors at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was Maurice Hilleman, who developed several of the major vaccines in use today.

By 2008 Offit had become a leading advocate of childhood immunizations. He was opposed by vaccine critics, many of whom believe vaccines cause autism, a belief not supported by scientific data. He received a death threat and received protection by an armed guard during meetings at the CDC. His 2008 book Autism's False Prophets catalyzed a backlash against the antivaccine movement in the U.S. He donated the royalties from the book to the Center for Autism Research at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Offit serves on the board of the American Council on Science and Health. In 2015, Dr. Offit appeared in a vaccine awareness video created by Robert Till in which he advocated for teenage vaccinations.

Rotavirus vaccine

Offit worked for 25 years on the development of a safe and effective vaccine against rotavirus, which is a cause of diarrhea, and which kills almost 600,000 children a year worldwide, about half as many as malaria kills; most deaths are outside the West. His interest in the disease stemmed from the death of a 9-month-old infant from rotavirus-caused dehydration while under his care as a pediatric resident in 1979.

Along with his colleagues Fred Clark and Stanley Plotkin, Offit invented RotaTeq, a pentavalent rotavirus vaccine manufactured by Merck & Co. RotaTeq is one of two vaccines currently used against rotavirus.

In February 2006, RotaTeq was approved for inclusion in the recommended U.S. vaccination schedule, following its approval by the Food and Drug Administration. Premarketing studies found that RotaTeq was effective and safe, with an incidence of adverse events comparable to placebo. RotaTeq has been credited (by Peter Hotez) with saving hundreds of lives a day. Offit received an unspecified sum of money for his interest in RotaTeq. Offit was elected a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, in 2015.

Smallpox vaccine

In 2002, during a period of fears about bioterrorism, Offit was the only member of the CDC's advisory panel to vote against a program to give smallpox vaccine to tens of thousands of Americans. He later argued on 60 Minutes II and The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer that the risk of harm for people getting the vaccine outweighed the risk of getting smallpox in the U.S. at the time.

Action against dietary supplements and alternative medicine

In December 2013, Sarah Erush and Offit declared the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia has a moratorium on the use of dietary supplements without certain manufacturers' guarantee for quality.

Our hospital has acted to protect the safety of our patients. No longer will we administer dietary supplements unless the manufacturer provides a third-party written guarantee that the product is made under the F.D.A.’s “good manufacturing practice” (G.M.P.) conditions, as well as a Certificate of Analysis (C.O.A.) assuring that what is written on the label is what’s in the bottle.

This decision is well supported by studies of Myocardial Infarction and also Cognitive Function in Men

Offit defines alternative medicine as quackery when it involves unappreciated harm and replacement of conventional therapies that work, with alternative therapies that don't. His books and articles warn against expense and risk to health for recipients of alternative therapies. In 2013 Offit wrote the book Do you believe in Magic? - The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine. Offit states that the purpose of the book " is to take a critical look at the field of Alternative Medicine - to separate fact from myth." and that "There's only medicine that works and medicine that doesn't." (p. 6) One of Offit's concerns is the scare tactics he says proponents of Alternative Medicine will often use, in a 2010 podcast with the Point of Inquiry Offit stated "it is very difficult to unscare people when you scare them."

His review of protection for the sale of supplements in America has resulted in calls for change. The "1994 Health and Education act should be overturned" to provide for proper oversight and action against supplement providers.

Reception

Offit is a recipient of numerous 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 Diseases Society of America, the 2013 Maxwell Finland Award for Scientific Achievement and a Research Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health.

In 2011 Offit was honored by the Biotechnology Industry Organization with the 2011 Biotech Humanitarian Award. Offit donated the award’s $10,000 prize to the Vaccine Education Center at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Also in 2011, Offit was elected to the Institute of Medicine at the group's annual meeting. In 2013 Offit was presented with the Robert B. Balles Prize in Critical Thinking by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSICOP) for Do You Believe in Magic? The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine. "Offit is a literal lifesaver... educates the public about the dangers of alternative medicine, may save many, many more."

