Book Description
Here David Oshinsky tells the gripping story of the polio terror and of the intense effort to find a cure, from the March of Dimes to the discovery of the Salk and Sabin vaccines--and beyond. Drawing on newly available papers of Jonas Salk, Albert Sabin and other key players, Oshinsky paints a suspenseful portrait of the race for the cure, weaving a dramatic tale centered on the furious rivalry between Salk and Sabin. He also tells the story of Isabel Morgan, perhaps the most talented of all polio researchers, who might have beaten Salk to the prize if she had not retired to raise a family. Oshinsky offers an insightful look at the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, which was founded in the 1930s by FDR and Basil O'Connor, it revolutionized fundraising and the perception of disease in America. Oshinsky also shows how the polio experience revolutionized the way in which the government licensed and tested new drugs before allowing them on the market, and the way in which the legal system dealt with manufacturers' liability for unsafe products. Finally, and perhaps most tellingly, Oshinsky reveals that polio was never the raging epidemic portrayed by the media, but in truth a relatively uncommon disease. But in baby-booming America--increasingly suburban, family-oriented, and hygiene-obsessed--the specter of polio, like the specter of the atomic bomb, soon became a cloud of terror over daily life. Both a gripping scientific suspense story and a provocative social and cultural history, Polio opens a fresh window onto postwar America.
Customer Reviews:
Worthy of Attention.......2007-09-04
This is a solid treatment of the popular history of polio in the US and the process of discovering and implementing an effective vaccine. The book is quite strong on the history and political machinations involved, but I would like to have seen a bit more detail on the science side. From a 2007 vantage point, it is difficult to appreciate the fear and helplessness that polio visited on children of the 20's through 50's, and the book does a good job painting a vivid and believable picture. For example, there is a detailed treatment of an outbreak in Hickory, NC, near my hometown, that I later discussed with people I knew of that age in the area, all of whom confirmed so much of what the book had to say.
Also a very strong treatment of the development of disease-related fundraising "business" in the US, and FDR's very significant role in the formation of the March of Dimes and the popularization of popular, mass-based philanthropy in the US. That treatment alone would justify reading the book.
Riveting. You Won't Put it Down!.......2007-09-04
Horrifying (entombment in an iron lung); uplifting (the indomitable human spirit); suspenseful (which tortoise won?); and forboding (the origin of AIDS?). Riveting. You won't put it down!
Remember the Sugar Cubes.......2007-08-11
As someone born in the mid-50's, I found this to be a fascinating history of the conquering of polio and learn that my generation was one of the first recipients of that benefits of the years of effort that resulted in teh vaccine.
Polio: An American Story presents various sides of this undertaking touching on science, history, mystery, philanthropy, politics and human emotion. It is a wonderful read and helped me understand the people and energy behind how the sugar cube with the pink dot that I consumed in the early 60's came about.
Compelling reading.......2007-07-28
As an adult old enough to remember the infamous 'polio summers' of the early 1950s, the Salk vs. Sabin vaccine controversies and the massive Salk vaccine trials in the summer of 1954, I knew before I opened this book that it would interest me. What I did not expect was that I would be riveted by a quintessentially American story spanning the twists and turns of American medicine, science, advertising, politics, celebrity, and culture in the 20th century as these were influenced by the ongoing polio crisis.
The book is highly readable, clearly explaining the killed (Salk) vs. live (Sabin) vaccine arguments together with the ironic twists of scientific innovation that led first to the abandonment of the Salk vaccine in favor of the Sabin vaccine and later to the replacement of the Sabin vaccine with the Salk. In a sense, both men won the vaccine competition and both men also lost the competition.
The book clarifies important role that polio, described by the enormously successful March of Dimes as a children's disease (although it struck FDR at age 39), played in turning the US into the intensely child-oriented society we live in today. The profound impact of the March of Dimes on the world of advertising also makes for compelling reading.
Even if you are too young to have personally experienced the polio battle, the picture of the US at mid-century is not to be missed since it contributed so much to who as a society we are now. Highly recommended.
Pretty good.......2007-07-24
This book was interesting and held my attention. It glosses over some things in order to focus on the personalities and politics of the time. For example, the author makes the point several times that polio was a disease that hit more affluent families harder than poorer families... and hit cleaner homes harder than dirtier homes... yet, I still don't know why. It never really talked about the disease itself (how it's transmitted, etc), other than to touch on its paralytic effects. It felt somewhat unfinished.
Book Description
Emily Martin traces Americans' changing ideas about health and immunity since the 1940s. She explores the implications of our emphasis on 'flexibility' in contexts from medicine to the corporate world, warning that we may be approaching a new form of social Darwinism.
Book Description
Polio is a disease of paradoxes, the major one being that although the threat of the 'dreaded disease' ended with the Salk vaccine in 1954, many polio survivors are now experiencing the onset of 'Post-Polio Syndrome' (PPS), new but related symptoms which may include chronic fatigue, muscle weakness, intolerance to cold, and more. In his groundbreaking book, Dr. Bruno has sounded an alarming wake-up call for both doctors and PPS sufferers, including a large number who were originally misdiagnosed with something other than polio and can now pursue the medical help they need. By revealing how the treatment of polio in the past has exacerbated what we now call PPS today, THEPOLIO PARADOX provides hope and new treatment information for an entire generation.
Customer Reviews:
Had Polio... PPS now.......2007-07-29
This is a very helpful and informative work for Polio survivors AND their families. Believe it or not, there are some informed professionals "out there."
This book changed my life.......2007-01-03
I am a polio survivor and knew that I had one post-polio problem - swallowing difficulty. This has been getting worse for about five years, so I have searched for useful info on post-polio and found nothing until this book. As I read this book, I had numerous AHA! moments realizing that I had many other symptoms. Problems that I had been experiencing were suddenly explained to me. I have read and reread portions of the book, highlighted sections and forced all four of my kids and my husband to read these sections, so that they would understand what I was experiencing. My doctor also read the book and it has helped in my treatment. Every polio survivor should read this. Polio never goes away! I now understand that it is my constant companion and have been able to make many life style changes. Advice for those who did not have polio is not the same as advice for me. For instance, I learned that all the exercise that I had been doing to try to stay healthy was doing just the opposite. My doctor advised me to cancel my Curves membership and cut back on any activities that made me cold. I need warmth and rest, not cold and exercise. I was stunned, but feel better now.
it explains it all.......2006-03-16
A must read for anyone with polio in their past. I read it and decided it was written about me. It explains everything! Even things not thought about. The reader will understand why, how come, what if, and things not at the concious level yet.
Very informative reading, highly recommended........2006-03-09
This should be read by every polio survivor. It is a great learning tool and explanation of what we are experiencing all these years later. This should be shared with all family, friends and treating physicians.
The Polio Paradox.......2006-02-22
This is an extremely informative book. If you are a polio survivor and wonder what is happening to your body as you age, this has many answers.
I highly recommend it.
Book Description
The riveting story of one of the greatest scientific accomplishments of the twentieth century, from the coauthor of the #1 New York Times bestseller Apollo 13.
With rivalries, reversals, and a race against time, the struggle to eradicate polio is one of the great tales of modern history. It begins with the birth of Jonas Salk, shortly before one of the worst polio epidemics in United States history. At the time, the disease was a terrifying enigma: striking from out of nowhere, it afflicted tens of thousands of children in this country each year and left them-literally overnight-paralyzed, and sometimes at death's door.
Salk was in medical school just as a president crippled by the disease, Franklin D. Roosevelt, was taking office-and providing the impetus to the drive for studies on polio. By the early 1950s, Salk had already helped create an influenza vaccine, and was hot on the trail of the polio virus. He was nearly thwarted, though, by the politics of medicine and by a rival researcher eager to discredit his proposed solution. Meanwhile, in 1952, polio was spreading in record numbers, with 57,000 cases in the United States that summer alone.
In early 1954, Salk was weighing the possibility of trials of a not-yet-perfected vaccine against-as the summer approached-the prospect of thousands more children being struck down by the disease. The results of the history-making trials were announced at a press conference on April 12, 1955: "The vaccine works." The room-and an entire nation-erupted in cheers for this singular medical achievement.
Salk became a cultural hero and icon for a whole generation. Now, at the fiftieth anniversary of the first national vaccination program-and as humanity is tantalizingly close to eradicating polio worldwide-comes this unforgettable chronicle. Salk's work was an unparalleled achievement-and it makes for a magnificent read.
Customer Reviews:
dull and lifeless.......2007-01-21
i found the first chapter of this book quite boring, full of uninteresting detail, but it got better later, though it may be that i just got used to it. as it is, it still wasn't a particularly good book.
one of my complaints is how kluger completely idealizes Salk. for instance, at one point he refuses to tell his rival details about his work because "it seemed somehow wrong to share what he knew with one scientist before revealing it to all the others." come on. it was proffessional rivalry.
another thing that annoyed me was kluger over-analyzing various details that didn't seem to mean anything. he ascribed intentions to various unimportant acts that for one thing, he has no proof of, and for another, are boring to listen to. and we never really get any idea of Salk's personality, which makes the book rather boring, as salk is, after all, the main character. in his acknowledgements, Kluger calls him "a tectonic force in scientific history." bull. all he did was develop a vaccine with already-created methods.
and the details. the book would probably have been way too short if kluger hadn't put in all the details, but still. he spends pages talking about trivial things like how someone decided on the specific date for a conference. sometimes it's interesting details that make a book come alive... but these aren't interesting details.
so i guess the whole problem with the book was that it wasn't alive. the man it's about is a flat, unknown character, and the plot is too long-drawn out and not interesting enough. it wasn't *so* boring, i got through it easily enough, but when i was done i couldn't help thinking what a waste of my time.
one ofthe best scientific mysteries and its solution!.......2006-05-22
Oh...I was so disappointed when I got near the end of the book and realized that the ending would be based on the susquent gearing up of the corporate making of the immense quantities of this vaccine, to bring it into control world-wide. Yet, I came to unerstand that was the right ending to this story...everthing after that was useless detail, even if I wanted to know more about the people involved.
