Polio-Vaccines Books

Just like an accident, if you don't know the risk, you are bound to get hurt. This book tells everyone about the risks, either past or present, in vaccines. These blunders have not been dealt with by government or industry due to the economic impact that any correction might have. They (government and industry) want to scare you into vaccinating for everything because if you don't you'll get sick. Everybody please panic, so that the vaccine producers make plenty of money. Why is it that if Polio has been eradicated in the US are there still polio cases among those who have been vaccinated. How can a monkey kidney virus cause cancer in humans and why was such a dirty animal's kidney chosen as a substrate for vaccine production.
This is a must read for anybody who thinks that vaccine production and development is as sound and safe as the interpretation of the bible by religious zealot. If you are going to invest your faith in anything, invest it in yourself and read this book. If not, wait for the movie . . . because it reads like a medical industrial espionage thriller.

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.

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?

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

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.

This book is a must have for every mother. It provides evidence, research, statistics and facts about vaccines being given to our babies and the damages they really do cause. I am raising a vaccine free child and I am constantly put down for it but once you know the truth, it doesnt matter what others think because you know that you are giving your child the best start. Hopefully you get ahold of this book before your baby is born so you can avoid these dangerous vaccines altogether.

I can't recommend this book highly enough. It is the most informative book I have ever read. The forward alone is worth the cost of the book, it is excellent! Seriously, before you take your kids back to the pediatrician, read this book. You will be thankful that you did.

This book is packed with research, statistic and lots of valuable information that I didn't see in any other vax related book.
It should be a must read for any parent

My wife and I are going to be new parents soon, so the subject of vaccine safety is important to us. With all of the information on the Internet (pro vs. con), it's hard to find a good resource in one place. Mr. Miller's book answers the mail, as this book is a well-researched and invaluable resource to have at your disposal. Miller has clearly done his homework, citing hundreds of studies, documentation and personal testimonies. He clearly cares about getting to the truth of this debate and in the process, has done his readers a great service.

As concerned parents, we have been researching the safety and effectiveness of vaccines for many months. We participated in a presentation were the speaker was one of my favorite researchers and authors on the topic, Neil Z. Miller. He is a medical research journalist and natural health advocate and author of numerous articles and books on vaccines. Miller is also the director of the Think Twice Global Vaccine Institute. He has a degree in psychology (with an emphasis on statistical analysis) and is a member of Mensa.

The presentation was about two hours and only touched the surface on the extensive amount documented data he has discovered through government, medical and scientific journals. He started researching vaccines before his son was born over 23 years ago. What began as a parental endeavor for information turned into a public awareness crusade.

He tells us most of the vaccine information that the public is told is misinformation and propaganda. Accurate data is not released through regular media outlets.

During the presentation they polled the audience on various questions. We learned that the U.S. has more vaccinations than any other country in the world and we also have the 42nd worst infant mortality rate in the world.

Dr. Baylock, a well known neurosurgeon has documented damage in children's brains due to toxic overload from vaccines. He wrote the compelling foreword of Miller's latest book.

The "idea" that vaccines will keep our children safe is like playing russian roulette. Miller advocates parents being fully informed and know that they have freedom of choice, especially when it comes to the health and well being of their children. "Don't count on your doctors to give you all he information." Miller warns. He suggests looking at each vaccine independently and that is exactly was he has presented for all people in his book: Vaccine Safety Manual for Concerned Families and Health Practitioners.

We live in a pill popping society where there is a drug for every ailment, but we have more chronic conditions and diseases than we have ever had before. Drug companies continue to make drugs and vaccine manufacturers will continue to make vaccines. They will put pressure on the FDA to say that they are safe and the CDC to recommend them to the schedule. Currently families that follow the recommended schedule are giving their children 36 drugs by 18 months of age. "We are injecting healthy people with unhealthy substances." Miller said.

Miller says, "There are more vaccines in the pipeline". The next big push is for adolescent and adults vaccines, even vaccines for those with addictions. There are no studies done on combination vaccines and how they react with one another. Not to mention any reactions with other environmental, drug or food chemicals or toxins.

