Paul A. Offit, MD, is the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Infectious Diseases. He is the Maurice R. Hilleman Professor of Vaccinology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine.
Dr. Offit is a globally renowned specialist in the disciplines of virology and immunology, and she served on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. He is a member of the Food and Drug Administration’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, as well as a founding advisory board member of the Autism Science Foundation and the Foundation for Vaccine Research. He is also a member of the Institute of Medicine and co-editor of the world’s leading vaccine journal.
Works
Dr. Offit has over 150 publications published in medical and scientific journals on rotavirus-specific immune responses and vaccination safety. He is also a co-inventor of the rotavirus vaccination RotaTeq®, which the CDC recommends for universal use in babies. Dr. Offit received the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine‘s Luigi Mastroianni and William Osler Awards, the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases’ Charles Mérieux Award, and was honored by Bill and Melinda Gates during the launch of their Foundation’s Living Proof Project for global health. Dr. Offit is the author of seven medical memoirs, including ‘The Cutter Incident: How America’s First Polio Vaccine Led to Today’s Growing Vaccine Crisis,’ which has won multiple awards.
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Inspiring Talks by Paul Offit
Interview
Notable quotes
- “Where’s the evidence that somebody over 50 benefits from a fourth dose? Because the evidence to date appears to support the possibility for those over 65, although I haven’t, we haven’t seen all the data, absent that evidence, then there shouldn’t be this recommendation.”
- “The goal of The Pfizer vaccine is to prevent severe illness.”
- “The FDA would have sent the message to the general public that something’s wrong with this vaccine. And then [ if ] we come back a few months later and vote yes, people may still be suspicious or less likely to take the vaccine up, my word to parents who have young children is that this is not a’ no’; it’s a’ not yet,’.”
- “I’m always up for studying more. That’s the last refuge of the academic scoundrel: more studies.”
- “Famotidine is kind of a poor man’s tocilizumab.”
- “Independent of whether there are mandates or not, I think people should reasonably wear masks when they’re indoors for the next few weeks until we’re much farther down than where we are right now, we’re almost there.”
- “So, what I would say is, independent of whether there are mandates or not, I think people should reasonably wear masks when they’re indoors for the next few weeks until we’re much farther down than where we are right now.”
- “I think we need to show why a booster dose is clearly of benefit to 18-29 year-olds because if it’s not clearly of benefit, we have to consider the fact that myocarditis was a second dose phenomenon and may also be a third dose phenomenon. Do the benefits clearly and definitively outweigh risks for 18-29-year-old?”
- “I think we need to be transparent about this decision, and the best way for us to be transparent is to hold advisory committee meetings at both The FDA and the CDC so the public can hear the discussion about why this is an important thing to do.”
- “The administration got what it wanted, to be perfectly honest, I think this was shoved down our throats.”