A Bad Reaction is a personal journey–sometimes painful, sometimes funny. It confronts the dissonance between what the government tells us about the vaccine-autism link and its quiet payments compensating the vaccine-injured. It tackles broader issues such as individual versus government responsibility, the conflicts of interest in vaccination-safety research, and the balance of individual and collective good. Vaccines hold the special distinction of being the only mandated drugs all children receive and have saved innumerable lives.