Features
- Cover Type: Paperback with 400 pages
- Published by: St. Martin's Griffin June 23, 2005
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0312342721
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0312342722
-
Book Dimensions:
9.4 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
- Weighs: 1 pounds
Product Review
Past tragedies caused by "miracle drugs" have taught the public to approach cures with caution, and vaccines, in particular, have come under public scrutiny. In
The Virus and the Vaccine, journalists Debbie Bookchin and Jim Schumacher uncover the true tale of the polio vaccine and its past and present dangers. Like many medical detective stories before it, this book starts with a chilling anecdote, then flashes back to slowly set the stage for disaster. Baby boomers who only know Jonas Salk and his virus-fighting colleagues as heroes will be disturbed at how some of them downplayed concerns about a monkey virus called SV40 that was present in the polio vaccine. The links between SV40 and human cancer took a long time to define, and breakthroughs in molecular biology made the job more realistic in later decades. Nevertheless, Bookchin and Schumacher argue that a biased scientific bureaucracy in combination with a desperate public and money-hungry pharmaceutical! companies fostered the use of a vaccine that may have increased cancer risk. "The vast majority of baby boomers--almost all of whom received polio vaccine in the late 1950s and early 1960s--have potentially been exposed to the virus," they write. But baby boomers aren't the only ones at risk. The authors reveal that Lederle Laboratories continued to produce potentially contaminated oral polio vaccines well into the 1990s. Although the authors point fingers of blame at some specific targets, they carefully balance their accusations with reminders that public demands for cures must be balanced with careful assessment of new medical treatments.
--Therese Littleton
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Journalists Bookchin and Schumacher argue that for nine years, from 1954 to 1963, almost every dose of polio vaccine produced in the worldâ€"and the 98 million Americans who received polio vaccinationsâ€"was contaminated with a cancer-causing virus from the monkey kidneys used to develop the vaccine. Although the polio vaccine developed by Dr. Jonas Salk virtually ended polio as a threatening disease, the authors detail how "the screening techniques and observation periods that Salk and the vaccine manufacturers employed were not capable of always catching the contaminants." This sordid story spells out how repeated research studies showing that the "SV40" virus was in the vaccine were dismissed by federal health officials, so that "there would be no warning to consumers that the vaccine they and their children were receiving contained a live monkey virus whose effect on humans was entirely unknown." In the second part, the authors contend that even today such organizations as the National Institutes of Health continue to dismiss study results, even though numerous studies have shown that SV40 is capable of causing cancer in humans. The final and most horrific part of the story reports that Lederle Laboratories, the sole oral vaccine supplier in the U.S. from 1977 onward, continued to use monkey kidneys possibly infected by the SV40 virus in its manufacturing process until oral polio vaccine was removed from the market as late as January 2000. This meticulously researched, levelheaded and well-written book should stir up considerable debate. Because the authors never become alarmist, this solid work of investigative reporting carries considerable weight, and deserves to be read by a large audience.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Reader Reviews
This review is from: The Virus and the Vaccine: The True Story of a Cancer-Causing Monkey Virus, Contaminated Polio Vaccine, and the Millions of Americans Exposed (Hardcover)
This story is incredible and likely to disturb readers to the core. There are so many ways to go with writing a review. First, there's the readability factor: Scores a ten there - it's a page turner as others have written. I read it over the course of 3 nights and found, like others, that it reads like a thriller or perhaps even a Grisham novel - only this story is TRUE. Second, there's the important lessons for all of humankind factor: Scores a ten in this department as well. Polio vaccine is a human invention; human beings are not infallible, they have never been infallible, and by extension there never has been nor will there ever be a human invention that is not prone to errors in human thinking, reasoning, and judgment and not subject to continuous improvements and/or great change as human knowledge advances. Despite this undeniable truth, large health organizations and government health agencies would like the public to believe a very one-sided message about polio vaccine: that it is a medical milestone worthy of great praise and worship as it has delivered mankind from the evils of the childhood affliction of polio. Amen. But that's only half the story. This book is about the other half - the one you won't read about in the press and that's about a great trade off of the polio vaccine. In exchange for reducing the rate of paralytic polio instances in childhood, has this wondrous medical marvel cut decades off many of our friends' and neighbors' lives? We all know people, some of them really great people, who died of rare and mysterious cancers in their 30s, 40s and 50s. They were diagnosed with cancer and as soon as treatments began their tumors spread fast and they succumbed quickly to their strange form of cancer. They left behind spouses, children and parents who will never be cared for by them in youth and old age. I'm not suggesting that all, most or even some of these deaths are a result of SV-40 contaminated polio vaccine, but we are not in a position at present to ever know for sure as the party-line from the organizations who are supposed to protect public health continues to be that SV-40 in polio vaccines has not been proven to cause harm to man. Please read this book and encourage other thinking people to read it too. There are many lessons that can be and should be learned from the polio vaccine history and SV-40 story. You'll also come away with new modern-day heroes who, unlike so many of the icons of today, are truly worthy of your respect and admiration. There are the scientists and researchers like Bernice Eddy, Michele Carbone and others who did and continue to do the right thing despite the many pressures to not stir up this pot. And then the biggest heroes of all in my mind are the authors for taking the time and dedicating years of their lives to accurately tell this great story...the true story that plain and simply has to be told.
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