Rating: 
Summary: Compelling and frightening
Review: Bookchin and Schumacher present a systematic review of the history of SV40 research and it's association with both the polio vaccine and cancer. The story is both compelling and frightening, and leaves you wondering what might have been lurking in your polio vaccine.
Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Rivetting
Review: I could not put this book down once I started reading it. Bookchin & Schumacher succeed not only in piecing the history of SV40 research together to create a coherent narrative, but I had no trouble following their abstracts of the scientific research.
The only thing that bugs me about their approach was how they consistently fell back on stereotypes to characterize the players involved. Sabin and Salk are both characterized as "bad guys," which can get pretty old after several chapters. The book would have been better to leave the reader to discern the characters of the men and women by their actions. Equally annoying was the presentation of Michele Carbone as an Italian racial stereotype. It did not improve my read of the book to be subjected to such nuggets as how Carbone has a capuccino every day at 10:30. It really detracts.
Rating:
Summary: Shocking story.
Review: I was involved in the defense of President Clinton during his impeachment proceedings. The hearings that the Judiciary held during those proceedings left me with a cynical attitude towards our government, but the impeachment proceedings did not shock me as much as the story this book tells about our government giving a contaminated vaccine to millions of children, knowing that it had a monkey virus that had caused cancer in laboratory animals. Worse yet, the medical leaders in our government repressed research showing that this virus could cause cancer in humans. I highly recommend reading this book to find out what they did to the millions of people who were given that vaccine.
Rating:
Summary: A patient speaks out
Review: I'm glad that someone has finally gone public, really public, about the contamination of polio vaccines with SV40. I was 25 when I was diagnosed with collapsing variant Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis, and immediately sought out research to try and find some help, and hope for my situation. The researcher I found is mentioned in the book as being one of the lucky few who is funded for SV40 Research. He has found the virus in a high percentage of patients with this kidney disease, including me. What the book doesn't say is that at the time he focused on SV40, he was searching for possible viral causes for the disease, and that's what his grant was for. When he sought a grant to focus on SV40 exclusively as a cause, his grant was denied. I, too, am a researcher, and will soon be attending medical school. For the most part, I have been fortunate. I have recovered fully, while most of those afflicted with this disease don't, even with transplants. It recurs in the new organ. There is no telling whether my recovery is temporary or permanent. The researcher in question has come to regard me as a colleague, and even though he has lost his funding, he firmly believes SV40 plays a role in the disease, and has the data to support it. He will not give up on trying to find further funding for research in this area. It is my hope that people will not only read this book, but also be prompted by their curiosity to read the scientific papers cited in it, as I had already done prior to even knowing this book was coming. This book is the first to compile all of the data together and to reveal the overall conclusion- An error was made in the rush to find a way to prevent polio. One can accept that error in the short term for the benefit vs. risk during the polio epidemic. However, rather than making the small effort necessary to resolve that error and create a safer vaccine, our government decided to bury the data and continue manufacture and distribution of the contaminated materials. I may not be a physician yet, but I have read the Hippocratic Oath. Here are excerpts from that oath:
"Above All, Do No Harm" "I will apply dietetic measures for the benefit of the sick according to my ability and judgment; I will keep them from harm and injustice." "I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect." It is shameful that the very people who took this oath have gone to such great lengths to continue administering a preventative measure against polio known to contain a harmful virus, knowing that it can easilly be made safer, and at the same time ensuring the prolonged and painful deaths of thousands from the variety of cancers and other diseases SV40 has been indicated to cause.
Rating:
Summary: A patient speaks out
Review: I'm glad that someone has finally gone public, really public, about the contamination of polio vaccines with SV40. I was 25 when I was diagnosed with collapsing variant Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis, and immediately sought out research to try and find some help, and hope for my situation. The researcher I found is mentioned in the book as being one of the lucky few who is funded for SV40 Research. He has found the virus in a high percentage of patients with this kidney disease, including me. What the book doesn't say is that at the time he focused on SV40, he was searching for possible viral causes for the disease, and that's what his grant was for. When he sought a grant to focus on SV40 exclusively as a cause, his grant was denied. I, too, am a researcher, and will soon be attending medical school. For the most part, I have been fortunate. I have recovered fully, while most of those afflicted with this disease don't, even with transplants. It recurs in the new organ. There is no telling whether my recovery is temporary or permanent. The researcher in question has come to regard me as a colleague, and even though he has lost his funding, he firmly believes SV40 plays a role in the disease, and has the data to support it. He will not give up on trying to find further funding for research in this area. It is my hope that people will not only read this book, but also be prompted by their curiosity to read the scientific papers cited in it, as I had already done prior to even knowing this book was coming. This book is the first to compile all of the data together and to reveal the overall conclusion- An error was made in the rush to find a way to prevent polio. One can accept that error in the short term for the benefit vs. risk during the polio epidemic. However, rather than making the small effort necessary to resolve that error and create a safer vaccine, our government decided to bury the data and continue manufacture and distribution of the contaminated materials. I may not be a physician yet, but I have read the Hippocratic Oath. Here are excerpts from that oath:
"Above All, Do No Harm" "I will apply dietetic measures for the benefit of the sick according to my ability and judgment; I will keep them from harm and injustice." "I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect." It is shameful that the very people who took this oath have gone to such great lengths to continue administering a preventative measure against polio known to contain a harmful virus, knowing that it can easilly be made safer, and at the same time ensuring the prolonged and painful deaths of thousands from the variety of cancers and other diseases SV40 has been indicated to cause.
Rating:
Summary: Definately an eye opener!
Review: This book is an excellent resource for those who want more information about SV40. It is ridiculous that the government sat on this info and because of it, people are dying from cancer. The book is not written in a conspiracy theory type of way. Very factual information given. Kudos to the authors!
Rating:
Summary: This is a terrific book!
Review: This book is terrific. Despite the complexity of the subject, the writers maintain a very clear voice as they tell this compelling story. The prologue to the story instantly engaged me, as they recount the tragic story of little Alexander Horwin, who died of a medullablastoma when he was 2 years old -- a cancer that may have been caused by his exposure to a Polio vaccination. The writers give a detailed account of the history of polio and the creation of the Polio vaccine by Jonas Salk in the late 1950s. The account clearly shows what a horrible disease Polis was (and still is), and how desperate the world was for a solution. When the vaccine was created, it quickly eradicated the disease in the US. But there was a cost...and it turns out, it was a calculated risk on the part of our Federal government and the pharmaceutical companies who manufactured the vaccine. They quickly knew that the vaccine had been contaminated with live monkey virus, but dismissed the possible consequences of that contamination on the human population. (In today's world, where the CDC and the World Heath Organization are extremely concerned about viruses that go from animal to human -- like SARS and the Avian flu -- you think that such a vaccination would not be permitted. But after reading the book, you can see how science is diluted by the hard realities of immediate needs for "cures" and by the costs of manufacturing the vaccines). In the months and years after the vaccine was manufactured and injected into millions of men, women, and children, a number of concerned scientists began to gather a body of information about the dangers of the vaccine. People like Bernice Eddy, a scientist at the NIH. Her career was destroyed when she tried to alert the public. Others suffered similar experiences. This story talks about how some scientists fought against the political pressures to suppress their scientific data. And it's a great story (one which still isn't finished). I couldn't put the book down!
Rating:
Summary: I am outraged
Review: This book rocked my world,as a baby boomer with a fatal brain cancer.I have always been a proponent of vaccines and had my now 26 year old son vaccinated with everything around.Now he has a baby daughter and he and his wife have decided not to have her vaccinated for anything but tetnaus.I am totally behind them now,which is probably one of the reasons this information has been supressed so long. I had to put the book down in the middle for a week or so,I was so outraged at the governments denial of this simian virus 40 and how they trashed,fired,and vilified every researcher that found SV40 in cancer. I am a medical professional so the book was not too difficult to understand,but I would not recommend it to someone who sticks to "light reading." Got 15 pages more but needed a break.I am supposed to get flu shots but will be looking at syringes full of vaccine with a much warier eye. Anyone remember the "hog flu" during Fords administration that was supposed to be a horrible epidemic? It turned out to be nothing and people were getting awful (like Guillan-Barre) side effects from it. Cripes,I need a punching bag.I guess the NIH will have to do.
Rating:
Summary: The Coverup of a Terrible Mistake
Review: This book should be required reading for every biology student and health professional. Other reviewers have commented on the content and writing style, which are very impressive. As a parent of a child who had the SV40 virus and participated the NIH study on Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis, I found the book very informative. I first learned of Ms. Bookchin and Shumacher's investigation of the Polio vaccine contamination from their Atlantic Monthly article on the internet when I was searching for information on FSGS and SV40. I am pleased that they expanded that work into a very complete book. The negligence of the people, who permitted the contamination of the polio vaccine by this virus, is appalling. I am glad that this book was published, and hope that, finally, something may be done to help those who were unknowingly infected with SV40.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read
Review: This story is incredible and likely to disturb readers to the core. There are so many ways to go with writing a review. First, there's the readability factor: Scores a 10 there - it's a page turner as others have written. I read it over the course of 3 nights and found, like others, that it reads like a thriller or perhaps even a Grisham novel - only this story is TRUE.
Second, there's the important lessons for all of humankind factor: Scores a 10 in this department as well. Polio vaccine is a human invention; human beings are not infallible, they have never been infallible, and by extension there never has been nor will there ever be a human invention that is not prone to errors in human thinking, reasoning, and judgment and not subject to continuous improvements and/or great change as human knowledge advances.
Despite this undeniable truth, large health organizations and government health agencies would like the public to believe a very one-sided message about polio vaccine: that it is a medical milestone worthy of great praise and worship as it has delivered mankind from the evils of the childhood affliction of polio. Amen.
But that's only half the story. This book is about the other half - the one you won't read about in the press and that's about a great trade off of the polio vaccine. In exchange for reducing the rate of paralytic polio instances in childhood, has this wondrous medical marvel cut decades off many of our friends' and neighbors' lives? We all know people, some of them really great people, who died of rare and mysterious cancers in their 30s, 40s and 50s. They were diagnosed with cancer and as soon as treatments began their tumors spread fast and they succumbed quickly to their strange form of cancer. They left behind spouses, children and parents who will never be cared for by them in youth and old age.
I'm not suggesting that all, most or even some of these deaths are a result of SV-40 contaminated polio vaccine, but we are not in a position at present to ever know for sure as the party-line from the organizations who are supposed to protect public health continues to be that SV-40 in polio vaccines has not been proven to cause harm to man.
YACK!
Please read this book and encourage other thinking people to read it too. There are many lessons that can be and should be learned from the polio vaccine history and SV-40 story. You'll also come away with new modern-day heroes who, unlike so many of the icons of today, are truly worthy of your respect and admiration. There are the scientists and researchers like Bernice Eddy, Michele Carbone and others who did and continue to do the right thing despite the many pressures to not stir up this pot. And then the biggest heroes of all in my mind are the authors for taking the time and dedicating years of their lives to accurately tell this great story...the true story that plain and simply has to be told.
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