Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver

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Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver
Vaccine The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver.jpg
First edition
Author Arthur Allen
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Subject Vaccines, vaccine controversies
GenreNonfiction
Publisher W.W. Norton & Company
Publication date
January 15, 2007
Pages512
ISBN 0393059111

Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver is a 2007 book by freelance writer Arthur Allen. The book describes the history of vaccination, beginning in 1796 when the smallpox vaccine was pioneered by Edward Jenner, and including mandatory vaccination policies during World War II in the United States military. It ends with a discussion of the vaccine-autism controversy.

Contents

Summary

The book begins by describing how George W. Bush received the smallpox vaccine in 2002, given that it was thought, by Bush and his aides, that enemies of the US government, particularly Saddam Hussein, might possess the virus. It then describes how this vaccine was only slightly different from the type invented by Edward Jenner two centuries earlier, which was so successful that smallpox became the first and only disease to ever be eradicated. Vaccine developers profiled in the book include Jonas Salk (p. 188) and Maurice Hilleman (p. 238). Allen, later in the book, describes the controversy over vaccines and autism and the founding of SafeMinds, writing, "The vaccines-cause-autism mindset was the product of a set of assumptions that were impossible to completely prove or disprove." (p. 374) It also discusses how preliminary study results by Thomas Verstraeten which showed that thimerosal might increase children's risk of neurodevelopmental delays were flawed, and how these results were discussed at the 2000 Simpsonwood CDC conference. (p. 404)

Reviews

The book received a positive review from David Oshinsky in the New York Times . [1] It also received a positive review in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine , where Michael Fitzpatrick wrote that Allen "does not ignore the history of vaccine disasters. He includes the fiasco in the US military in 1942, when yellow fever vaccine contaminated with hepatitis B caused 100 deaths, and the mass vaccination against smallpox in New York in 1947 that caused six deaths (four more than the outbreak itself). In the Cutter incident in the 1950s, inadequately inactivated polio vaccine caused 164 cases of paralysis and 10 deaths. While acknowledging these failures, Allen pays tribute to immunization authorities — such as Henry Kempe and Bob Chen — who have campaigned to improve vaccine safety." [2] Another favorable review appeared in The Guardian , where Mark Honigsbaum wrote, "One of the joys of reading Allen's well-researched but never boring 500-page history is that he pricks both camps, taking a critical look at both the anti-vaccinists' championing of pseudo-science and the medical establishment's repeated tendency to downplay the genuine dangers of vaccine side-effects." [3] It was also reviewed in the Journal of Clinical Investigation , where William A. Paxton wrote that it was "a timely and heavily researched book that intelligently and thoughtfully takes the reader through the fusion of the above factors [i.e. the history of vaccine development]." [4] Another review appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine , written by Samuel L. Katz of Duke University's Medical School. Katz wrote, "...I found his [Allen's] writing well balanced, and he includes more information about opponents of vaccines than one usually finds in similar sources." [5] In addition, Rebecca Skloot of the Columbia Journalism Review wrote that, until Allen's book was published, "no book had so carefully and clearly catalogued the history of immunization". [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Jenner</span> English physician and pioneer of vaccines (1749–1823)

Edward Jenner was an English physician and scientist who pioneered the concept of vaccines and created the smallpox vaccine, the world's first vaccine. The terms vaccine and vaccination are derived from Variolae vaccinae, the term devised by Jenner to denote cowpox. He used it in 1798 in the title of his Inquiry into the Variolae vaccinae known as the Cow Pox, in which he described the protective effect of cowpox against smallpox.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vaccination</span> Administration of a vaccine to protect against disease

Vaccination is the administration of a vaccine to help the immune system develop immunity from a disease. Vaccines contain a microorganism or virus in a weakened, live or killed state, or proteins or toxins from the organism. In stimulating the body's adaptive immunity, they help prevent sickness from an infectious disease. When a sufficiently large percentage of a population has been vaccinated, herd immunity results. Herd immunity protects those who may be immunocompromised and cannot get a vaccine because even a weakened version would harm them. The effectiveness of vaccination has been widely studied and verified. Vaccination is the most effective method of preventing infectious diseases; widespread immunity due to vaccination is largely responsible for the worldwide eradication of smallpox and the elimination of diseases such as polio and tetanus from much of the world. However, some diseases, such as measles outbreaks in America, have seen rising cases due to relatively low vaccination rates in the 2010s – attributed, in part, to vaccine hesitancy. According to the World Health Organization, vaccination prevents 3.5–5 million deaths per year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vaccine</span> Pathogen-derived preparation that provides acquired immunity to an infectious disease

