Polio

Jan 22, 2009 Clif rated it 3 of 5 stars

My older brother died before I was born due to bulbar polio in 1949. As a result, my parents decided to try again so I can say I am here due to polio.

Naturally this book caught my eye when I spotted in on a friend's bookshelf and reading it I discovered how little I knew about the disease and the people involved with finding a cure.

The book can be divided into two parts - the first dealing with the period up to the death of FDR (who had the disease) and the second dealing with the effort to find...more

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Jan 02, 2009 Greg rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: medical, history

The book reviews outbreaks of polio throughout the 20th century. The role polio played in FDR's life and how his birthday celebration eventually led to the March of Dimes and the 1946 dime with his picture. The Mothers March of Dimes started in Arizona and spread to the whole country as a way to raise money. I am currently reading about Jonas Salk and Sabine and other researchers who eventually developed the vaccines that wiped out the disease.

I finished the book late last night. It's fascinatin...more

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Mar 26, 2013 Diane rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: history and science buffs

Recommended to Diane by: son

This is another of those books lent to me by son who read it for his university history class. The book won the Pulitzer in history in 2006. I can see why. It not only explained the disease and the efforts of scientists, fundraisers, and governments to eradicate the disease, but it was a social history of how it effected the American (mostly) people during the mid 20th century. Since my mom was hospitalized with polio when I was 3, I consequently heard about it most of my growing up years. It wa...more

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Jul 03, 2012 rmn rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction-science

A perfectly ok book that details the history and search for a polio cure in the United States. The author includes sections on FDR, the emergence of the March of Dimes, and the researchers who tried to find a cure (mainly Jonas Salk, Albert Sabin, and Albert Sabin's ego).

Polio was sort of the AIDS of its day only it wasn't clear how people contracted it (and becoming more sanitized was actually not beneficial) and it mostly struck children, so um, maybe not the best analogy but like AIDS it was...more

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Dec 21, 2011 Converse rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: medicine, biology, history, non-fiction, science

This book mainly recounts how th National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis supported Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin in developing vaccines for this disease. Polio is a somewhat unusual infectious disease, in that before the vaccines became available, the most appalling potential effects of the virus (such as paralysis and death) would often be more apparent among the better scrubbed children of the midddle and upper classes than among their poorer contemporaries. Sabin hypothesized that perhaps

...more

This book mainly recounts how th National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis supported Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin in developing vaccines for this disease. Polio is a somewhat unusual infectious disease, in that before the vaccines became available, the most appalling potential effects of the virus (such as paralysis and death) would often be more apparent among the better scrubbed children of the midddle and upper classes than among their poorer contemporaries. Sabin hypothesized that perhaps poorer children were exposed to the virus when they were younger and oddly were more likely to have only minor symptoms (and gain immunity to future infections) than children living in cleaner neighborhoods (the virus is ingested orally and can be passed through feces.) This pattern is contrary to what was (and what I would have) expected. Polio outbreaks, which generally occurred in the warm months of the year, seemed to grow more severe in the United States during the first half of the twentieth century, as public health in other respects improved.

The National Foundation was an outgrowth of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's interest in polio treatment; he was struck by polio when he was 39. His law partner, Basil O'Connor, ran the foundation during the critical decades. After the Second World War, the research director of the foundation, Harry Weaver, pushed for vaccine development. Jonas Salk was first to suceed in developing a vaccine based upon killed virus. A huge field trial was done in the United States and showed that the vaccine was effectively and, if manufactured correctly, basically safe. The Salk vaccine went through a notorious case where live virus got into the doses manufactured by the Cutter Laboratories; probably this was not caught before children were exposed to the faulty vaccine due to the rush to produce the vaccine in the excitment after the announcement of the vaccine.

Albert Sabin's live virus vaccine was slower be developed, because a live virus vaccine is harder to make. The trick is to attenuate the virulence of the virus without killing it; a benefit of a live virus vaccine is that it can be more effective in inducing an immune response than a killed virus vaccine, and furthermore it can do this in people other than those who recieved the vaccine, as the attenuated virus is spread throughout the environment. Sabin's vaccine was tested in the Soviet Union and its use was permitted in the United States in the early 1960s. It became the more common vaccine for many decades (probably still is) because it is simpler to give than the killed virus vaccine. However, it is now not recommended in the United States because a live virus vaccine contains... live virus. It became clear that the few cases of of polio in the United States were probably due to the attenuated virus vaccine. This does not mean that using the live virus vaccine was not beneficial for the population when "wild" polio virus was common, but when the "wild" virus was basically eliminated, the numerically much smaller harm the attenuated virus vaccine can do became obvious. The killed virus vaccine, manufactured correctly, does not cause polio in vaccine recipients.