The continuing fight between the arrogant Sabin and Salk has been told elsewhere.and since I wandered around the hallways where Salk and his group did his work. I would hear bits and pieces of the rest of the story, including Salk's mistake of neglecting to mention all of his immediate collegues who spent so much time for so little recognition. I wonder is he ever offered a simple apology...or did he know that would never gain him total forgiveness.
The book is all the more exciting because of my being in and around the places where they worked, and my husband worked for the newspaper, same as Troan...so the book gained the feeling of a movie to me. Kliger is an outstanding scince writer, so that means a lont time between books. Sigh...
At least this is one virus they can truly claim a victory over, and how glad I am as a mother of the 1980's that my children were spared this horrific disease.
Karen Sadler
Science Education
A Splendid Story.......2005-11-20
This tale of science, competition, personalities and politics provides one a splendid base for understanding of processes of the past in order to help in understanding the present.
With my knowledge of viruses as a health care professional, I found the intersection of science with egos and policy somewhat disturbing but not surprising. According to Kluger, Dr. Salk was a selfless scientist who prioritized work above family. The book nearly slanders Dr. Sabin. I have no basis for judgment other than this book, however. This is only one side of the story.
One may find himself extrapolating to the current threat of pandemic Avian Influenza. Splendid Solution provides insight into the process, which according to NIH officials may take up to five years, whereby we may have an Avian Flu vaccine.
Drs. Salk and Sabin (with their assistants) did more than protect us from Polio. In the end, it was the combination of their discoveries that conquered Polio. The book implies that Salk's vaccine may have conquered it alone or more quickly had politics not intervened. But we will never know. We do know that the combination worked.
They laid the groundwork for our protection from threats yet unknown. They are both true American heroes.
A real non fiction page turner.......2005-08-29
Kluger writes a riveting account of the search for an effective immunization for an annual epidemic plaguing society through the first half of the twentieth century. He skillfully weaves the story of Salk's quest within its social background. Reading it brought me back to my childhood in the 1950's and my parents' anxieties each summer as newspapers published counts of local and national polio cases.
A biography of Dr. Salk and his search for the vaccine .......2005-05-11
In 2005 the U.S. celebrates its 50th anniversary of the first national polio vaccination program which helped eradicate the disease in this country: it's hard to believe a generation is growing up without ever having known the ravages of polio. New York Times writer Jeffrey Kluger's Splendid Solution: Jonas Salk And The Conquest Of Polio is both a biography of Dr. Salk and his search for the vaccine and a social history of polio. Chapters based on exclusive interviews with his friends and colleagues and access to his private papers provides new details on Salk's life and career, setting this life in context of both his times and contemporaries.
Book Description
This essential guide for polio survivors, their families, and their health care providers offers expert advice on all aspects of post-polio syndrome. Based on her extensive experience treating post-polio patients, Dr. Julie K. Silver discusses issues of crucial importance, including how to find the best medical care, deal with symptoms, sustain mobility, manage pain, approach insurance issues, and arrange a safe living environment.
Customer Reviews:
Post-Polio Syndrome.......2007-03-28
Excellent!! A must read for anyone with this diagnosis. Helpful, inspiring and her clinic can help you live your life to it's fullest. She's affilated with Mass. General and Harvard, the best in New England. This book was a life saver for me.
Excellent resource for people with who've had polio!.......2005-08-16
Dr. Julie Silver's book is the best summary I've seen of information on post-polio syndrome. Her explanations are clear, informative, and full of information that is crucial for anyone with a history of polio. I highly recommend it.
Post Polio Syndrome: A Guide for POlio Survivors & Their Families.......2005-07-22
I HIGHLY recommend this book for polio survivor and especially for every doctor that is treating a post polio person. It is a MUST! It is very easy to read & understand & not a doomsday downer in any way. I am on my second read as I am sure I missed key points and sure enough there are jewels of knowledge & necessary information WE POST POLIO survivors must do for ourselves and make sure our specialists have full grasp of our ever changing condition. PLan to mark up your copy and buy two copies or more at the beginning as you will want to make sure anyone that is trying to help you or cares about you can be fully informed.
Facts are fascinating.......2005-04-18
This book is a must for anyone who is a polio survivor, just as is TO CATCH THE SNOWFLAKES, the story of a polio winner.
Post Polio Syndrom.......2003-04-30
An excellent, informative book! If you're a polio survivor, it is a MUST read!
Book Description
Vaccines have saved more lives than any other single medical advance. Yet today only four companies make vaccines, and there is a growing crisis in vaccine availability. Why has this happened? This remarkable book recounts for the first time a devastating episode in 1955 at Cutter Laboratories in Berkeley, California, thathas led many pharmaceutical companies to abandon vaccine manufacture.
Drawing on interviews with public health officials, pharmaceutical company executives, attorneys, Cutter employees, and victims of the vaccine, as well as on previously unavailable archives, Dr. Paul Offit offers a full account of the Cutter disaster. He describes the nation’s relief when the polio vaccine was developed by Jonas Salk in 1955, the production of the vaccine at industrial facilities such as the one operated by Cutter, and the tragedy that occurred when 200,000 people were inadvertently injected with live virulent polio virus: 70,000 became ill, 200 were permanently paralyzed, and 10 died. Dr. Offit also explores how, as a consequence of the tragedy, one jury’s verdict set in motion events that eventually suppressed the production of vaccines already licensed and deterred the development of new vaccines that hold the promise of preventing other fatal diseases.
