The Cutter Incident

Author : Paul A. Offit
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780300126051
Total Pages : 260 pages
Book Rating : 4.50/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Cutter Incident written by Paul A. Offit and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2007-09-18 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Author : Paul A. Offit
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300130376
Total Pages : 250 pages
Book Rating : 4.79/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Cutter Incident written by Paul A. Offit and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2005-10-10 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history and analysis of the tragic 1955 American pharmaceutical disaster involving one company’s polio vaccine. 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, that has 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, because 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. Praise for The Cutter Incident “Offit . . . has written a fascinating and highly readable account of the development of the polio vaccine. He also offers a compelling plea for a strengthened law to provide relief to companies that produce vaccines so that our nation may be afforded the most cost-effective and long-lasting form of prevention against many infectious diseases—an effective vaccine.” —Stanley Goldfarb, New York Post “The best account you will ever read about the interplay between big drug companies and bigger government.” —Peter Huber, Forbes “The book is very well written and reads almost like a detective story, with a nice balance between personal anecdotes and new materials not discussed in other accounts of the Cutter incident. It draws on meticulous archival documentation and on interviews with public health officers, pharmaceutical company executives, Cutter employees, and victims of the partially inactivated vaccine. . . . An important and valuable contribution.” —Nadav Davidovitch, Isis “Well written and easily understood, yet balanced with enough technical detail for medical professionals to read informatively cover to cover.” —Journal of the American Medical Association

Author : Arthur Allen
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 1324036354
Total Pages : 542 pages
Book Rating : 4.57/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver written by Arthur Allen and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2008-05-17 with total page 542 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A timely, fair-minded and crisply written account."—New York Times Book Review Vaccine juxtaposes the stories of brilliant scientists with the industry's struggle to produce safe, effective, and profitable vaccines. It focuses on the role of military and medical authority in the introduction of vaccines and looks at why some parents have resisted this authority. Political and social intrigue have often accompanied vaccination—from the divisive introduction of smallpox inoculation in colonial Boston to the 9,000 lawsuits recently filed by parents convinced that vaccines caused their children's autism. With narrative grace and investigative journalism, Arthur Allen reveals a history illuminated by hope and shrouded by controversy, and he sheds new light on changing notions of health, risk, and the common good.

Author : Richard J. Altenbaugh
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 331996349X
Total Pages : 355 pages
Book Rating : 4.95/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Vaccination in America written by Richard J. Altenbaugh and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-08-02 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The success of the polio vaccine was a remarkable breakthrough for medical science, effectively eradicating a dreaded childhood disease. It was also the largest medical experiment to use American schoolchildren. Richard J. Altenbaugh examines an uneasy conundrum in the history of vaccination: even as vaccines greatly mitigate the harm that infectious disease causes children, the process of developing these vaccines put children at great risk as research subjects. In the first half of the twentieth century, in the face of widespread resistance to vaccines, public health officials gradually medicalized American culture through mass media, public health campaigns, and the public education system. Schools supplied tens of thousands of young human subjects to researchers, school buildings became the main dispensaries of the polio antigen, and the mass immunization campaign that followed changed American public health policy in profound ways. Tapping links between bioethics, education, public health, and medical research, this book raises fundamental questions about child welfare and the tension between private and public responsibility that still fuel anxieties around vaccination today.

Author : Institute of Medicine
Publisher : National Academies Press
ISBN 13 : 0309048958
Total Pages : 481 pages
Book Rating : 4.58/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Adverse Events Associated with Childhood Vaccines written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1993-01-01 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Childhood immunization is one of the major public health measures of the 20th century and is now receiving special attention from the Clinton administration. At the same time, some parents and health professionals are questioning the safety of vaccines because of the occurrence of rare adverse events after immunization. This volume provides the most thorough literature review available about links between common childhood vaccinesâ€"tetanus, diphtheria, measles, mumps, polio, Haemophilus influenzae b, and hepatitis Bâ€"and specific types of disorders or death. The authors discuss approaches to evidence and causality and examine the consequencesâ€"neurologic and immunologic disorders and deathâ€"linked with immunization. Discussion also includes background information on the development of the vaccines and details about the case reports, clinical trials, and other evidence associating each vaccine with specific disorders. This comprehensive volume will be an important resource to anyone concerned about the immunization controversy: public health officials, pediatricians, attorneys, researchers, and parents.