"This is not hearsay. I have documented all of this information." Miller says. The FDA and CDC have a 12-15 member panel. The FDA determines what will be licensed and the CDC will then recommend it to the schedule.

Congressmen Dan Burton held congressional hearings to investigate these committees. There were clear conflicts of interest including, members that owned stock or patent to a vaccine or they were paid consultants to the vaccine manufactures.

In June of 2000 there was a `secret' meeting of top officials from Big Pharma, FDA and CDC. There they discussed the evidence that vaccines were harmful and instead of alerting parents they spent the rest of the weekend on how they were going to cover it up. Robert Kennedy Jr wrote and article about this story for Rolling Stone in 2005. Click here to read article.

Miller also addressed some common questions including mercury being removed from vaccines. In 1999 AAP said mercury was going to be removed from vaccines; however it was not required for the current stock of vaccines to be returned or destroyed. Three years later to balance that out, it was mandated that children get multiple flu vaccines that had high concentrations of mercury (thimerisol the chemical that contains 50% mercury).

Many parents choose to space out vaccines or create their own schedule. Miller thinks there may be some merit to it. He gave a drinking analogy. The reactions are different if you have shot after shot of tequila or have 1 tequila shot that night out with your friends. He still warns that if you decided to space out or do single shots the vaccines still come with significant reactions. There is no testing or screening to know if a child has a predisposition or may have a reaction.
We do know that more and more children are having reactions and autism is on the rise. The good news is for parents that choose not to vaccinate there are either religious or philosophical exemptions available.

Miller tells us that Autism rates surpasses cancer, diabetes and AIDS combined. This is a true epidemic. He also mentions the flu statistics are false. "More people die in this country from asthma and malnutrition than the flu." Miller also spoke of the link between vaccines and asthma, mercury and autism but was very clear that mercury is not the only problem. "All of this information is documented information," he repeats.

We are conditioned to believe that vaccines are safe and vaccines are effective. If this was true children would not be having reactions and dying and people that were vaccinated would not get the disease. This is clearly not the case.

Another astounding bit of information was about the Polio Vaccine. There is an industry that raises monkeys and then kills them to use their kidneys to develop the polio vaccine.
Monkeys carry several viruses and one in particular, SV-40 is known to cause cancer. Numerous people were infected and cancer rates have increased 20-30% around the world.
This virus is also transmitted similarly to AIDS.


The Vaccine Safety Manual is the world's most complete guide to immunization risks and protection. It includes pertinent information on every major vaccine: polio, tetanus, MMR, hepatitis A, B, HPV (cervical cancer), Hib, Flu, chickenpox, shingles, rotavirus, pneumococcal, meningococcal, RSV, DTaP, anthrax, smallpox, TB, and more. All of the information, including detailed vaccine safety and efficacy data, is written in an easy-to-understand format, yet includes more than 1,000 documented citations. More than 75 charts, graphs and illustrations supplement the text. This encyclopedic health manual is an important addition to every family's home library and will be referred to again and again.

For those of us born after the 1950s, we cannot imagine the terror that gripped families every summer as polio swept through their communities, killing and crippling hundreds and thousands of people, particularly children. For six-year-old Janice Flood, polio became an integral part of her family history. In 1953, her twin brother Frankie died of polio, and Jan was left temporarily crippled by the disease. Although she was fortunate to regain full movement after intensive therapy, she nearly lost her son during his birth due to her physical deformities brought on by polio, and Janice suffers today from many symptoms of post-polio syndrome. Worst of all, though, she will always mourn the loss of a twin brother who never reached his full potential. From the age of six, she would always be a "twinless twin."

Thanks to the development of the Salk and Sabin vaccines, polio was nearly eradicated in most industrialized countries, but the disease continues to cripple and kill people in many third world countries where vaccines are scarce. Having experienced firsthand the devastation that can be inflicted by polio, Janice Flood Nichols knew she had to tell her story and push for further efforts to vaccinate all of the world's children. With that in mind, she wrote the moving book, "Twin Voices: A Memoir of Polio, the Forgotten Killer."

