Book Review "The Virus and the Vaccine: Contaminated Vaccine, Deadly Cancers, and Government Neglect"

Book Review

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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Journalists Bookchin and Schumacher argue that for nine years, from 1954 to 1963, almost every dose of polio vaccine produced in the worldâ€"and the 98 million Americans who received polio vaccinationsâ€"was contaminated with a cancer-causing virus from the monkey kidneys used to develop the vaccine. Although the polio vaccine developed by Dr. Jonas Salk virtually ended polio as a threatening disease, the authors detail how "the screening techniques and observation periods that Salk and the vaccine manufacturers employed were not capable of always catching the contaminants." This sordid story spells out how repeated research studies showing that the "SV40" virus was in the vaccine were dismissed by federal health officials, so that "there would be no warning to consumers that the vaccine they and their children were receiving contained a live monkey virus whose effect on humans was entirely unknown." In the second part, the authors contend that even today such organizations as the National Institutes of Health continue to dismiss study results, even though numerous studies have shown that SV40 is capable of causing cancer in humans. The final and most horrific part of the story reports that Lederle Laboratories, the sole oral vaccine supplier in the U.S. from 1977 onward, continued to use monkey kidneys possibly infected by the SV40 virus in its manufacturing process until oral polio vaccine was removed from the market as late as January 2000. This meticulously researched, levelheaded and well-written book should stir up considerable debate. Because the authors never become alarmist, this solid work of investigative reporting carries considerable weight, and deserves to be read by a large audience.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Imagine being snatched from the paralyzing jaws of polio, only to be blindsided later by the mysterious appearance of a lymphoma, mesothelioma, or brain or bone cancer that could have been prevented. According to journalists Bookchin and Schumacher, the mightiest salvo in the U.S. war against polio seems to have been contaminated with a carcinogenic virus. What's worse, efforts within the scientific community to prevent dispensing contaminated vaccines have been systematically stonewalled from the very beginning by nothing less than the federal government, which first denied the vaccine was contaminated and then denied that the viral contaminant causes cancer in humans--a denial it continues to make. Bookchin and Schumacher document dozens of independent studies and experiments that repeatedly link SV40, a virus imbedded in the monkey kidneys that were used as a polio vaccine medium, with the above-mentioned cancers. In a page-turning narrative, they recall a nation terrorized by polio, the scramble to find a preventive or cure, and how a federal initiative led to the immunization of millions of American schoolchildren with either Salk's or Sabin's vaccine, neither of which, apparently, was resistant to SV40. Bookchin and Schumacher name names, which may bring them not only more keenly interested readers but also enemies from among the medical elite. Donna Chavez
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

'This well-researched, well-documented book unfurls a compelling scientific saga...written with the zing of a medical thriller.'-The atlanta Journal-Constitution A gripping medical detective story, this book raises major ques-tions about vaccine safety and regulation and shows how power, politics, and prejudice influence the health policy decisions that affect our lives. Jonas Salk's polio vaccine is regarded as a verit-able medical miracle, for it largely eradicated one of the most feared diseases of the twentieth century. But the story of the vaccine has a dark side that has never been fully told before. Between 1954 and 1963, some 98 million Americans received polio vaccinations contaminated with a carcinogenic monkey virus, known as SV40. The government downplayed the incident, and it was generally accepted that although oncogenic to lab animals, SV40 was harmless to humans. But now SV40 is showing up in human cancers, and prominent researchers are demanding a serious public health response to this forgotten polio vaccine contaminant.

From the Inside Flap

"This well-researched, well-documented book unfurls a compelling scientific saga....Not only that, it's written with the zing of a medical thriller, featuring fully realized characters, dramatic conflicts, high-level politics and scientific egos big enough to levitate Stone Mountain."

—Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"This meticulously researched, levelheaded and well-written book should stir up considerable debate. Because the authors never became alarmist, this solid work of investigative reporting carries considerable weight, and deserves to be read by a large audience."

—Publishers Weekly

“Powerful and emotive, the book captures the joy of scientific discovery—from the dramatic fight against polio to the thrill of basic virology—with the tone of a mystery thriller.”

–Dr. Norman J. Maitland, professor of molecular biology, director of the YCR Cancer Research Unit, University of York

“A beautifully-told tale of science and a fascinating piece of medical history.  The Virus and the Vaccine reveals how science can be distorted, pushed and pulled by the pressures of politics and profits.”

–Dr. David Himmelstein, associate professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School

"Millions of Americans are unaware that government officials and leading scientists played Russian roulette with their health in the 1960s…[This] fascinating, meticulously-researched account of the coverup, and its possible long-term health effects, is a deeply disturbing chapter in the recent history of science."

–Stephen S. Hall, New York Times Magazine science writer and author of Merchants of Immortality

From the Back Cover

"The Virus and the Vaccine has its share of heroes and villains, like any good novel-except that this is not fiction. Powerful and emotive, the book captures the joy of scientific discovery-from the dramatic fight against polio to the thrill of basic virology-with the tone of a mystery thriller. It offers an inside look at how scientific thinking evolves and how scientists must struggle to overcome established dogmas."
- Dr. Norman J. Maitland, Professor of Molecular Biology, Director of YCR Cancer Research Unit, University of York

"A beautifully-told tale of science and a fascinating piece of medical history. The Virus and the Vaccine reveals how science can be distorted, pushed and pulled by the pressures of politics and profits."
- Dr. David Himmelstein, Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

"Millions of Americans are unaware that government officials and leading scientists played Russian roulette with their health in the 1960s after discovering that the original polio vaccines were contaminated with a cancer-causing monkey virus. Debbie Bookchin and Jim Schumacher's fascinating, meticulously-researched account of the coverup, and its possible long-term health effects, is a deeply disturbing chapter in the recent history of science."
- Stephen S. Hall, New York Times Magazine science writer and author of Merchants of Immortality
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Debbie Bookchin has been a journalist since 1979 and has won awards for her news, feature and investigative reporting.  She has written for The Boston Globe, The Nation, The New York Times, and numerous other publications.

Jim Schumacher is a lawyer and writer whose work has appeared in Boston Magazine, Newsday, and The Atlantic Monthly, among others.  Bookchin and Schumacher are married to each other and live in Vermont with their daughter.

The article on which this book is based was originally published in The Atlantic Monthly in 2000 and earned a selection in the HarperCollins book Best Science Writing 2001.