An Epidemic of Fear: The Aftermath

Wired, November 2009

In 2009 Wired published a brave piece by Amy Wallace entitled, “An Epidemic of Fear: How Panicked Parents Skipping Shots Endangers Us All.” The piece was hugely controversial — a year later, readers were still sending letters about it.

In the weeks following the story’s publication, Wired launched a blog, which I edited, providing some of the background reporting that didn’t make it into the story. A group of reporters also answered readers’ questions and covered news of a mumps epidemic in New York.

As the editor of Wired‘s letters section, I was also charged with condensing close to 1,000 reader responses into two pages in the print magazine. Read that letters section here. I discussed the challenges of editing that section in this Storyboard podcast.