Recently a group of Shot@Life champions and I got the chance to visit with Dr. Paul Offit at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). Who is Dr. Offit, you ask? He’s a doctor who has written the book, Autism’s False Prophets, which discusses the history of vaccines and why they are necessary and that they do not cause autism.
The other cool thing about Dr. Offit? He helped invent the Rotatek vaccine! Yep, the very vaccine that your little ones get to help prevent the nasty ugly Rotavirus vaccine. Did you know that dehydration caused from diarrhea kills many of our littles around the world? Giving babies the Rotavirus vaccine helps save lives and I was thrilled to be able to meet Dr. Offit.
During our visit, we chatted about the state of vaccinations and what can be done about getting the word out to more people about getting vaccinated. I was amazed that he wanted to hear about us and our thoughts; who knew someone so smart and passionate about child health could be so friendly?
After our chat we personally took us on a tour of CHOP, showed us some labs with real petrie dishes (see? I did pay attention in 9th grade physics) and lab technicians, and showed us his office.
Here’s a collage of our visit.
This is just a small portion of our day! Stay tuned for more about this FABULOUS day!
I wanted to wear my lab coat but my kids said NO but I thought it lended a sort of Patch Adams feel. I later found out that there is a library INSIDE CHOP! More about that later…