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 The Incidental Steward by Paul A. Offit, M.D.
Cover of the book Class, Race, and Inequality in South Africa by Paul A. Offit, M.D.
Cover of the book Why Acting Matters by Paul A. Offit, M.D.
Cover of the book A Man and His Presidents by Paul A. Offit, M.D.
Cover of the book First Strike: America, Terrorism, and Moral Tradition by Paul A. Offit, M.D.
Cover of the book One Hot Summer by Paul A. Offit, M.D.
Cover of the book The Iron Way: Railroads, the Civil War, and the Making of Modern America by Paul A. Offit, M.D.
Cover of the book Rwanda by Paul A. Offit, M.D.
Cover of the book Bound Together: How Traders, Preachers, Adventurers, and Warriors Shaped Globalization by Paul A. Offit, M.D.
Cover of the book The Informant by Paul A. Offit, M.D.
Cover of the book The Writings of Abraham Lincoln by Paul A. Offit, M.D.
Cover of the book Testcraft by Paul A. Offit, M.D.
Cover of the book 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War by Paul A. Offit, M.D.
Cover of the book New Worlds: A Religious History of Latin America by Paul A. Offit, M.D.
Cover of the book Grave New World 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