A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious or malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verified. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe, its toxins, or one of its surface proteins. The agent stimulates the body's immune system to recognize the agent as a threat, destroy it, and recognize further and destroy any of the microorganisms associated with that agent that it may encounter in the future.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cowpox</span> Disease of humans and animals

Cowpox is an infectious disease caused by the cowpox virus (CPXV). It presents with large blisters in the skin, a fever and swollen glands, historically typically following contact with an infected cow, though in the last several decades more often from infected cats. The hands and face are most frequently affected and the spots are generally very painful.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Smallpox vaccine</span> Vaccine against Variola virus

The smallpox vaccine is the first vaccine to have been developed against a contagious disease. In 1796, British physician Edward Jenner demonstrated that an infection with the relatively mild cowpox virus conferred immunity against the deadly smallpox virus. Cowpox served as a natural vaccine until the modern smallpox vaccine emerged in the 20th century. From 1958 to 1977, the World Health Organization (WHO) conducted a global vaccination campaign that eradicated smallpox, making it the only human disease to be eradicated. Although routine smallpox vaccination is no longer performed on the general public, the vaccine is still being produced to guard against bioterrorism, biological warfare, and mpox.

In biology, immunity is the state of being insusceptible or resistant to a noxious agent or process, especially a pathogen or infectious disease. Immunity may occur naturally or be produced by prior exposure or immunization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Balmis Expedition</span> 1803-06 mass vaccination campaign throughout the Spanish Empire

The Royal Philanthropic Vaccine Expedition, commonly referred to as the Balmis Expedition, was a Spanish healthcare mission that lasted from 1803 to 1806, led by Dr Francisco Javier de Balmis, which vaccinated millions of inhabitants of Spanish America and Asia against smallpox. The vaccine was actually transported through children: orphaned boys who sailed with the expedition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vaccine hesitancy</span> Reluctance or refusal to be vaccinated or have ones children vaccinated

Vaccine hesitancy is a delay in acceptance, or refusal, of vaccines despite the availability of vaccine services and supporting evidence. The term covers refusals to vaccinate, delaying vaccines, accepting vaccines but remaining uncertain about their use, or using certain vaccines but not others. The scientific consensus that vaccines are generally safe and effective is overwhelming. Vaccine hesitancy often results in disease outbreaks and deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases. Therefore, the World Health Organization characterizes vaccine hesitancy as one of the top ten global health threats.

Thiomersal is a mercury compound which is used as a preservative in some vaccines. Anti-vaccination activists promoting the incorrect claim that vaccination causes autism have asserted that the mercury in thiomersal is the cause. There is no scientific evidence to support this claim. The idea that thiomersal in vaccines might have detrimental effects originated with anti-vaccination activists and was sustained by them and especially through the action of plaintiffs' lawyers.

Vaccination and religion have interrelations of varying kinds. No major religion prohibits vaccinations, and some consider it an obligation because of the potential to save lives. However, some people cite religious adherence as a basis for opting to forego vaccinating themselves or their children. Many such objections are pretextual: in Australia, anti-vaccinationists founded the Church of Conscious Living, a "fake church", leading to religious exemptions being removed in that country, and one US pastor was reported to offer vaccine exemptions in exchange for online membership of his church.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Offit</span> American pediatric immunologist

Paul Allan Offit is an American pediatrician specializing in infectious diseases, vaccines, immunology, and virology. He is the co-inventor of a rotavirus vaccine. Offit is the Maurice R. Hilleman Professor of Vaccinology, professor of pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, former chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases (1992–2014), and the director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Artificial induction of immunity is immunization achieved by human efforts in preventive healthcare, as opposed to natural immunity as produced by organisms' immune systems. It makes people immune to specific diseases by means other than waiting for them to catch the disease. The purpose is to reduce the risk of death and suffering, that is, the disease burden, even when eradication of the disease is not possible. Vaccination is the chief type of such immunization, greatly reducing the burden of vaccine-preventable diseases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program</span> U.S. no-fault system for litigating vaccine injury claims

The Office of Special Masters of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, popularly known as "vaccine court", administers a no-fault system for litigating vaccine injury claims. These claims against vaccine manufacturers cannot normally be filed in state or federal civil courts, but instead must be heard in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, sitting without a jury.

