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Reviews: A compellingly detailed and thoughtful look at the often rough-and-tumble world of vaccines."
- Paul Offit, MD, chief of Division of Infectious Diseases, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Arthur Allen expertly mixes science, social history, and suspense to tell a story that does just what a book about vaccines should do. His fascinating account - which brings plagues and personalities to life-inoculates readers against superstition and panic as deadly germs and intense vaccination debates return to haunt us. Vaccine is a reminder that there are no quick fixes. It’s also a call to recognize that the collective commitment to protect children against infectious disease holds great promise."
-Ann Hulbert, author of Raising America: Experts, Parents, and a Century of Advice about Children
"Vaccine is a readable and interesting history of the world’s greatest medical achievement, offering insights into personalities, controversies, and complexities in the field of immunizations."
-Jeffrey P.Koplan, MD, MPH, former director of Centers for Disease Control
Description: A Fascinating account of vaccination’s miraculous, inflammatory past and its uncertain future.
When President George W. Bush bared his arm and received a smallpox vaccination in December 2002, it wasn’t about personal health. This was a message to the nation, as our troops prepared to invade Iraq, that we needed to prepared for biological retaliation.
Such a political use of vaccination was nothing new, however, as this groundbreaking history makes clear. Political and cultural intrigue have often accompanied vaccination during the three centuries it has been systematically used to prevent infectious diseases–from Cotton Mather’s 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. Vaccine juxtaposes the stories of brilliant scientists with 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.
With narrative grace and investigative journalism, Arthur Allen reveals a history illuminated by hope and shrouded by controversy, and sheds new light on changing notions of health, risk and the common good.
Contents: Part One: Origins: Experimenting on the neighbors with cotton mather •The peculiar history of vaccinia •Vaccine wars • Part Two: Golden Age: War is good for babies • The great American fight against polio • Battling measles, remodeling society • Part Three: Controversy : DTP and the vaccine safety movement • No good deed goes unpunished • People who prefer whooping cough • Vaccines and autism? • Epilogue: Our best shots • ISBN - 9780393059113
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Pages : 528
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