Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All, Paul A. Offit, Basic Books, 270 pages, $27.50

The Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear, Seth Mnookin, Simon & Schuster, 429 pages, $26.99

Do vaccines cause autism or other neuro-developmental disorders? Scientists know that vaccines don't, but the idea lingers everywhere -- on talk shows and blogs and in conversations between parents and their child's pediatrician. It lingers because many people in this country and elsewhere think that vaccines just might not be good for us.