Written through several "voices," including that of Janice, family members and friends, the doctor who cared for Janice and Frankie when they had polio, and even Frankie himself, "Twin Voices" is a fascinating read about the polio epidemic that swept the country, the frantic efforts to put a halt to its devastation, and the tragedy that befell the Flood family. This book brings home the fact that Frankie was a real little boy filled with a passion for life and all the joys that children experience. His family was, at first, shell-shocked following his death, but his twin sister Janice ultimately grew to find purpose in his passing through her work as a rehabilitation counselor for the physically disabled and her continued efforts to make sure that polio does not tragically alter the lives of more families like hers. It is also a haunting look at the "twin bond" that continues to connect Janice and her brother many years after their separation.

I knew very little about the polio outbreak in the 1950s but as a child I do remember being quarantined and not allowed to be with other children. After reading Janet's book I am so much more aware, not only about what was happening at that time, but what is happening now. I had no idea polio still exists.

Janet not only lived through polio devastating her immediate family, but she has researched it thoroughly. "Twin Voices" is a story of Janet's life and experience; it is also book that gives the reader valuable insights. Her writing style is enticing to keep reading, her story is poignant, and her research impeccable.

This a book not to be missed reading.

For those of us born after the 1950s, we cannot imagine the terror that gripped families every summer as polio swept through their communities, killing and crippling hundreds and thousands of people, particularly children. For six-year-old Janice Flood, polio became an integral part of her family history. In 1953, her twin brother Frankie died of polio, and Jan was left temporarily crippled by the disease. Although she was fortunate to regain full movement after intensive therapy, she nearly lost her son during his birth due to her physical deformities brought on by polio, and Janice suffers today from many symptoms of post-polio syndrome. Worst of all, though, she will always mourn the loss of a twin brother who never reached his full potential. From the age of six, she would always be a "twinless twin."

Thanks to the development of the Salk and Sabin vaccines, polio was nearly eradicated in most industrialized countries, but the disease continues to cripple and kill people in many third world countries where vaccines are scarce. Having experienced firsthand the devastation that can be inflicted by polio, Janice Flood Nichols knew she had to tell her story and push for further efforts to vaccinate all of the world's children.

Written through several "voices," including that of Janice, family members and friends, the doctor who cared for Janice and Frankie when they had polio, and even Frankie himself, "Twin Voices" is a fascinating read about the polio epidemic that swept the country, the frantic efforts to put a halt to its devastation, and the tragedy that befell the Flood family. This book brings home the fact that Frankie was a real little boy filled with a passion for life and all the joys that children experience. His family was, at first, shell-shocked following his death, but his twin sister Janice ultimately grew to find purpose in his passing through her work as a rehabilitation counselor for the physically disabled and her continued efforts to make sure that polio does not tragically alter the lives of more families like hers. It is also a haunting look at the "twin bond" that continues to connect Janice and her brother many years after their separation.

The book was recommended to me by a mutual friend of the author. Her information is extensive and enlightening to a polio survivor (my husband). I didn't care for the format, where she used the "voice" of her deceased twin to tell his story from heaven. It was too cute, especially because he wouldn't be that articulate at his young age.

Reviewed by April Sullivan for Reader Views (1/08)

"Twin Voices" is a memoir by Janice Flood Nichols about a specific life-changing event. In the fall of 1953, at the age of six, she lost her twin brother to polio. Janice contracted polio as well. She survived and overcame temporary paralysis. She went on to become a rehabilitation counselor. While her experiences as a youth shaped her adult life, she never thought that fifty years later she would be writing about the experience.

Most people alive today have some memory of, or have at least heard of polio. Yet, to the surprise of everyone who has not kept up with polio research, including Janice Flood Nichols, polio is still an epidemic in Third World Countries. Although vaccines are available and worldwide eradication is possible, funding and education are needed to make this a reality. Knowing first-hand the devastation of polio, Janice was compelled to tell her story in an effort to educate and do her part to eradicate this deadly disease.

"Twin Voices" is structured in a unique way. Janice invited professionals, friends, and family members to lend their voices to the story. Each chapter is by one of many characters, including those who are no longer alive, such as her twin Frankie and her parents. Other characters include the doctor who signed Frankie's death certificate, childhood friends, aunts, and cousins. Not only do the voices tell the personal side of the story, they also tell the history and facts about polio. The combination forms a nicely balanced book.