Author : John Rhodes
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022679265X
Total Pages : 185 pages
Book Rating : 4.51/5 ( download)

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Download or read book How to Make a Vaccine written by John Rhodes and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2021-04-12 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Distinguished expert in vaccine development John Rhodes tells the story of the first approved COVID-19 vaccines and offers an essential, up-to-the-minute primer on how scientists discover, test, and distribute vaccines. As the COVID-19 pandemic has affected every corner of the world, changing our relationship to our communities, to our jobs, and to each other, the most pressing question has been—when will it end? Researchers around the globe are urgently trying to answer this question by racing to test and distribute a vaccine that could end the greatest public health threat of our time. In How to Make a Vaccine, an expert who has firsthand experience developing vaccines tells an optimistic story of how three hundred years of vaccine discovery and a century and a half of immunology research have come together at this powerful moment—and will lead to multiple COVID-19 vaccines. Dr. John Rhodes draws on his experience as an immunologist, including working alongside a young Anthony Fauci, to unravel the mystery of how vaccines are designed, tested, and produced at scale for global deployment. Concise and accessible, this book describes in everyday language how the immune system evolved to combat infection, how viruses responded by evolving ways to evade our defenses, and how vaccines do their work. That history, and the pace of current research developments, make Rhodes hopeful that multiple vaccines will protect us. Today the complex workings of the immune system are well understood. The tools needed by biomedical scientists stand ready to be used, and more than 160 vaccine candidates have already been produced. But defeating COVID-19 won’t be the end of the story: Rhodes describes how discoveries today are also empowering scientists to combat future threats to global health, including a recent breakthrough in the development of genetic vaccines, which have never before been used in humans. As the world prepares for a vaccine, Rhodes offers a current and informative look at the science and strategies that deliver solutions to the crisis.

Author : Thomas Abraham
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 1787380874
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.75/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Polio written by Thomas Abraham and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-06-29 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1988, the World Health Organization launched a twelve-year campaign to wipe out polio. Thirty years and several billion dollars over budget later, the campaign grinds on, vaccinating millions of children and hoping that each new year might see an end to the disease. But success remains elusive, against a surprisingly resilient virus, an unexpectedly weak vaccine and the vagaries of global politics, meeting with indifference from governments and populations alike. How did an innocuous campaign to rid the world of a crippling disease become a hostage of geopolitics? Why do parents refuse to vaccinate their children against polio? And why have poorly paid door-to-door healthworkers been assassinated? Thomas Abraham reports on the ground in search of answers.

Author : Dóra Vargha
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108420842
Total Pages : 267 pages
Book Rating : 4.46/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Polio Across the Iron Curtain written by Dóra Vargha and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-11 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through the lens of polio, Dóra Vargha looks anew at international health, communism and Cold War politics. This title is also available as Open Access.

Author : Paul A. Offit, M.D.
Publisher : HarperCollins
ISBN 13 : 0063251760
Total Pages : 323 pages
Book Rating : 4.62/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Vaccinated written by Paul A. Offit, M.D. and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2022-02-01 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vaccines save millions of lives every year, and one man, Maurice Hilleman, was responsible for nine of the big fourteen. Paul Offit recounts his story and the story of vaccines Maurice Hilleman discovered nine vaccines that practically every child gets, rendering formerly dread diseases—including often devastating ones such as mumps and rubella—practically forgotten. Paul A. Offit, a vaccine researcher himself, befriended Hilleman and, during the great man’s last months, interviewed him extensively about his life and career. Offit makes an eloquent and compelling case for Hilleman’s importance, arguing that, like Jonas Salk, his name should be known to everyone. But Vaccinated is also enriched and enlivened by a look at vaccines in the context of modern medical science and history, ranging across the globe and throughout time to take in a fascinating cast of hundreds, providing a vital contribution to the continuing debate over the value of vaccines.

Author : Nick Cutter
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1476717753
Total Pages : 464 pages
Book Rating : 4.53/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Troop written by Nick Cutter and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-02-25 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WINNER OF THE JAMES HERBERT AWARD FOR HORROR WRITING “The Troop scared the hell out of me, and I couldn’t put it down. This is old-school horror at its best.” —Stephen King Once every year, Scoutmaster Tim Riggs leads a troop of boys into the Canadian wilderness for a weekend camping trip—a tradition as comforting and reliable as a good ghost story around a roaring bonfire. But when an unexpected intruder stumbles upon their campsite—shockingly thin, disturbingly pale, and voraciously hungry—Tim and the boys are exposed to something far more frightening than any tale of terror. The human carrier of a bioengineered nightmare. A horror that spreads faster than fear. A harrowing struggle for survival with no escape from the elements, the infected…or one another. Part Lord of the Flies, part 28 Days Later—and all-consuming—this tightly written, edge-of-your-seat thriller takes you deep into the heart of darkness, where fear feeds on sanity…and terror hungers for more.