Above I said that the killed virus vaccine was basically safe. There have however been matters of concern, though the evidence so far does not support the idea that human health has suffered from these matters. First, it became clear that a simian virus, SV40, was getting into both vaccines from the tissue culture (monkey kidney cells grown in vitro) used to grow up the virus for the vaccine. The idea that this virus causes a form of lung cancer has been advanced by the authors Debbie Bookchin and Jim Schumacher; so far there doesn't appear to be a correlation between the incidence of the virus in humans and this mesothelioma. It has also been alleged, by journalist Edward Hopper that vaccine trials carried out in the Congo by another researcher, Hilary Koprowski, had inadvertantely spread a virus that causes AIDS and thus made possible the AIDS epidemic. This allegation, which depends upon the vaccine samples containing chimpanzee tissue, appears to be incorrect, as no chimpanzee DNA has been found in stored samples of Koprowski's vaccine.

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Apr 09, 2011 James rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: amer-history, history-of-science

In the middle of the Nineteen-fifties when I was in grade school one of the more momentous events in my life was experiencing the first round of vaccinations for polio. This meant trips to the doctor to receive "shots" of Polio vaccine (subsequently the vaccines would move to the grade school and continue for several years). It is this event and the crusade that led to it that is detailed in David Oshinsky's book, Polio: An American Story. He takes a comprehensive approach to the story including...more

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Jan 29, 2011 Aimeslee rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-history-politics

I saw this book in the ER Hamilton circular and bought it because it cost only $5 for the hardback and it had some vintage photos in it I could use in my collage art. Then, I said, I'll read a little of it before tearing it up...

Oh boy, am I ever glad I began reading it, because I didn't stop until I finished! I was amazed at how much additional history trivia was in it, and how much like a detective novel it read. The topic was polio and the race to find the cure, as the title suggests. But it...more I saw this book in the ER Hamilton circular and bought it because it cost only $5 for the hardback and it had some vintage photos in it I could use in my collage art. Then, I said, I'll read a little of it before tearing it up...

Oh boy, am I ever glad I began reading it, because I didn't stop until I finished! I was amazed at how much additional history trivia was in it, and how much like a detective novel it read. The topic was polio and the race to find the cure, as the title suggests. But it was also a mini biography on FDR, as well as several of the scientists and researchers who were involved in the race.

Now, if descriptions of scientific method and experiments make your eyes glaze over, better stay away from this. However, I consider myself in the glaze-over category and I found it all fascinating. I attribute this to Oshinsky's writing, because he dumbs down the details and then reformulates it all into pretty interesting stuff. You might say the book's subtitle could be "The Dummies Guide to Polio Research" or some such.

But, why did I read it in the end? Well, I was born in 1956 and have always felt damn lucky that this vaccine was available by that time (along with Vitamin C, penicillin, antibiotics, synthethic hormones, and vaccines for diptheria, hooping cough, malaria, yellow fever, yadayadayadada). So, I really was interested in it to begin with, even though I practically abhor science as an educational course.

Plus, my husband was born in 1952 and that was the year that America had the highest number of polio cases. And for you younger readers, these kind of coincidences could happen with your parents and other older relatives. In no time at all, I was invested and hooked with the subject matter. IOW, personalizing it endears it.

I was also curious about how the author handled the recent claims that this vaccine caused AIDS, but Oshinsky basically poo-poos it as so much monkey business (sorry, a little shop humor there).

I firmly believe that the most valuable attribute of this book is the way the author spends almost the last half of the book telling the story with a sub-theme concerning medical ethics. It's the most intriguing part of the book. Salk or Sabin? And I'm not really talking about who won or such. I mean, which way to look at something so dangerous that has the capacity to save the world of such a nasty disease. One could easily substitute another deadly virus into the example (AIDS). To me, this book totally earns the Pulitzer (2006, in history) because of that extra dimension. When (hopefully when and not if) scientists get to the point of an AIDS vaccine for testing, this book can provide a great framework of thought for the next steps, always reminding that every step has intended and unintended consequences. The trick is to walk forward, but step as if in a mine field, for you may well be. (less)

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Jul 17, 2010 Leslie rated it 4 of 5 stars

David Oshinsky framed this book on the development of the IPV and OPV in creative ways--as the emergence of a new kind of philanthropy in the U.S., and as an intensely personal drama within the young community of virologists about the nature of their science and the relationship of science to public interests.

On the one front, he describes the merging of expertise in politics and advertising in the establishment of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. The force of FDR's personality a...more David Oshinsky framed this book on the development of the IPV and OPV in creative ways--as the emergence of a new kind of philanthropy in the U.S., and as an intensely personal drama within the young community of virologists about the nature of their science and the relationship of science to public interests.

On the one front, he describes the merging of expertise in politics and advertising in the establishment of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. The force of FDR's personality and personal interest in polio fueled the Foundation. The popularity of the President, and the increasing incidence of polio with its attendant fears, gave initial focus to the project. Taking philanthropy from something that rich people did to "The March of Dimes," and changing it from an activity with no expected return to one to which people contributed in anticipation of a successful cure, changed the face of giving in America. The Foundation also had a remarkably influential role on the development of the administrative side of research in this country, particularly in the establishment of research agendas and holding researchers accountable for the use of their research dollars.

On the other front, many individuals contributed to the science of the polio vaccine. Their contributions are interesting in their own rights. It came down mostly to the conflict between Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin. Salk won popular support but never scientific acclaim for the IPV--scientists considered that his work was insufficiently original and creative--and Sabin was respected by the scientific community with many awards including induction into the National Academy of Sciences without warming the hearts of millions. Regardless, the WHO and UNICEF have goals of eradicating the disease, which continues to have strongholds in Nigeria, India, and Pakistan. These goals have required returning to the IPV because the OPV itself causes most cases of the disease in heavily vaccinated populations.

Other characters were interesting along the way. FDR of course was iconic, and led the beginning of a major shift in the way disability is perceived in society. Fred Snite, Jr. was the first long-term mechanically ventilated patient; he lived in an iron lung from 1936 to 1953. Sister Elizabeth Kennedy pioneered physical therapy techniques among victims.

Medical ethics and conduct of trials changed radically during this period as well. Experiments on handicapped children and prisoners occurred with early vaccines. Heavy infighting occurred over whether the Salk vaccine trials would have randomized or non-randomized controls (it had both). It was the first large-scale trial (~1.5 million) ever conducted, and the only in the U.S. without the backing of the NIH. The Russian evaluation of the Sabin vaccine was not a trial--millions of children were simply vaccinated, followed by the entire population.(less)

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Jan 23, 2013 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars

Who knew that a book about Polio could be so fascinating? It turns out the hunt for the cure for polio totally changed the landscape for disease charities and the way in which foundations sought out the public's money. For the first time a private foundation, funded by the public's money, was almost completely responsible for producing a working polio vaccine (obviously it's more complicated than that, but it was still quite and accomplishment). This book follows polio from it's first major outb...more

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May 13, 2011 Dinochunks01 rated it 3 of 5 stars

I was born the year after the first public trials of the killed vaccine. I participated in the life vaccine campaign in 1962. I knew several people who had endured polio. I would like to thank Mr. Oshinsky for the research and assembly he did for this tale. I think a lot of our human history needs to show the effort that went into mankind's noteworthy accomplishments. To know there are people who care about whether we get sick or not knocked a couple of layers of my cynical shell from me. Learni...more

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Apr 04, 2010 Ash rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: students, history buffs, public health workers,

Shelves: history, work-public-health

I just adored this book. Non-fiction accounts of medical research as a page-turner? Yes, please! Oshinsky masterfully discusses polio in its medical, political, and social context. I found the history of March of Dimes fascinating-- I had no idea about Basil O'Conner and his reasons for pursing polio (or that he was drafted into the cause sort of against his will). Their use of PR techniques for medical advocacy was fascinating and clearly set the blueprint for much medical funding today. Also,...more

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Mar 06, 2012 Gary Greenberg rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: audiobook, non-fiction, history, science

What a surprisingly broad history of this American challenge! It covered the history of publicly funded research, the origin of mega-charities, the growth of the civil-rights activism of handicapped Americans, the acceleration of commercial interests in science, the development of research ethics in community cohorts.

From a social science perspective, the birth and dominance of the March of Dimes was narrated in detail and with an open mind as to the positive and negative effects on American soc...more

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Mar 02, 2010 Anne rated it 4 of 5 stars

Though this was a broad-ranging and fascinating book, I highlighted only 1 sentence in it: "Today the word 'polio' describes a vaccine to be taken, not a disease to be feared." Wow! What an inspiration to anyone who works in medical research, particularly in vaccine research. The 2006 Pulitzer Prize-winner for history, this book examines themes that are far from merely historical but are the same challenges that occupy us today: competing research priorities and development programs, internation...more

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Apr 27, 2009 Dorothy rated it 3 of 5 stars

I picked this book up out of sheer curiosity and read it in about two days. It's the tale of the desperate race to find a vaccine for polio, which struck hundreds of thousands of otherwise healthy children around the world. Oshinsky does a very good job of describing the ever-present fear of polio that haunted American parents, even in the days of plenty. The race united even the most uneasy allies; when Salk's vaccine was announced, the bells in the Kremlin rang in celebration.

But the drama of...more

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Mar 25, 2013 Amy rated it 5 of 5 stars

I still remember finding this book. I was on a cruise. I was checking out the library. This book called to me from all of the others. It was not like any book that I had read at the time. It didn't have any awards (yet) and I knew nothing about it. I'm so glad I answered the call! I still remember it as being riveting and astonishing. Years later, I still remember facts that I learned from this book. I still talk about it with strangers and people who probably aren't interested. It was so random...more

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Dec 06, 2012 Barb rated it 4 of 5 stars

As a live in Pittsburgh, I really enjoyed learning about philanthropy in this part of the country and how it didn't much exist for healthcare prior to the 1940's. Also, that our government did not financially support the enhancement of endeavors, such as finding a vaccine to stop the spread of polio.

The race for the cure between Salk and Sabin was very interesting as well, as to find that both vaccines are used today throughout the world.

It must have been scary to be a parent during the outbrea...more

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Dec 09, 2012 Sue Pit rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

This book is about a very scary disease that arose unusually from higher sanitation standards (so people were not naturally immunized at a young age). The book details how the disease became more prevalent especially in the United States and how the battle against it commenced and transpired, from Franklin Roosevelt (whom it was thought to suffer from polio ) to March of Dimes and the development of a vaccine ( and the debate between whether the vaccine should be based upon a live or killed viru...more

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Feb 14, 2009 Jetta rated it 5 of 5 stars

As has been said, this book reads like a mystery. Fascinating details about the disease, its history, the times, the medicine, the pain, the people who fought to eradicate it and the politics. I realized that I was one of the children on whom the vaccine was tested in 1954. I remember clearly being taken in to the cafeteria at St. Austin's School and being lined up to get the shot. I am told I cried but don't remember that part! Of course, at eight years, I had no idea of the controversy and the...more

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Oct 01, 2012 Leah Adams rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book tells the story of polio, and the search for a vaccine, as well as brings the story up to the present. It's fascinating for me having come of age in the early years of the vaccine, and hearing my parents speak of Salk and Sabin in reverent tones. The book also tells the story of the March of Dimes, the first health related foundation to use Madison Avenue techniques. What was most interesting however, is that polio epidemics became increasingly common as a result of the IMPROVED sanita...more

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Jan 28, 2013 Peter Filak rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: health-nutrition

David gives a very historical look into this escapade that was kicked into high gear by the March of Dimes and the various other venues that turned something smaller in nature to the terrible it eventually became. In the beginning and a little near the end, he flaunts the tots dancing behind the DDT trucks that rounded the streets and sprayed at will, Sherwin-Williams free batches of DDT for parents to "drench" their walls and furniture in, and the infamous SV-40, but he kind of avoids that disc...more

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Aug 05, 2012 Ana Rusness-petersen rated it 5 of 5 stars

I set out to read "Polio: An American Story" as a window into better understanding the culture at the height of polio and the experience my dad likely had as a victim of polio. This ended up being a great book that taught me a lot about the history and experience of polio, as well as a great deal about the process of vaccine creation and politics.

This book traces the polio virus from its earliest emergence ultimately to 2005, the year this book was published. It definitely has as its backbone th...more I set out to read "Polio: An American Story" as a window into better understanding the culture at the height of polio and the experience my dad likely had as a victim of polio. This ended up being a great book that taught me a lot about the history and experience of polio, as well as a great deal about the process of vaccine creation and politics.

This book traces the polio virus from its earliest emergence ultimately to 2005, the year this book was published. It definitely has as its backbone the progression of polio, but takes a few tangents (FDR, National Foundation, and the lives of relevant scientists) to more completely illustrate the immensity of and extreme talent and dedication necessary to ultimately defeat polio. At times, it almost seems to discuss too many of the scientists and heads of laboratories and organizations - it ended up being a little hard to keep track of who was who and who did what. But in the course of the book, the background, particularly of Salk, Sabin, and O'Connor did prove revealing and helpful in understanding their place in the battle against polio.

