Vitality Radio Podcast with Jared St. Clair #272: Turtles All The Way Down, Science and Myth with Zoey O'Toole and Mary Holland
Nov 2, 2022
Zoey O'Toole, writer and editor who covered vaccine science, and Mary Holland, attorney and long-time vaccine choice advocate, discuss Turtles All The Way Down. They examine why the childhood vaccine schedule is controversial. They cover legal protections for manufacturers, secrecy and professional risk for critics, data gaps, and how parents can start asking questions.
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Liability Protection Changed Incentives
- The 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act gave broad liability protection to vaccine makers and providers.
- Mary Holland argues this created perverse incentives that expanded the vaccine schedule without sufficient safety accountability.
Pseudonyms Used To Avoid Backlash
- Zoey O'Toole and others used pen names to avoid professional and social reprisals while discussing vaccines.
- She lost a writing job after public involvement, illustrating the personal cost of questioning orthodoxy.
How The Book Reached English Readers
- Mary Holland discovered a Hebrew book with 1,200 references that critiqued vaccine safety and commissioned an English edition.
- She recruited Zoey O'Toole to edit and make the material readable for an American audience.