Customer Reviews:
A real problem and a contentious solution.......2006-11-01
There's a lot of noise about vaccines today, what with bird flu and who knows what over the horizon, but nothing compared with 50 years ago, when the Salk polio vaccine was introduced.
People younger than about 60 years old can hardly imagine the fear that gripped American parents every summer then. The shadow of the iron lung was far more terrifying than the shadow of the atomic bomb.
Salk vaccine worked and, under proper controls, was safe.
But controls were not proper, and vaccine made by Cutter Laboratories killed 10 people and paralyzed a few hundred more. At least several hundred thousand Americans were exposed to live polio virus. More did not become severely ill because fewer than one percent of people exposed to wild virus show symptoms.
Physician Paul Offit, a vaccine researcher and pediatrician in Philadelphia, says the "Cutter Incident" was more than just a forgotten medical mishap.
The net Offit casts brings back an amazing variety of things: research on aborted fetuses, Eddie Cantor and Nancy Reagan, Nobel Prizes and presidential politics, irresponsible journalists, backstabbing researchers.
Offit, a skilled expository writer, packs a lot of information into the first 130 pages to set up his current concern: That the fallout from Cutter Laboratories' bad vaccine led to legal precedents that continue to endanger lives today.
In other words, Offit has reached back half a century to find a hook on which to hang a plea for tort "reform."
Tort reform is a swamp with only a narrow causeway through it.
On the left hand lie the plaintiffs' lawyers, greedy, sensationalist and underhanded, as exemplified by the Milli Vanilli raid. On the right hand lie the corporate lawyers, who want their employers to enjoy all the benefits of legal personhood without any of the responsibility that flesh-and-blood persons bear.
However, it gets complicated.
For every flimflamming plaintiff's lawyer, there's a hard-fighting advocate who puts up his own money (in one case I know of, by taking out a second mortgage on his home) to get justified satisfaction for a penniless victim.
And for every Wall Street Journal editorial writer whose idea of reform is "loser pays" -- that is, the rich buy verdicts -- there's a corporation ruined by lies flogged by "consumer rights activists" -- Bendectin, for example, a safe drug no longer available to pregnant women.
Offit's proposal, not new but not catching on either, is for "drug courts," expert tribunals .
Instead of juries, his courts would have specially trained judges who could call on court-paid, neutral experts to assist judges to rule up or down on a vaccine's safety.
It is inevitable that when tens of millions are treated, some persons receiving even safe vaccines will have medical disasters, and it is not always easy to prove whether the vaccine was involved or not. In Offit's plan, a fund would compensate the authentically injured without necessarily affixing blame.
It would be not unlike no-fault auto insurance, although even closer to an existing federal National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.
Offit believes it could recompense the injured (or merely unlucky) fairly while heading off frivolous lawsuits and encouraging pharmaceutical manufacturers to press on with research in risky, less lucrative areas of medicine.
Certainly Offit is on firm ground when he pleads to get decisions out of the hands of citizen jurors. If polls of Americans' beliefs and backgrounds are reliable, then on the typical jury of 12 persons, there are two or three who believe that disease is caused by demons, and not even one with any detailed knowledge about what viruses are or vaccines do.
As a result, we have got what Offit calls "a court system that functions as a national lottery for health care."
The Cutter Incident.......2006-01-04
The author presents the science and legal outcomes of this polio vaccine disaster in a clear and easy-to-understand manner. While telling a historical event, the author was aptly able to show how families today are still being affected-making this book a great read for those who have wondered just what is going on with vaccines, vaccine shortages, and the vaccine industry.
Pure Tripe.......2006-01-02
Frighteningly, Offit argues that Cutter should have been exonerated from liability for killing and maiming children because it was found to have followed government requirements in the manufacture of vaccine found to be harmful, EVEN THOUGH, despite having "followed the right instructions" it KNEW the vaccine still contained live virus and thus was harmful. This is analogous to manufacturing cars that meet all safety requirements stipulated by the government, but then having knowledge that the cars will blow up ANYWAY, and thinking it is still o.k. to put them on the market.
Paul Offit likes to think that science should be left to the "experts". Fair enough. I would suggest he leave legal analysis of the concept of negligence to the lawyers.
Mary Tiesenga
Quite fascinating.......2005-12-29
In 1952, the United States suffered its worst ever polio epidemic, with 58,000 people affected. The race was on to perfect a vaccine that would bring this scourge under control. In 1955, following several breakthrough, a vaccine was created, and a huge trial was conducted, involving some 800,000 children, of whom 600,000 were given the vaccine (the rest were given a placebo). However, it quickly became apparent that something had gone wrong. Before all was said and done, 40,000 children contracted polio, 200 were permanently paralyzed, and 10 died. The race was on to find out what had gone wrong.