Claims of a link between the MMR vaccine and autism have been extensively investigated and found to be false. The link was first suggested in the early 1990s and came to public notice largely as a result of the 1998 Lancet MMR autism fraud, characterised as "perhaps the most damaging medical hoax of the last 100 years". The fraudulent research paper authored by Andrew Wakefield and published in The Lancet falsely claimed the vaccine was linked to colitis and autism spectrum disorders. The paper was retracted in 2010 but is still cited by anti-vaxxers.

<i>Autisms False Prophets</i> 2008 book by Paul Offit

Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure is a 2008 book by Paul Offit, a vaccine expert and chief of infectious diseases at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The book focuses on the controversy surrounding the now discredited link between vaccines and autism. The scientific consensus is that no convincing scientific evidence supports these claims, and a 2011 journal article described the vaccine-autism connection as "the most damaging medical hoax of the last 100 years".

The Greater Good is an anti-vaccination propaganda film. It debuted at the Dallas International Film Festival on April 2, 2011, and began playing in Los Angeles, California on October 14, 2011. The film was endorsed by controversial doctor Joseph Mercola on his website, as part of "Vaccine Awareness Week", a joint venture with the anti-vaccine organization National Vaccine Information Center.

Arthur Allen is an American author and journalist.

Inoculation is the act of implanting a pathogen or other microbe or virus into a person or other organism. It is a method of artificially inducing immunity against various infectious diseases. The term "inoculation" is also used more generally to refer to intentionally depositing microbes into any growth medium, as into a Petri dish used to culture the microbe, or into food ingredients for making cultured foods such as yoghurt and fermented beverages such as beer and wine. This article is primarily about the use of inoculation for producing immunity against infection. Inoculation has been used to eradicate smallpox and to markedly reduce other infectious diseases such as polio. Although the terms "inoculation", "vaccination", and "immunization" are often used interchangeably, there are important differences. Inoculation is the act of implanting a pathogen or microbe into a person or other recipient; vaccination is the act of implanting or giving someone a vaccine specifically; and immunization is the development of disease resistance that results from the immune system's response to a vaccine or natural infection.

Extensive investigation into vaccines and autism spectrum disorder has shown that there is no relationship between the two, causal or otherwise, and that the vaccine ingredients do not cause autism. Vaccinologist Peter Hotez researched the growth of the false claim and concluded that its spread originated with Andrew Wakefield's fraudulent 1998 paper, with no prior paper supporting a link.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vaccination policy of the United States</span> Overview of the vaccination policy in the United States of America

Vaccination policy of the United States is the subset of U.S. federal health policy that deals with immunization against infectious disease. It is decided at various levels of the government, including the individual states. This policy has been developed over the approximately two centuries since the invention of vaccination with the purpose of eradicating disease from the U.S. population, or creating a herd immunity. Policies intended to encourage vaccination impact numerous areas of law, including regulation of vaccine safety, funding of vaccination programs, vaccine mandates, adverse event reporting requirements, and compensation for injuries asserted to be associated with vaccination.

References

  1. Oshinsky, David (February 4, 2007). "Preventive Medicine" . New York Times . Retrieved August 10, 2013.
  2. Fitzpatrick, Michael (May 2007). "Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver". Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine . 100 (5): 241. doi:10.1177/014107680710000515. PMC   1861410 .
  3. Honigsbaum, Mark (May 4, 2007). "A jab in the right direction". The Guardian . Retrieved August 26, 2013.
  4. Paxton, W. A. (2007). "Vaccine the controversial story of medicine's greatest lifesaver". Journal of Clinical Investigation. 117 (8): 2017. doi: 10.1172/JCI32934 . PMC   1934604 .
  5. Katz, S. L. (2007). "Book Review Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver by Arthur Allen. 523 pp., illustrated. New York, W.W. Norton, 2007. $27.95. 978-0-393-05911-3". New England Journal of Medicine. 357 (6): 628. doi:10.1056/NEJMbkrev58301.
  6. Skloot, Rebecca (January 1, 2007). "Under the Skin: A History of the Vaccine Debate Goes Deep but Misses the Drama". Columbia Journalism Review . Retrieved October 11, 2013.