Polio An American Story PDF Download Ebook

February 11, 2022

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Features of Polio An American Story PDF

Polio An American Story PDF-Here David Oshinsky tells the gripping story of the polio terror and of the intense effort to find a cure, from the March of Dimes to the discovery of the Salk and Sabin vaccines and beyond. Drawing on newly available papers of Jonas Salk, Albert Sabin and other key players, Oshinsky paints a suspenseful portrait of the race for the cure, weaving a dramatic tale centered on the furious rivalry between Salk and Sabin. He also tells the story of Isabel Morgan, perhaps the most talented of all polio researchers, who might have beaten Salk to the prize if she had not retired to raise a family.

Oshinsky offers an insightful look at the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, which was founded in the 1930s by FDR and Basil O’Connor, it revolutionized fundraising and the perception of disease in America. Oshinsky also shows how the polio experience revolutionized the way in which the government licensed and tested new drugs before allowing them on the market, and the way in which the legal system dealt with manufacturers’ liability for unsafe products. Finally, and perhaps most tellingly, Oshinsky reveals that polio was never the raging epidemic portrayed by the media, but in truth a relatively uncommon disease. But in baby booming America increasingly suburban, family oriented, and hygiene obsessed the specter of polio, like the specter of the atomic bomb, soon became a cloud of terror over daily life.

Both a gripping scientific suspense story and a provocative social and cultural history, Polio opens a fresh window onto postwar America.

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Description of Polio An American Story PDF

Polio An American Story PDF is one of the best medical books for students and professionals on the subject of Infection Disease. It is a must download.

The Authors

David M. Oshinsky is Professor of History at New York University and Director of the Division of Medical Humanities at the NYU School of Medicine. A leading historian of modern American politics and society, he is the author of A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy and “Worse Than
Slavery”: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice, both of which won major prizes and were New York Times Notable Books.

Dimensions and Characters of Polio An American Story PDF

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press; Illustrated edition (September 1, 2006)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
International Standard Book Number-10 ‏ : ‎ 0195307143
International Standard Book Number-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0195307146
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.1 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.26 x 0.97 x 6.14 inches
Book Name :Polio An American Story PDF

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Top reviews

Shakespeare Scholar “This extraordinary book recounts the conquest of a terrifying disease at a time when it was almost unthinkable to change the outcome of something that was invisible until it was too late. Readers may wish to jump to the last chapter, which previews the monstrous difficulties and mistakes that are bound to result from the unprecedented hurling of cash at giant pharmaceutical companies who have bid to swiftly find a vaccine against Covid-19. More patient readers who read from the beginning of historical awareness of polio will find that the book is devoted to what Franklin Delano Roosevelt did personally, with his own not-unlimited funds, to help polio victims recover, and how he put himself through a rigorous recovery process that gave him the upper-body strength to be able to conceal his legs’ paralysis, because being “handicapped” was a political liability. Thus, when he was elected President of the United States, Roosevelt’s staff was horrified by an idea floated by the president’s friend, the comedian Eddie Cantor. On his radio show, Cantor had suggested that if everybody gave just a dime to defeat polio, it would happen, and he called up Basil O’Connor, the President’s law partner and close adviser, to ask whether Roosevelt would mind him telling people to send their dimes to the White House. Of course not, said the President—and Ira T. Smith, who ran the White House mail room, which received about 5,000 pieces of mail a day, was warned that a slight increase in volume might happen. Thirty-thousand letters with dimes came the first day, 50,000 the next–the inception of that most famous of medical fund-raising efforts, the March of Dimes, which, after helping to eliminate polio as an pandemic threat, continues to be visionary in going after other devastating epidemic problems in the US.

In today’s polarized lower-case “p” political climate, everything said in the above sentences, rather than describing responses to threats to national well-being, is considered “Political,” with a capital P, a label that stands for “I don’t approve of (fill in the blank).” So it’s not to be hoped that those who reject immunization programs will read this book–but those who love a good read and a great story about medicine will find this a page turner, and will see exactly why we should be comparing Coronavirus to Polio and not AIDS, an entirely different medical problem, which is dealt with extensively in this book.”

Ira L. “In many ways, the batttle over polio just wasn’t that interesting, but rather than saying it simply, Oshinsky tends to hyperbole and artificial melodrama. At the end of the day, Sabin and Salk were the products of the many men and women who worked with them and before them. It’s only late in the book that Oshinsky acknowledges the debatedness novelty of any of their achievements rather than the natural progression of science.

Unfortunately, a second drawback of the book is the extremely superficial level at which the science is addressed. I read this book really trying to understand different scientists’ contribution and what led to the eventual conquering of polio, but fundamental advances (E.g., the how and why of Enders’ cell culture findings that led to a Nobel Prize) were underexplored and poorly described.

Those without a scientific background may find this book more interesting but for me it left me craving more while not feeling remotely satisfied.”

Barry Sparks “In 1949, there was an all-time high of 49,000 cases of polio in the United States and a furious competition for a vaccine was taking place. The three main competitors were Dr. Albert Sabin, Dr. Jonas Salk and Dr. Hilary Koprowski.

Sabin and Koprowski favored a live-virus vaccine designed to trigger a natural infection strong enough to generate lasting antibodies against polio, yet too weak to cause a serious care of the disease. Salk championed a killed-virus version intended to simulate the immune system to produce the desired antibodies without creating a natural infection. Most polio researchers backed the live-virus.

The feud between Sabin and Salk would outlive both scientists.

After four decades of research, no one had been able to grow a polio virus that was safe enough, or plentiful enough, for use in a vaccine. By 1949, polio researchers were convinced that polio could be conquered through a vaccine.

Author David Oshinsky details the differences between Sabin and Salk and their rivalry. Sabin had little professional respect for Salk, who he labeled a “kitchen chemist.” He didn’t think Salk was the intellectual equal of other major polio researchers.

Salk, however, had the backing of the National Foundation of Infantile Paralysis, the major funder of polio research.

The number of cases in the United States continued to explode, and 1953 was the worst year with 57,000 cases of polio. This increased the pressure, particularly on Salk, to come up with a polio vaccine.

Although Salk was optimistic about his vaccine, his work hadn’t appeared in scientific journals, nor had it been tested on humans. Sabin charged that Salk’s vaccine wasn’t ready for mass testing. Although 1 million school-age children were inoculated with the live-virus vaccine in 1954 in the largest public health experiment ever, there was some concern that the vaccine was unsafe.

An incident where children contracted polio after receiving the vaccine, raised more concerns about its safety. Sabin, and others, said that public relations had overruled science. Some believed that the National Foundation’s aggressive tactics in promoting the vaccine triggered the crisis by creating public stampede for a poorly tested product.

When it was announced the Salk vaccine would be distributed nationally, Salk, who many saw as a “celebrity scientist” grabbed the spotlight, without acknowledging the hard, dedicated work of his staff. The National Foundation and the media made a “public God” of Salk.

The Salk vaccine conquered polio. The number of cases decreased from 25,000 in 1955 to 15,000 in 1956 and 7,000 in 1957. Today, in the United States, polio is a disease of the past.

Many scientists saw Salk as a figure of derision, a pampered superstar, selfish, self-serving, egoistical and a prima donna.

Ironically, Salk has never been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, although other polio researchers have. His colleagues claimed he was not creative enough. That he hadn’t discovered anything. They considered him more of a production manager than a research pioneer. Others considered that he had violated the unwritten commandments of scientific research: Stay anonymous, give credit to others and discuss your work in scientific journals and not newspapers.”

Reference: Wikipedia

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