1955 was still the dawn of the vaccine era, and there was much to be learned. However, in the aftermath of the vaccine, liability law was changed in a way that seemed minor at the time, but has resulted in a dearth of vaccines and vaccine makers. Do you want to know why 2004 witnessed a shortage of flu vaccines? Read this book and find out!
Overall, I must say that I found this book to be quite fascinating. The author does a good job of retelling what happened, and what its ramifications were and are. It seems quite ironic that something that went wrong at the dawn of vaccines is bringing the era of vaccines to a close! If you want to know how we got from that seemingly glorious era of ever new vaccines, which seemed to promise a disease free future, to day, then you must read this book. I highly recommend it!
A very timely read as we consider the possibility of a worldwide flu pandemic .......2005-11-14
Are you aware of the real reasons there has been a chronic shortage of flu vaccine in the U.S. for the past several years? Are you concerned that there is the very real possibility of a major flu pandemic that could rival the 1918 outbreak that claimed 675.000 lives in this country? Would you be interested in learning why most pharmaceutical companies are no longer involved in the manufacture of essential vaccines? Paul Offit, M.D. sheds a great deal of light on these matters in "The Cutter Incident". Offit recalls a long forgotten series of events from the polio epidemic in the mid to late 1950's that has resulted in the serious shortage of vaccines that we are seeing today. The consequences of these shortages and our inability to respond to an unexpected epidemic have the potential to be devastating to our nation.
I think that it is fair to say that most Americans take a rather
dim view of the major pharmaceutical companies. These attitudes are really not that difficult to understand when one considers that these firms have been the target of all manner of accusations and frivolous charges by trial lawyers, public advocacy groups, assorted politicians and various media outlets over the past several decades. Certainly some of these criticisms are warranted but as Dr. Offit points out in "The Cutter Incident" many of these accusations proved to be totally without basis. As a result of costly and time consuming litigation, many companies simply chose to discontinue the production of the vaccines that are essential to the health and well-being of so many Americans. A half century ago there were more than two dozen companies engaged in the manufacture of various vaccines. Today that number has dwindled to a mere four! This is an extremely unfortunate and potentially dangerous set of circumstances that could have far reaching implications if a serious outbreak of disease were to occur.
"The Cutter Incident" just might change the way you view many of these issues. Beware of the lawyers and the politicians with an ax to grind. There is another side to this story and Dr. Paul Offit lays it all out in this thoughtful and well-written book. Our system is broken and needs to be fixed and time is of the essence! "The Cutter Incident" is a great way to get yourself up to speed on these very timely issues. Highly recommended!
Amazon.com
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
Book Description
Jonas Salk's polio vaccine has taken on an almost legendary quality as a medical miracle, for it largely eradicated one of the most feared diseases of the 20th century. But the story of the vaccine has a dark side, one that has never been fully told before....Between 1954 and 1963, close to 98 million Americans received polio vaccinations contaminated with a carcinogenic monkey virus, now known as SV40. A concerted government effort downplayed the incident, and it was generally accepted that although oncogenic to laboratory animals, SV40 was harmless to humans. But now SV40 in showing up in human cancers, and prominent researchers are demanding a serious public health response to this forgotten polio vaccine contaminant. A gripping medical detective story, The Virus and the Vaccine raises major questions about vaccine policy.
Customer Reviews:
If You Liked This Book..........2007-09-16
If you enjoyed reading this book, I suggest you also read The River, by Edward Hooper. Hoopers book posits a similar Frankensteinesque consequence of the race for a polio vaccine: the emergence of HIV in central Africa resulting from a batch of experimental polio vaccine, created in Zaire, using infected monkey kidneys.
And our government wants us to trust them?.......2007-02-12
This book shows just how much the corporations and even our own government do not care about you or me, they care about continuing their domination of our lives and making money.
I've likely had the polio shot that is described in this book, and you probably have too, it was around for four DECADES.
My mother fell into the years where the first horrible joke of a vaccine was first introduced in the United States by Jonas Salk, and she died from ALS in 1995. Maybe there is no connection, Lord knows there are other toxins in our world that could have been responsible, but was it their right to continue to vaccinate us with trash viruses from monkey kidneys? Is this the US or Hitler's Germany?
This book is meticulously researched and written. It's the one book I've run across on vaccines that none of the "pro-vaccine" people I've talked to have been able to debunk.
If you haven't already read this book, do so. It's scary, but I would rather know than not know.
And these are some of the same type of corporations currently pushing for legislation for the HPV vaccine to be mandatory - I don't trust them, do you?
Someone remarked in a previous review that this was a horrible mistake -- no, it wasn't. A mistake is when you shut your finger in the door and then realize how and why you did it, so that it doesn't happen again. This was calculated crime, in my opinion, by the "powers that are" on millions of Americans. They knew it was there [SV40] and they made choices to leave it there. What other viruses are in there that no one has found, or even bothered to look for?
This Book Should Be Required Reading For ALL Doctors, Lawyers, Parents and High School Students. .......2006-05-21
The other reviews have more than expressed the high level of journalism these authors have attained. Suffice it to say they should be inundated with movie offers by now. This is indeed the most compelling read in a very long time.
It is appalling to know just how reckless (and criminal) the vaccine programs really are and how deep the disregard for the public health. I promptly sent "Virus and the Vaccine" to a friend who is a top cancer specialist, to get an outside opinion. He too was blown away, horrified and found the book a powerful read. If your here and wondering if you should get this book..YES READ THIS BOOK. You will not regret it.
It is my opinion that the authors have done a great service to this country (and humanity) by dedicating their talents and time to uncovering this outrageous tale of woe. A Nobel Prize might just be in order! I am buying this book in lots, and sending copies to the most influential people I know (and my family). Bravo! S.A. Sarnoff, Founder & Pres. Health Advocacy in the Public Interest, Santa Barbara CA
The Virus and the Vaccine.......2006-03-25
This book is a frightening expose of the potential damage done to millions of unsuspecting Americans who were receiptents of polio vaccines that may have been carelessly contaminated with monkey virus that somehow eluded the best intended manufacturing processes of that day.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning for themselves whether vaccines may have caused more harm than good over decades of use. Let us hope the authors are wrong, because if they are right, the harm done will be uncomprehensible.
Good Condition.......2005-08-02
One of the basis for reading is to read a book in good condition.
Thanks to all those who sell and share their books.
Amazon.com
Outlining a program equally useful for those suffering from CFS, fibromyalgia ME, or post-polio sequelae, The Polio Paradox enables patients to overcome the emotional issues surrounding the disease and begin a helpful regimen of long-term self-care. Using simple diagrams and illustrations, along with plenty of references to medical studies the world over, Dr. Richard Bruno has written a straightforward guide that deals with both the physical and social concerns these illnesses raise.
The first section of the book outlines the recent history of the poliovirus, and how it affected, and continues to affect, several generations. From childhood agonies to adult experiences of extreme fatigue that worsen when patients attempt to stay active, every stage is examined, with a special focus on both how the virus works and how surviving the disease often resulted in a host of social stigmas. In blunt, often humorous prose, Bruno outlines recommendations to aid in dealing with recurring symptoms.
Admonishments like "walls, furniture, and spouses are not assistive devices" and "brake before you break" are aimed at helping patients develop a reasonable exercise program in combination with curtailing exhausting activities and gaining an understanding of how to live with a chronic, potentially debilitating illness. Supplying both a historical perspective and a healthy dose of practical support, Bruno offers an excellent and thorough introduction to the world of post-polio management. --Jill Lightner
Book Description
Outlining a program equally useful for those suffering from CFS, fibromyalgia ME, or post-polio sequelae, The Polio Paradox enables patients to overcome the emotional issues surrounding the disease and begin a helpful regimen of long-term self-care. Using simple diagrams and illustrations, along with plenty of references to medical studies the world over, Dr. Richard Bruno has written a straightforward guide that deals with both the physical and social concerns these illnesses raise. The first section of the book outlines the recent history of the poliovirus, and how it affected, and continues to affect, several generations. From childhood agonies to adult experiences of extreme fatigue that worsen when patients attempt to stay active, every stage is examined, with a special focus on both how the virus works and how surviving the disease often resulted in a host of social stigmas. In blunt, often humorous prose, Bruno outlines recommendations to aid in dealing with recurring symptoms. Admonishments like "walls, furniture, and spouses are not assistive devices" and "brake before you break" are aimed at helping patients develop a reasonable exercise program in combination with curtailing exhausting activities and gaining an understanding of how to live with a chronic, potentially debilitating illness. Supplying both a historical perspective and a healthy dose of practical support, Bruno offers an excellent and thorough introduction to the world of post-polio management. --Jill Lightner
Customer Reviews:
The Polio Paradox.......2007-03-28
Not a good first read. Mr. Bruno is depressing. I suggest Dr. Silver's book Post-Polio Syndrome, it is excellent!
Janet - It has enlightened my life.......2007-02-21
I had polio at the age of 5. I was so much luckier than alot of Polio Survivors. I got Dr. Bruno's book from the library and read it and read it at least 3X. I have recently ordered the book through Amazon and I am so excited to receive it.
He is an exceptional man, who writes so we can all understand. I will be meeting with Dr. Bruno and his team the end of March, I do not know where my new journey will lead me but I know that I will be safe and in the best of care. I recommend this book to anyone who has had Polio or has unexplained weakness, pain and fatigue everyday.
Life Changing Answers for Psychological and Physical PPS.......2005-10-16
Reading this book I felt like someone had entered my life and could see my thoughts and frustrations. It was strange. It is so true- we were taught avoidance of the issue.As a nurse I learned about polio in the past tense, and had read few articles on PPS. I had seen polio survivors, even gone to school with a couple but never talked to them and when problems started did not even know who to talk to.
Dr. Bruno covers just about every physical and emotional aspect-- now if I can just retrain myself to take care of me.
I was able to go to the Clinic and meet with Dr. Bruno and he is as genuine in person as he seems in the book. All the built up anxiety came tumbling out in a rush-- because this book showed he has pulse on my life as a post polio patient and seemed to CARE!!.
I think this book should be required reading for all in the medical field.
Like Maslow, Every Paragraph Grabs the Reader Who Suffers.......2004-04-19
"Ah ha!" are the words I'd suck in as I read Dr. Bruno's book. After a year's research on my own, I found the PPS Institute and Dr. Bruno's book. Those of us who had Polio (or didn't know that "it" was Polio) only knew one thing - we were over it and had to get on with life and catch up ASAP. We had fear at our back door, and it pushed us onward, every minute of our lives. For me, after cancer, I kept thinking "Its just the chemo" but I had been told in 1982 I had PPS and "Use it or lose it" was the theory protocol, so I kept going like I was short in the back with a "22" fearing I'd lose some dendrite that would nourish a neuron, and the first symptom I had (in '82) would come back. Instead, I became worse - the results were what drove me to discover Dr. Bruno's book and go to the Institute: hundreds of falls, broken bones, lacerated head injuries, tripping for the past 50 years and feeling like a clutz, when I was known as the regional "Happy Tom-Boy" BP (before Polio).
By the time Dr. Bruno told me to just "rest - chill for a few weeks" I had to do it; nothing else worked. It DID. I read the book again, and again...trying to find a glitch in his neuro-networking and neurology statements, but I couldn't. So, I did go to the Institute.
Everyone who knows anyone who's had Polio, or any sudden onset illness, or even as my little sister, used to drip food out of her nostrils at age 2 (it was Polio - 1954), must read this book. Be prepared to talk to doctors - they must have PPS as part of their required CMEs NOW. Post Polio surivors can no longer accept mediocre care, and repeated anesthesia "accidents (as I did)." With or without insurance, humans have a basic right to respect and care. I had Polio - I knew I did - and the fears associated with going "back" into it were at times paralyzing in itself...thus I kept swimming daily - often for three hours and lifting weights, anything to avoid breathing problems again, or the horrid stiff neck, or ... seeing my arm next to me and not moving even when I yelled at it!
Post Polio Paradox will give the reader the information needed to take to the medical professionals, and to educate themselves, and . . . gradually, safely, comfortably, change their lives from the fatalistic Type A personalities (which did get us through the horrors of Polio), but paradoxically - aptly put, can destroy us now. IF we are real, we will be able to see our 'worn' parts, accept them, and move on to another phrase in our lives - taking care of ourselves. "Polio Class of 1950"
Dr. Bruno is the utmost authority!.......2003-04-30
If you or someone you love is a polio survivor, this is a MUST read. Informative and written in plain language that a layman can understand! Thank you Dr. Bruno for enlightening me!
Book Description
During the first half of the twentieth century, epidemics of polio caused fear and panic, killing some who contracted the disease, leaving others with varying degrees of paralysis. The defeat of polio became a symbol of modern technology’s ability to reduce human suffering. But while the story of polio may have seemed to end on April 12, 1956, when the Salk vaccine was declared a success, millions of people worldwide are polio survivors.
In this dazzling memoir, Anne Finger interweaves her personal experience with polio with a social and cultural history of the disease. Anne contracted polio as a very young child, just a few months before the Salk vaccine became widely available. After six months of hospitalization, she returned to her family’s home in upstate New York, using braces and crutches. In her memoir, she writes about the physical expansiveness of her childhood, about medical attempts to “fix” her body, about family violence, job discrimination, and a life rich with political activism, writing, and motherhood.
She also writes an autobiography of the disease, describing how it came to widespread public attention during a 1916 epidemic in New York in which immigrants, especially Italian immigrants, were scapegoated as being the vectors of the disease. She relates the key roles that Franklin Roosevelt played in constructing polio as a disease that could be overcome with hard work, as well as his ties to the nascent March of Dimes, the prototype of the modern charity. Along the way, we meet the formidable Sister Kenny, the Australian nurse who claimed to have found a revolutionary treatment for polio and who was one of the most admired women in America at mid-century; a group of polio survivors who formed the League of the Physically Handicapped to agitate for an end to disability discrimination in Depression-era relief projects; and the founders of the early disability-rights movement, many of them polio survivors who, having been raised to overcome obstacles and triumph over their disabilities, confronted a world filled with barriers and impediments that no amount of hard work could overcome.
Anne Finger writes with the candor and the skill of a novelist, and shows not only how polio shaped her life, but how it shaped American cultural experience as well.
Customer Reviews:
An elegiac autobiography, she interweaves science with her own life experiences.......2006-10-31
Anne Finger is an award-winning writer and in her new book: Elegy for a Disease: A Personal and Cultural History of Polio, she discusses that at age four, she was one of the last to contract the disease. History of medicine enthusiasts will find engrossing facts about Australian nurse Elizabeth Kenny, who pioneered a treatment for infantile paralysis, the Salk vaccine, gruesome therapeutics, and the March of Dimes health charity. But overall, readers will find themselves caught up in a disabled woman's coming to terms with herself, her dysfunctional family, and society. Anne Finger is at her best when vividly detailing the Fifties and Sixties, the chapter on working-class London in the Sixties is a literary gem! This unsentimental, grippingly told story will captivate readers and sensitize them to the world of the disabled.
