The Cutter Incident: How America's First Polio Vaccine Led to the Growing Vaccine Crisis

Nonfiction, History, Americas, United States, 20th Century
Cover of the book The Cutter Incident: How America's First Polio Vaccine Led to the Growing Vaccine Crisis by Paul A. Offit, M.D., Yale University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Paul A. Offit, M.D. ISBN: 9780300130379
Publisher: Yale University Press Publication: October 1, 2008
Imprint: Yale University Press Language: English
Author: Paul A. Offit, M.D.
ISBN: 9780300130379
Publisher: Yale University Press
Publication: October 1, 2008
Imprint: Yale University Press
Language: English
Vaccines have saved more lives than any other single medical advance. Yet today only four companies make vaccines, and there is a growing crisis in vaccine availability. Why has this happened? This remarkable book recounts for the first time a devastating episode in 1955 at Cutter Laboratories in Berkeley, California, thathas led many pharmaceutical companies to abandon vaccine manufacture.

Drawing on interviews with public health officials, pharmaceutical company executives, attorneys, Cutter employees, and victims of the vaccine, as well as on previously unavailable archives, Dr. Paul Offit offers a full account of the Cutter disaster. He describes the nation’s relief when the polio vaccine was developed by Jonas Salk in 1955, the production of the vaccine at industrial facilities such as the one operated by Cutter, and the tragedy that occurred when 200,000 people were inadvertently injected with live virulent polio virus: 70,000 became ill, 200 were permanently paralyzed, and 10 died. Dr. Offit also explores how, as a consequence of the tragedy, one jury’s verdict set in motion events that eventually suppressed the production of vaccines already licensed and deterred the development of new vaccines that hold the promise of preventing other fatal diseases.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Vaccines have saved more lives than any other single medical advance. Yet today only four companies make vaccines, and there is a growing crisis in vaccine availability. Why has this happened? This remarkable book recounts for the first time a devastating episode in 1955 at Cutter Laboratories in Berkeley, California, thathas led many pharmaceutical companies to abandon vaccine manufacture.

Drawing on interviews with public health officials, pharmaceutical company executives, attorneys, Cutter employees, and victims of the vaccine, as well as on previously unavailable archives, Dr. Paul Offit offers a full account of the Cutter disaster. He describes the nation’s relief when the polio vaccine was developed by Jonas Salk in 1955, the production of the vaccine at industrial facilities such as the one operated by Cutter, and the tragedy that occurred when 200,000 people were inadvertently injected with live virulent polio virus: 70,000 became ill, 200 were permanently paralyzed, and 10 died. Dr. Offit also explores how, as a consequence of the tragedy, one jury’s verdict set in motion events that eventually suppressed the production of vaccines already licensed and deterred the development of new vaccines that hold the promise of preventing other fatal diseases.

More books from Yale University Press

Cover of the book Standing for Reason by Paul A. Offit, M.D.
Cover of the book Oklahoma! by Paul A. Offit, M.D.
Cover of the book Selected Writings of Girolamo Savonarola by Paul A. Offit, M.D.
Cover of the book A German Generation: An Experiential History of the Twentieth Century by Paul A. Offit, M.D.
Cover of the book Serfdom, Society, and the Arts in Imperial Russia by Paul A. Offit, M.D.
Cover of the book Questions on Love and Charity by Paul A. Offit, M.D.
Cover of the book My Dear Governess: The Letters of Edith Wharton to Anna Bahlmann by Paul A. Offit, M.D.
Cover of the book Modernism in the Magazines by Paul A. Offit, M.D.
Cover of the book Self-Determination Theory in the Clinic by Paul A. Offit, M.D.
Cover of the book Jerusalem by Paul A. Offit, M.D.
Cover of the book The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction by Paul A. Offit, M.D.
Cover of the book Law and the Unconscious by Paul A. Offit, M.D.
Cover of the book Afghanistan: How the West Lost Its Way by Paul A. Offit, M.D.
Cover of the book Writers and Rebels by Paul A. Offit, M.D.
Cover of the book Unfinished Business by Paul A. Offit, M.D.
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy