Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver | 
 enlarge | Author: Arthur Allen
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Category: Book
List Price: $17.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  22 reviews
Sales Rank: 138553
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 528
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.5 x 1.4
ISBN: 0393331563
Dewey Decimal Number: 572
EAN: 9780393331561
ASIN: 0393331563
Publication Date: May 12, 2008
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Product Description
"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. 16 pages of illustrations.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 17 more reviews...
 Think for YOURSELF! Question EVERYTHING. June 28, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
One of many books that can be considered backlash as a result of people beginning to think for themselves and say no to govt. forced vaccinations. Unfortunately, it's just easier for the masses to give in and be had...and spoonfed someone else's opinion, rather than think for one's self, do the research and stand up against the bandwagon mentality of conforming to the popular rather than the rational. We live in NJ and trust our child's powerful immune system and our own ability as responsible parents to ensure and teach him proper hygiene, health and nutrition. Follow the money! and you'll uncover the corruption and the conflicts of interests...
 Great Examination of the Issues April 22, 2008
In approaching this book, I was hoping for an examination of both the medical and cultural history of vaccines, and I was not disappointed. The book starts at the beginning for the US with smallpox vaccination (using very, very crude methods) and works all the way to present day.
The book's subtitle portrays the author's attitude perfectly - "The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver" - the author's bias is that sure, there has been considerable controversy over the vaccines, but in the long run they have benefited society and humanity. The book definitely delves into the controversy - approximately the last 200 pages deal with post-1980 society, with extensive discussion of modern day controversies surrounding, and how the cultural and political landscape of the US has changed since World War II and thus changed vaccination. If anything, I wish the author would have discussed more about the earlier anti-vaccine groups, instead of focusing a lot on the recent issues with pertussis and thimerosal.
The current anti-vaccine groups do not like this book - just look at the one star reviews. In all fairness, the author does delve into their concerns, interviewing them extensively, and does not treat vaccines like they are the cure-all, but the anti-vaccine groups do come off as being, well, living with different perceptions than the rest of us. So, it's really not for them, but if you want a reasonable look at the facts, this is a good book to pick up.
 good overview of the whole discovery process plus the political ramifications April 5, 2008
A very good history of the vaccine discovery, implementation and political ramifications within religious groups once problems stemmed from discovered wrongdoing. the chapter on autism is the best.
Good book March 10, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Personally, I thought this book was about a 4-star, but I decided to give it 5 to somewhat counteract all the 1-star reviews by anti-vax nutjobs. Good book though, well worth the time spent reading it.
Solid Contribution to the History of Medicine in the Western World December 8, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I thoroughly enjoyed Arthur Allen's book "Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver" (2007). The concept of vaccination is unique because, unlike asthma sprays, insulin shots, or liquid penicillin, vaccines prevent rather than battle disease. Allen highlights that during the first 200 years of vaccination's history, it could only stop smallpox, which was finally eradicated in 1980. None of my daughters born during that decade received any protection from smallpox as a result. There was no need for it. The medical establishment built upon a foundation of success and increasing credibility during the twentieth century and inaugurated campaigns to eliminate polio, malaria, measles, and hepatitis B too.
Life expectancy increased from 47 to 60 between 1900 and 1930 and medical doctors had become the most respected professionals. Many become celebrities and others became martyrs, such as Dr. Walter Reed for his work on yellow fever. Vaccination was one aspect of life in the twentieth century that improved the quality of life as outlined in my book: A World Perspective through 21st Century Eyes
Subsequent to World War II, vaccine development accelerated and conquered a number of major diseases. Public health effectively grew out of the scientific advances to tame diseases besides smallpox, which included the following, to name a few: Diphtheria, Polio, Pertussis (whooping cough), Measles and Rubella, Tetanus, Mumps, Typhoid, and many more.
Military vaccinations had proved successful in shielding troops from diseases that cost millions of lives in previous wars. Soldiers were inoculated to prevent typhoid fever, tetanus, smallpox, cholera, and the plague. It raised the power of this preventive technique to comparable status with "antibiotics, isolation, sanitation, and better disease treatment in general." For example, filtered water and pasteurized milk buried the typhoid bacterium, and therefore, it did not become a universal vaccine. Only during times of floods, for example, was the typhoid vaccine used. My mother and her family received typhoid shots from the Winnipeg Health Department during the Great Flood of 1950.
By 1955, government and public health officials had helped raise the life expectancy to 70 years, owing to better nutrition and housing, improved sanitation systems, vaccines, and other drugs. People respected the medical authorities and continued to get their shots.
Viruses do not grow like bacteria and so were harder to isolate in the lab. Once this problem was solved, and virus mutations in cells could be reproduced, viral vaccines were developed. Smallpox was the first due to trial and error, while polio was the second viral vaccine, but it used proven laboratory science. As Allen writes, "90 percent of Americans knew about the Salk trials in May 1954, more than could give Dwight D. Eisenhower's name."
Vaccinations played a big role in society. They helped to produce healthier and better-protected children, which made it easier for women to work outside of the home. Some critics of vaccinations believe shots like chicken pox and Hib were developed to prevent sick children from keeping either caregiver in a family at home with their children for weeks at a time. Allen shares the fact that vaccines, in part, "played a role in the legalization of abortion, the disabled rights movement, and the creation of the welfare state." Inoculations came just in time with the rise in daycare centers as the family unit became smaller and women entered the work force in huge numbers; expectations of equality, fair treatment, and access to public resources arose from the civil rights movement; and, more people were traveling around the world spreading germs among different countries.
With the decline in disease, people became complacent and would let vaccination schedules lapse late in the twentieth century. Some parents would object to getting shots but they comprised the minority. Most parents, however, understood the importance of protection and ensuring the bigger community would not sustain the spread of disease. For those that did not, there was the 1944 Supreme Court Case ruling, in Prince vs. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which stated that "parents may be free to become martyrs themselves. But it does not follow that they are free...to make martyrs of their children." Parents were compelled to have their children vaccinated or else the government would do it for them.
I recommend this book for everyone since all of us have received a number of vaccinations and continue to get them for a number of reasons, many of them personal. I continue to get a tetanus shot every decade while my Dad gets his flu shot every year. Allen's book explores the history of vaccination and the pros and cons of getting shots as the years have gone by. He looks at how government regulators made them safer, while causing fewer side effects in an ever-decreasing small percentage of the population.
Remember to also check out this work at your convenience: A World Perspective through 21st Century Eyes
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