Vaccine Safety Advocates and Industry Ties: Paul Offit and the AAP

There are some of the most trusted voices in the defense of vaccine safety, the American Academy of Pediatrics, Every Child By Two, and pediatrician, Dr. Paul Offit.

Hundred forty-two thousand dollars was given to the academy by Wyeth, maker of the pneumococcal vaccine, for a community grant program.

Four hundred thirty-three thousand dollars was contributed to the academy by Merck, the same year the academy endorsed Merck's HPV vaccine.

Then there's Dr. Paul Offit, perhaps the most widely quoted defender of vaccine safety.

He's gone so far as to say babies can theoretically tolerate, quote, "10,000 vaccines at once."

This is how Offit described himself in a previous interview.

I'm the chief of infectious diseases at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and a professor of pediatrics at Penn's Medical School.

Dr. Offit was not willing to be interviewed on this subject.

But like others in our investigation, he has strong industry ties.

In fact, he's a vaccine industry insider.

Dr. Offit holds a $1.5 million research chair at Children's Hospital, funded by Merck.

He holds the patent on an anti-diarrhea vaccine he developed with Merck, RotaTeq, which has prevented thousands of hospitalizations in the US, and future royalties for the vaccine were just sold for $182 million cash.

Dr. Offit's share of vaccine profits, unknown.