Michael Specter wrote that Offit "has become a figure of hatred to the many vaccine denialists and conspiracy theorists." Specter reported that Offit had often been threatened with violence by anti-vaccine advocates, necessitating precautions such as screening Offit's packages for mail bombs and providing guards when Offit attends federal health advisory committee meetings. At a 2008 vaccine activism rally in Washington, D.C., environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. criticized Offit's ties to drug companies, calling him a "poster child for the term 'biostitute'."

Also in 2008, Sheryl Attkisson published an article in CBS news questioning Offit's independence, citing his financial ties to vaccine manufacturers. Offit said he is upfront about the money and that it doesn't affect his decisions. Curt Linderman Sr., the editor of the Autism File blog, wrote online that it would "be nice" if Offit "was dead".

Such vilification has provoked statements in Offit's defense. Peter Hotez, a professor and vaccine researcher at George Washington University, has been quoted in a 'Newsweek' article:

Peter Hotez ... says government health officials should take a bolder stand in reassuring the public. Hotez feels as strongly as Offit does about the science (saying vaccines cause autism, he says, "is like saying the world is flat"), but, like other busy scientists, he's less willing to enter the fray. "Here's someone who has created an invention that saves hundreds of lives every day," says Hotez, whose daughter, 15, has autism, "and he's vilified as someone who hates children. It's just so unfair."

Publications

Offit has written or co-written several books on vaccines, vaccination and the public, and antibiotics, as well as dozens of scholarly articles on the topic. Isabelle Rapin, a neurology professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, wrote in Neurology Today about Autism's False Prophets:

This book explores why parents, seeking in vain for a cure and for an explanation of their child's problem, are so vulnerable to false hopes and to the nasty predators who have from time immemorial always taken advantage of the desperate in our society. ... [Offit] became outraged by Dr. Andrew Wakefield's 1998 study in the Lancet that blamed the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine for causing autism. Dr. Offit predicted the paper would precipitate a resurgence of measles and its serious complications, and even deaths–a prophecy soon realized.

In "The Cutter Incident", Offit describes fallout relating to an early poliovirus vaccine tragedy that had the effect of deterring production of already licensed vaccines and discouraging the development of new ones. Vaccine exemptions allowed for faith-based reasons are opposed by Offit, who advocates for the repeal of religious exceptions on the grounds that they amount to medical neglect.

Books

Offit, Paul (2017). Pandora's Lab: Seven Stories of Science Gone Wrong. National Geographic. ISBN 978-1426217982. 

Offit, Paul (2015). Bad Faith: When Religious Belief Undermines Modern Medicine. Basic Books. ISBN 0465082963. 

Paul A. Offit (2013). Do You Believe in Magic? The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine. Harper. ISBN 0062222961. 

UK title: Killing Us Softly: The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine

E. Allison Hagood; Stacy Mintzer Herlihy; Paul A. Offit (foreword) (2012). Your Baby's Best Shot: Why Vaccines Are Safe and Save Lives. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 1-4422-1578-X. CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)

Offit, Paul A. (2011). Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All. Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-02149-9. 

Offit, Paul A. (2008). Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-14636-4. 

Offit, Paul A. (2007). Vaccinated: One Man's Quest to Defeat the World's Deadliest Diseases. Smithsonian Books/Collins. ISBN 978-0-06-122795-0. 

E-book version: Offit, Paul A. (2009). Vaccinated: Triumph, Controversy, and An Uncertain F. HarperCollins. ISBN 9780061871511. 

Offit, Paul A. (2005). The Cutter Incident: How America's First Polio Vaccine Led to the Growing Vaccine Crisis. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-10864-4. 

Marshall, Gary S; Penelope H. Dennehy; David P. Greenberg; Paul A. Offit; Tina Q. Tan (2003). The Vaccine Handbook: A Practical Guide for Clinicians. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. ISBN 978-0-7817-3569-8. 

Offit, Paul A.; Louis M. Bell (1999). Vaccines: What Every Parent Should Know. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-02-863861-4. 

Offit, Paul A.; Louis M. Bell (2003). Vaccines: What You Should Know ((third edition) ed.). Wiley. ISBN 978-0-471-42004-0. 

