WWSMD? Or What Would Seth Mnookin do?

A little over four years ago, in an attempt to broaden my reading horizons, I went through a bit of a popular science/philosophy/psychology/economics phase. There were the usual suspects - Jared Diamond (Collapse), Norman Doidge (The Brain that Changes Itself), a little Michael Lewis for light relief, and of course, a generous helping of Dubner and Levitt (AKA the Freakonomics guys).  

One book that caught my eye during this time (I confess it was the cover design that did it – a striking image of a vial against a dark blue background) was Seth Mnookin’s The Panic Virus . The second thing to grab my attention was the name ‘Seth Mnookin’.  I hadn’t heard the name before and two things flashed in my mind:

1.     That sounds like an obscure model keyboard/synthesizer, of limited manufacture, but beloved of instrument collectors. (“Wow, dude, is that a Mnookin P48?” “Nah, this is a Mnookin P49, one of only four left in the world. The other three are in the Smithsonian.”)

2.     Hang on, wasn’t Seth Mnookin the bloke who taught Martin Scorsese at NYU Film School? Oh, no, wait, that was Haig Manoogian, my bad…

Yep, that’s how my brain works.

A quick scan of the book revealed it was all about the history of vaccinations and immunization, the MMR-vaccine-causes-autism controversy (I knew quite a bit already about the dodgy English doctor who started the whole nonsense), as well as the spread of the anti-vaccination movement in America and its pernicious influence in Australia. In short, it looked like a good addition to the other science-y books I was enjoying at the time - but with a mightily serious human-interest element.

I ordered the book through my hubby’s then-employer, a quality Melbourne bookshop and local institution – that’s right, I’m cheap and wanted the staff discount.  It sat on my bedside table for a couple of weeks while I ploughed through a steady stream of Scandi-crime (a girl’s gotta take a break from all the pointy-headed science-y stuff).

Of course, once I got round to starting the bugger, I couldn’t put it down and read it in three sittings over a weekend. It was that good.

This is what ‘popular science’ (ugh, why does that phrase bother me so?) should be: well-researched, elegantly-written, and punctuated throughout with real-life, real-people stories.  

Mr Mnookin’s characterisations of key players puts serious meat on the bones of this story. Key players include hideous myth-perpetrators (Jenny McCarthy, Meryl Dorey), their enablers in the media (Oprah Winfrey, Larry King) monsters (Andrew Wakefield – or as the chatty half of Penn and Teller once referred to him, “Asshole” Wakefield) and victims (baby Dana McCaffery, who died of whooping cough because she was too young to be vaccinated and lived in a region with low vaccination rates).

I loved this book so much, I sent the author a gushy, faintly embarrassing fan-girl email (from my work address no less, that’s how overwhelmed I was by the book…) which I publish below for your amusement:

Dear Mr. Mnookin,

This is a short note to say I just finished "The Panic Virus" (Oz edition published by Black Inc) and needed to tell you it's one of the smartest, sanest, scariest and wittiest books I've ever read.

Congratulations on putting together a book that outlines in exhaustive (but never exhausting) detail, the history of vaccination programs, the MMR/Autism/Wakefield disaster, the ridiculousness of Jenny McCarthy's crusade (does the woman have no shame?) and the irresponsibility of people like Oprah Winfrey and Larry King for giving people like her oxygen.

I found myself fist-punching the air reading the penultimate chapter on the Omnibus Autism Proceedings. Whilst I felt enormous sadness at the plight of Michelle Cedillo and her family, I was heartened by the way good sense and science prevailed in the end.

I'd like to believe the "debate" will now die the death it deserves, people will ignore the lies and young mums will start vaccinating their children again, but I suspect some major damage has been done in the last decade and fixing it will take longer than we like. When the educated classes start thinking this way, I lose hope...

You have set the benchmark for popular science journalism (for lack of a better description of the genre!) and I look forward to your next book.

Best regards...

The recent measles outbreak in the United States has reignited my interest in this topic. I now follow (polite word for ‘stalk’) Seth Mnookin on Twitter. I plan to reread his book. I want him to visit Australia so I can stalk him properly.

I will have a piece of that delicious-looking pecan pie he posted on Twitter.

He’s a dead-set legend of science journalism. Read him. Follow him.

(I used to work with a man who believed the earth was a few thousand years old, had not vaccinated his daughters, and whose wife was a chiropractor who performed “adjustments” on infants and children. I’m so glad I hadn’t read The Panic Virus when I worked with him. I would have kicked him in the nuts until he was unconscious.)