I applaud Janice for writing this book. It was obviously not easy. But she was able to bring a perspective to the subject that not many people can. Janice knows polio as both a victim and a survivor. When Frankie died, a part of Janice died. Yet, on the other hand, when Janice survived, a part of Frankie survived, and this book is tangible evidence of that. "Twin Voices" is about so much more than polio. It is about the unique quality of twindom that Janice writes about so eloquently. Being a twin myself, that is the part about this book that intrigued me. Being educated about polio was an added bonus.

I recommend "Twin Voices" to anyone who wants to read a well-researched book and touching personal look at the polio epidemic.

This book accompanied the PBS special of the same name. It did an excellent job of explaining the causes of the growing polio epidemics in the first half of the twentieth century. To think that public sanitation, which ended other deadly diseases, had a role in the increase of polio cases. It's a must read for anyone who remembers this scourge, or any historian.

This book contains a series of interviews with individuals who have either been involved in the treatment, cure, or suffering of polio. The accounts give captivating first hand insight into the horror of contracting polio, the experience of the disease progressing, the Iron Lung experience, and the therapies available at that time. Interviews with those who worked with Dr Salk, as well as his wife, are included as well.

The numerous black and white photographs paint a vivid image of the experience.

While this book is not intended to be a complete history of polio, it is an excellent book for those who wish to know how the polio epidemics felt, as well as the pride in the conquest of polio through the March of Dimes.

This book would be a good addition for a high school or junior high school library as well.

Jonas Salk happened to be the man who as a research scientist made the Polio vaccine a reality. He did not work alone, but was hailed a hero for all his efforts. Jane Smith writes a wonderfully inclusive book about the Polio epidemics which includes great pictures of some of the Poster Children, FDR who founded the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, the Polio Pioneers (1954), and even a picture of Elvis getting his Polio shot.

With children dying and being crippled by Polio each summer, there was a great desire to develop a safe and effective vaccine. Dr. Salk was so confident in his vaccine that he vaccinated himself, his wife, and his 3 boys.

When the newspaper headlines declared "VICTORY OVER POLIO" it was as if we had won a war. And, we felt as if we had! This good news replaced news of hydrogen bomb tests and Supreme Court hearings on school desegregation for a while.

But, in the last chapter of her book Smith reminds us that there are over 300,000 polio survivors in the USA today and many of them are now suffering from new symptoms, the late effects of Polio, commonly called Post Polio Syndrome (PPS). It reminds us that the final chapters on Polio are not yet written...

This is one of the best books on the history of science I have ever read. I thought that the book was going to be a glowing tribute to an American technological advance but I was very wrong. The author, David Oshinsky, created a very evenly balanced story. Along with the successes, he points out the scare tactics used by the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis and its then-novel method of fund-raising. He is also critical of the method of vaccine distribution and attributes vaccine shortages to industry and physicians' desire to keep government out of medicine. He even contrasts this to Canada's more successful policy of centralized distribution. And he is clear when there is a non-American connection, that is when studies of the live-weakened vaccine take place in the Soviet Union.

Oshinsky, clearly illustrates that it is a uniquely American story. This story could not have taken place anywhere else, although the vaccine could have been discovered elsewhere. Making it an American story are the three parallel threads: an American fund-raising campaign, an American president (Franklin Delano Roosevelt) afflicted with the disease, and the American scientists striving to develop the first vaccine. He delves extensively into the competition between those who favored a killed vaccine, represented by Jonas Salk and those who favored a live but weakened vaccine represented by Albert Sabin.

This book isn't just about the science. Oshinsky probes the biographies of the major players so that the reader can understand why the personalities acted the way that they did. The book is not scientifically complex and Oshinsky explains whatever science the reader will need in order to appreciate the story. Overall this is a must read for anyone interested inn the history of science and medicine.

This is a very interesting work on a topic my generation remembers with dread. If you were one of tens of millions of schoolchildren who were lined up in a cafeteria to await a sugarcube with a little dot on it--you'll want to read this.

Microbes shaped our destiny since the precambrian era or earlier. Our DNA is the historical evidence.
We have not changed much genetically in the last couple of millennia, but we have had a rapid cultural evolution that enabled us to come up with virology as a medical science.

