Question: How can you tell the difference between introverted scientists and extroverted

scientists?

Answer: When introverted scientists talk to you, they stare down at their shoes. When extroverted
scientists talk to you, they stare down at your shoes.

In 1997, an executive producer at a local Fox station in Philadelphia asked me to appear on her show. It
was September, back-to-school month, and the producer wanted to talk about vaccines. At the time, I was
an associate professor of pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and had been studying
vaccines for years. I thought it would be fun.

When I arrived at the studio the producer explained that the segment would have more energy if, instead
of sitting at the desk with the two news anchors, I sat in the newsroom. She directed me to a high,
unstable chair that rocked with the slightest movement, a cameraman just a few feet in front of my face.
Because I couldn’t see or hear the news anchors, who were in a room behind me, the producer gave me an
earpiece, which fit badly.

The segment following mine involved a legal comedy-drama premiering on Fox called Ally McBeal,
starring Calista Flockhart. Ally McBeal featured several lawyers who wore miniskirts to work. Finding
this fashion statement intriguing, the producer had asked four models, all in their early twenties, to wear
progressively shorter skirts. Talking animatedly among themselves, the models stood next to me. People
in the newsroom buzzed around, talking, joking, laughing; one was screaming. My chair rocked back and
forth.

At this point, I wondered whether it was possible to be any more distracted. Where were the clowns, the
dancing bears, the jugglers, the exotic animal handler searching for his escaped scorpion? Then my
earpiece fell out. When I put it back in, I realized that one of the news anchors was asking me a question.
My segment, apparently, had started. “Dr. Offit, could you tell us what vaccines children get, how many
they get, and when they get them?”

The actual answer to that question in 1997 would have been

Children receive a vaccine to prevent hepatitis B virus at birth and then at one and six months of
age; the combination diphtheria–tetanus–pertussis vaccine at two, four, six, and fifteen months
and again at four years of age; a vaccine to prevent Haemophilus influenzae type b at two, four,
six, and twelve months of age; a polio vaccine at two, four, and six months and again at four
years of age; the combination measles–mumps–rubella vaccine at twelve months and four years
of age, and the chicken pox vaccine at twelve months of age.

Apart from setting the field of health communication back about twenty years, there was no way I was
going to remember all of that. The better answer would have been

Children receive several vaccines in the first few years of life to prevent pneumonia, hepatitis,
meningitis, and bloodstream infections, among other diseases. Parents should make sure that their
children are up to date on their vaccines so that they don’t have to suffer these terrible infections.
I didn’t give either of these answers. I didn’t give the first one because I couldn’t. And I didn’t give the
second one because I was too inexperienced to realize that you don’t have to answer the question exactly
as asked. Rather I gave a variant of the first answer during which I got lost in the middle, forgetting which
vaccines I had already mentioned and stumbling over exactly when they were given. It was pathetic. In
fact, it was so pathetic that even the models stopped talking and stared at me sadly. When it was over, the
producer escorted me out of the newsroom, told me how much she had appreciated my coming to the
studio, and never asked me to appear on her show again.

Since my Fox interview, I’ve written books about vaccines, antibiotics, alternative medicine, dietary
supplements, megavitamins, faith healing, and scientific discoveries gone awry. In addition, between
1980 and 2006, I was part of a team of scientists at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia that invented a
vaccine. As a consequence, I’ve had many more opportunities to interact with the media. I’ve been
interviewed on national morning and evening news shows, grilled on comedy shows like The Colbert
Report and The Daily Show, collaborated on scientific documentaries on CNN, Frontline, and Nova, and
appeared before congressional subcommittees. I’ve learned a lot along the way. Now I make a complete
ass of myself much less frequently.

One thing I found that I never would have predicted was that I had inadvertently put myself in the
crosshairs of powerful forces intent on defeating science: an unholy alliance working against the health of
Americans. By standing up against these groups, which include hostile activists and personal injury
lawyers, I’ve received hundreds of pieces of hate mail, been the target of four death threats, and been
threatened with three lawsuits. I’ve also been physically harassed. It’s been an education.

My hope is that by reading this book, people will learn from my journey through the obstacle course of
the current culture. Because we learn about our health through the opaque prisms of newspapers,
magazines, radio, television, movies, activist groups, industry representatives, celebrities, politicians, and
the internet, we often fail to understand where the real risks lie. As a consequence, we don’t always make
the best decisions for our health and the health of our children. This failure to appreciate how culture
shapes knowledge will only cause more needless suffering and death—now and for generations to come.

Excerpted from Bad Advice: Or Why Celebrities, Politicians, and Activists Aren’t Your Best Source of
Health Information by Paul A. Offit, M.D. Copyright (c) 2018 Paul A. Offit. Used by arrangement with
the Publisher. All rights reserved.