Offit, Paul A; Bonnie Fass-Offit; Louis M. Bell (1999). Breaking the Antibiotic Habit: A Parent's Guide to Coughs, Colds, Ear Infections, and Sore Throats. John Wiley. ISBN 978-0-471-31982-5. 

Medical articles

Gerber JS, Offit PA (2009). "Vaccines and autism: a tale of shifting hypotheses". Clin Infect Dis. 48 (4): 456–61. PMC 2908388 . PMID 19128068. doi:10.1086/596476. Lay summary – IDSA (2009-01-30). 

Offit PA, Moser CA (2009). "The problem with Dr Bob's alternative vaccine schedule". Pediatrics. 123 (1): e164–9. PMID 19117838. doi:10.1542/peds.2008-2189. Lay summary – WebMD (2008-12-29). 

Offit PA (2008). "Vaccines and autism revisited—the Hannah Poling case". N Engl J Med. 358 (20): 2089–91. PMID 18480200. doi:10.1056/NEJMp0802904. 

Coffin SE, Clark SL, Bos NA, Brubaker JO, Offit PA (1999). "Migration of antigen-presenting B cells from peripheral to mucosal lymphoid tissues may induce intestinal antigen-specific IgA following parenteral immunization". J Immunol. 163 (6): 3064–70. PMID 10477570. 

Moser CA, Speaker TJ, Offit PA (1998). "Effect of water-based microencapsulation on protection against EDIM rotavirus challenge in mice". Journal of Virology. 72 (5): 3859–62. PMC 109610 . PMID 9557670. 

Coffin SE, Offit PA (1998). "Induction of rotavirus- specific memory B cells in gut-associated lymphoid tissue after intramuscular immunization". Journal of Virology. 72 (4): 3479–83. PMC 109862 . PMID 9525687. 

Brown KA, Offit PA (1998). "Rotavirus-specific proteins are detected in murine macrophages in both intestinal and extraintestinal lymphoid tissues". Microb Pathog. 24 (6): 327–31. PMID 9632536. doi:10.1006/mpat.1997.0198. 

Moser CA, Cookinham S, Coffin SE, Clark HF, Offit PA (1998). "Relative importance of rotavirus-specific effector and memory B cell responses in protection against challenge". Journal of Virology. 72 (2): 1108–14. PMC 124584 . PMID 9445006. 

Coffin SE, Moser CA, Cohen S, Speaker TJ, Offit PA (1997). "Enhanced protection and mucosal immunity induced by intramuscular inoculation of mice with microencapsulated rotavirus". Journal of Virology. 71 (10): 7851–6. PMC 192140 . PMID 9311873. 

Coffin SE, Moser CA, Cohen S, Clark HF, Offit PA (1997). "Immunologic correlates of protection against rotavirus challenge after intramuscular immunization of mice" (PDF). J Virol. 71 (10): 7851–6. PMC 192140 . PMID 9311873. 

Moser CA, Speaker TJ, Offit PA (1997). "Effect of microencapsulation on immunogenicity of a bovine herpes virus glycoprotein and inactivated influenza virus in mice". Vaccine. 15 (16): 1767–72. PMID 9364681. doi:10.1016/S0264-410X(97)00106-0. 

Lomotan EA, Brown KA, Speaker TJ, Offita PA (1997). "Aqueous-based microcapsules are detected primarily in gut-associated dendritic cells after oral inoculation of mice". Vaccine. 15 (17–18): 1959–62. PMID 9413108. doi:10.1016/S0264-410X(97)00108-4. 

Moser CA, Speaker TJ, Berlin JA, Offit PA (1996). "Aqueous-based microencapsulation enhances virus-specific humoral immune responses in mice after parenteral inoculation". Vaccine. 14 (13): 1235–8. PMID 8961511. doi:10.1016/S0264-410X(96)00026-6. 

Other

Offit, PA (2013-12-14). "Skip the Supplements". New York Times. 

Offit, PA (2013-11-11). "Alternative medicines are popular, but do any of them really work?". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2013-12-16. 

Offit, PA (2009-10-11). "Nothing to fear but the flu itself". New York Times. 

Offit, PA (2008-03-31). "Inoculated against facts". New York Times.