The Virus and the Vaccine is the true story of a cancer-causing monkey virus, contaminated polio vaccine, and the millions of Americans exposed.
In the age of AIDS, SARS, Avian Flu, and Ebola, here is a real-life, riveting account of a carcinogenic monkey virus that contaminated America’s most revered vaccine and the cancers it is causing today.
Jonas Salk's polio vaccine has taken on legendary quality as a 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, one that has never been fully told before. In one of modern medicine’s biggest blunders, between 1954 and 1963, 98 million Americans received polio vaccinations widely contaminated with a carcinogenic monkey virus, known as simian virus 40, or SV40. A concerted government effort downplayed the incident, and it was generally accepted that although oncogenic to laboratory animals, SV40 was harmless to humans.
But now SV40 is showing up in a variety of human lung, brain, bone, and lymphatic cancers in adults. It is also appearing in the cancers of some children too young to have received the contaminated Salk vaccine. Is the simian virus spreading within the human population? Or, is it possible, as internal vaccine manufacturer documents appear to indicate, that the vaccine may have been contaminated with the monkey virus more recently as well?
In a meticulously researched and powerfully written page-turner, THE VIRUS AND THE VACCINE takes readers on a side-by-side journey with some of today’s most prominent cancer researchers as they explore exactly how SV40 causes cancer and what might be done to stop it. In the process, they must confront the errors of the revered scientists of the past, who, in their efforts to wipe out the scourge of polio, employed contaminated monkey kidneys to produce a vaccine. And they must overcome the political maneuvering of federal health bureaucrats who worry that publicizing the dangers of SV40 might lead to widespread fear of vaccines today. A gripping medical detective story, THE VIRUS AND THE VACCINE raises major questions about vaccine safety and regulation, cancer research funding, and the hidden dangers posed by viruses from another species.
St. Martin’s Press, Spring 2004, ISBN: 0-31-227872-1
© 2004 Debbie Bookchin & Jim Schumacher. All rights reserved.
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“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.”
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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