The book is a snapshot of American social and medical history around the middle of the last century. "There were no shopping malls or motel chains or felt-tip pens. Tobacco companies placed cigarette ads in medical journals."

A prominent victim, President Roosevelt, played a major role in the fight against Polio.

Prejudices surface up when plagues hit home. Some ethnic groups were targeted.

We learn about the biographies of Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin , the two heroes whose feud over killed-virus versus live-virus vaccines continues even after their death.
There are plenty of factoids on philanthropy, fund raising, grant policy and McCarthyism.
For example, Harry Weaver introduced the percentage payment of the indirect costs involved in grants as an incentive for research grants.

There were also the ethical questions of testing vaccines on crippled children. When Koprowski ( another hero in the search for vaccine )
" published his results in 1952, his use of the word "volunteer", which included two children so helpless they had to be fed the vaccine through stomach tubes, prompted the British medical journal The Lancet to note:
One of the reasons for the richness of the English language is that the meaning of some words is continually changing. Such a word is "volunteer". We may yet read in a scientific journal that an experiment was carried out with twenty volunteer mice, and that twenty other mice volunteered as controls."

The world is not yet free from polio. Cultural barriers and prejudices in certain Third World regions
prevent the total eradication. The WHO set a goal for 2008.

This is a recommended reading for every concerned global citizen. The next viral pandemic will certainly come, probably a more eminent threat than global warming, terrorism or nuclear war.

I remember the polio scare when I was a kid in the fifties. This book is a very readable and entertaining history of the drive to discover a vaccine for the dread disease.

The politics, the scientific jealousies and the professional drive to succeed all are woven together. This reads like a triller, even though we know the eventual outcome.

I highly recommend this book. If you are interested in history, this is a detailed narrative of all the players. If you are also interested in the science, there is enough scientific detail for a reasonably intelligent lay person to understand. I was motivated after reading this to learn more about virology.

This book earned the pulitzer prize for (American) history, which it well deserved. Polio is an informative and entertaining book covering all the bases of one of the 20th century's great crusades. Sharp prose. Salk comes across as the hero, though a pretty flawed one at that, and the author makes no attempt to cover up the warts. Sabin makes his important contributions as well. I walked away feeling like I got a good handle on the history of Polio - the book achieved its purpose.

Paul Offit, MD is a bought and paid for stooge of the pharma vaccine makers. He is paid by them to write books, articles and more to promote their vaccines. He was actually quoted as saying in magazine geared toward families with babies that a child could get 100,000 vaccines in one day and be fine. What a complete lack of respect for children. This man is delusional. This book is a waste of good paper. Although, it is good reading if you truly want to understand the "make money by forcing more and more vaccines on children" idea and why That Idea is so scary for our future.

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 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.

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

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!

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.

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

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.

On page 318 of this book, Jonas Salk is quoted as saying, "When you're arguing for an unpopular idea, there are three stages of truth. First, your opponents say it can't be true. Next they say if it's true, it can't be very important. Finally they say well, we've known it all along." To me, Splendid Solution does an excellent job of telling the story of Salk arguing for his unpopular idea, the eventually successful Salk vaccine.

To me as on outsider, the world of science seems like it should be very fact-based and black and white. The more I read about the history of science, however, the more I learn how far that is from the truth. Some reviews complain this book doesn't have enough of the science of vaccination or epidemiology, but I think Kluger's decision to focus his story specifically on the politics of gaining acceptance within the scientific community for a brilliant idea makes a great book.

Kluger lays out the entire process of funding, scientific conferences, personality conflicts and personal hierarchy within scientific circles. It's brilliant in that it shows both the strengths and the weaknesses of the system. Further, I found reading the book caused me to take stock of my own preconceived notions and thought processes to think about what great new ideas I might be ignoring because they didn't fit my own preconceived notions.

A great book for anyone who is interested in understanding a little more about what goes on behind the scenes in scientific circles, or who would like to understand the process by which the Salk vaccine was vetted and developed.

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.

I kind of think this book is below the age limit described. The information included was not anything you can't find online or on Wikipedia.