Book Description
Polio was the most dreaded childhood disease of twentieth-century America. Every summer during the 1940s and 1950s, parents were terrorized by the thought that polio might cripple their children. They warned their children not to drink from public fountains, to avoid swimming pools, and to stay away from movie theaters and other crowded places. Whenever and wherever polio struck, hospitals filled with victims of the virus. Many experienced only temporary paralysis, but others faced a lifetime of disability.
Living with Polio is the first book to focus primarily on the personal stories of the men and women who had acute polio and lived with its crippling consequences. Writing from personal experience, polio survivor Daniel J. Wilson shapes this impassioned book with the testimonials of more than one hundred polio victims, focusing on the years between 1930 and 1960. He traces the entire life experience of the survivors—from the alarming diagnosis all the way to the recent development of post-polio syndrome, a condition in which the symptoms of the disease may return two or three decades after they originally surfaced.
Living with Polio follows every physical and emotional stage of the disease: the loneliness of long separations from family and friends suffered by hospitalized victims; the rehabilitation facilitieswhere survivors spent a full year or more painfully trying to regain the use of their paralyzed muscles; and then the return home, where they were faced with readjusting to school or work with the aid of braces, crutches, or wheelchairs while their families faced the difficult responsibilities of caring for and supporting a child or spouse with a disability.
Poignant and gripping, Living with Polio is a compelling history of the enduring physical and psychological experience of polio straight from the rarely heard voices of its survivors.
Customer Reviews:
Living with Polio.......2005-06-28
This book is well written, as you would expect from a professor of medical history. The author's experience with polio makes this more than a historical exercise, it is a very personal journey. It brought back my memories of cold, itchy "hot packs", the love-hate relationship with our P/Ts. This book brought a tear to my eyes. It brought back memories of pain but also of victories. Every relative of a polio survivor should read this, to understand where we came from and where we are.
Tom
Living, Not Dying, With Disease.......2005-05-03
As a person born after the invention of the polio vaccines, polio was not the scourge of my childhood, in fact, I knew practically nothing about the disease until reading this book.
"Living with Polio" tell relates the stories of people who contacted polio and their struggles with infection and polio treatments, their triumphs in life and love, and their experiences with PPS (Post-Polio Syndrome). No detail of these experiences is spared and a true and clear picture emerges of what it must have been like to live with this disease.
Of particular interest to me, a student of human sexuality education, was the inclusion by the author of the survivors sexuality. Although stricken with polio, these people did not loose their sexuality when paralysis set in and it was very refreshing to see that aspect of the experience included.
"Living with polio" was not only an informative read, it was a well written and engaging one. Highly Recommended!
With tears and laughter.......2005-04-02
Dr. Wilson has written an illuminating history of American attitudes towards polio, and how over the years it has been the polio victims themselves who have made strides on behalf of disabled people everywhere. They did not depend on others, they went ahead and did it themselves. Wilson's book is both depressing and inspiring, but it is never dull and it is one of the best books of the season.
I guess "victims" is the wrong word; that dates me back to the time when polio was the scariest thing in a Cold War childhood, and the scares were everywhere: "don't got swimming," "don't go to the movies," "avoid that crippled boy for he might have the virus." Then in the mid-50s Dr. Salk's vaccine put polio in the past for most of us, for the lucky ones who were spared, but huge numbers of children all around the world had been affected and have been "living with polio" for the past fifty years. Ironically, a large percentage of these have been stricken with so called "post polio syndrome," a further debilitation that might ensue twenty, thirty, or forty years after the original outbreak, and these poor souls are faced with trying to convince young doctors that they are sick all over again, and it is the case with many doctors that you might be a neurologist and very sharp in your field but you might not ever have faced an active case of polio, so you're going to be 100 per cent useless in the case of PPS. Many patients report having to talk themselves blue in the face trying to convince the mindless MDs that their symptoms were not "all in their heads."
Wilson gathers the testimony of dozens of survivors. They are the bravest bunch of people you'll read about all year. No matter what their trials and tribulations, they needed bravery to survive the tears of intolerance, of reduced or eliminated movement, and the ignorant Western policy of non-accommodation so that for many children with polio, they were actively discouraged from attending school or even from going to a dance or on a date. It sounds crazy, but Wilson presents case after case of human beings whose lives were thwarted by social policy, not to mention a biological disaster. And yet there is room for laughter in these stories, and hope too.
Wilson is not only a skilled writer and sociologist but his book is sort of autobiographical too, for he is one of the polio survivors, and too he is coping with PPS right now. The pictures, photos and illustrations are all top-notch. You will find this book works in two ways, as an account of physical difficulty, and as well, it is a guidebook on a spiritual journey towards completion and the whole.
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- Red Scarf Girl (rpkg): A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution
- Roman Dusk: A Novel of the Count Saint-Germain (St. Germain)
- Rome Sweet Home: Our Journey to Catholicism
- Same Kind of Different as Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together
- Second Acts: Creating the Life You Really Want, Building the Career You Truly Desire
- Simone de Beauvoir: A Biography
- Spectroscopic Methods in Bioinorganic Chemistry (Acs Symposium Series)
- Tao Te Ching: A New English Version (Perennial Classics)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
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General
| 20th Century
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya
Living with Polio: The Epidemic and Its Survivors
March: A Novel
Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver
