"Dr. Cowan intelligently educates us on the complicated and beautiful workings of our immune system [and] charts the clear, concise path to healing, offering a better, healthier life for us, our children, and the planet."--Lindy Woodard, MD, Pediatric Alternatives

Over the past fifty years, rates of autoimmunity and chronic disease have exploded. Currently:

• 1 in 2.5 American children has an allergy
• 1 in 11 has asthma
• 1 in 13 has severe food allergies
• 1 in 36 has autism.

While some attribute this rise to increased awareness and diagnosis, Thomas Cowan, MD, argues for a direct causal relationship to a corresponding increase in the number of vaccines American children typically receive--approximately 70 vaccine doses by age eighteen. The goal of these vaccines is precisely what we're now seeing in such abundance among our chronically ill children: the provocation of immune response.

Dr. Cowan looks at emerging evidence that certain childhood illnesses are actually protective of disease later in life; examines the role of fever, the gut, and cellular fluid in immune health; argues that vaccination is an ineffective (and harmful) attempt to shortcut a complex immune response; and asserts that the medical establishment has engaged in an authoritarian argument that robs parents of informed consent. His ultimate question, from the point of view of a doctor who has decades of experience treating countless children is: What are we really doing to children when we vaccinate them?