I found the discussion of the pros and cons of Salk's killed-virus approach vs. Sabin's live-virus approach interesting. The way the recommended vaccination promoted by the US came full-circle from Salk to Sabin to a combination of Salk and Sabin, back to Salk was also interesting. While one could obviously glean from the progressive history of vaccine provided was that people between 1954/55 and 1960 received the Salk vaccine. Then, it appears there was a period between 1960 (when the Sabin vaccine was licensed, at least for vaccine trials) and 1996 that one could have received either Salk or Sabin vaccine, although Sabin became more predominant. Then, between 1996 and 2000, a mixed vaccine approach was used (two doses of Salk's less-virulant vaccine at two and four months, and two doses of Sabin's riskier live-virus at 12-18 months and 4-6 years). Finally, in 2000, with wild/natural polio virtually extinct in the US, the CDC moved back to the Salk killed-virus vaccine exclusively( except in special cases of those traveling to geographic locations where current polio outbreaks were going on - Iran, Pakistan, Nigeria, etc.), in an effort to get rid of the extremely small number of polio cases actually caused by Sabin's live-virus vaccine. They were no longer seen as necessary for the greater good. But my question is, where can one who lived in that middle ground (1960-1996) go to find out which vaccine he or she received? And are we certain that the immunity gained from these vaccines given so early in life, last for a lifetime?

The issue of Post-Polio Syndrome (another personal interest of mine, due to my dad) was not dealt with until the last two pages of the book, and disappointingly did not address a few basic questions anyone really interested in post-polio would definitely want answers to, such as whether or not it's contagious in any fashion (post-polio causing new cases of polio, amount of polio antibodies in past polio/post-polio victims, etc.), treatment theories, and whether or not post-polio will conceivably be irrelevant once polio is eradicated completely and there are no new cases from which post-polio can develop.

"Polio: An American Story" is a great source of information, especially for those of us who didn't live through the US polio epidemic, but even provides a wealth of new information to those who did, I would imagine. It is a must read for those interested in the topic, and I would say the best jumping-off platform for additional reading on the subject as it provides an excellent foundation on which to add more polio knowledge and anecdotal illustrations to form the complete polio story.(less)

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Sep 06, 2012 Jeff rated it 4 of 5 stars

My children will probably never know polio. My own life was different from my parents as I never had to fear polio like they did. And we all have Drs. Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin to thank for that. This book covers their story of the development of the polio vaccine that freed much of the world from the fear of polio. But more than that, the book describes the personal battles tht raged on the highest level of science and medicine over the work. Egos and hubris do exist among scientists and this...more

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Jan 20, 2013 Brooke rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: american-history

Reading about the creation of a vaccine is a bit like reading a mystery novel. How will they come to understand the disease enough to prevent, treat, or eradicate it? Perhaps my engagement and interest in the book stems from the fact that my grandpa died of polio the year before the vaccine field trials. It felt like reading family history, a bit.

I found it interesting that the foundation that raised funds and pursued research did not take government funds nor was there much (if any) government...more

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Dec 02, 2011 Barbara rated it 4 of 5 stars

I remember polio. I remember bringing home a letter to my parents informing them of an outbreak of polio in my school. I remember being a fifth grader and pounding a boy on his back because he was one of a group trying to steel the girls volley ball. I was so mad at him....until I heard he was a polio victim. I remember the vaccinations. I had both--the innoculation and the sugar cube.
So, needless to say, this book brought back a lot of memories! I grabbed it from the library shelf as soon as I...more

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Mar 22, 2011 Hillary rated it 5 of 5 stars

Warning,-long review, spoiler alert, they find a vaccine for POLIO
Polio, An American Story isn’t just a book about infantile paralysis in the 1950’s, it’s a book rich with American history and while I generally am loathsome of such detail and find it distracting to the main point, I couldn’t get enough of it in this book and found the authors extraordinary detail only enlightening.
Oshinsky begins by explaining that the state of the American Medical institutions in the 1900 was both dangerous an...more Warning,-long review, spoiler alert, they find a vaccine for POLIO
Polio, An American Story isn’t just a book about infantile paralysis in the 1950’s, it’s a book rich with American history and while I generally am loathsome of such detail and find it distracting to the main point, I couldn’t get enough of it in this book and found the authors extraordinary detail only enlightening.
Oshinsky begins by explaining that the state of the American Medical institutions in the 1900 was both dangerous and embarrassing and severely lagging behind the European laboratories. He writes “Virtually all of the recent breakthroughs in the terrifying struggle against infectious disease such as malaria, tuberculosis, diphtheria, typhoid, and syphilis had occurred on European soil, where the pursuit of medical research had wide popular support. In France contributions from an adoring public had created the Pasture institute.” It wasn’t until the widely misunderstood John D Rockefeller lent his support, (post capitalist boom) that the American Medical standards began to rise. In fact he has one of my favorite quotes in the book. “It is a great problem to learn how to give, without weakening the moral backbone of the beneficiary.” Rockefeller gave to the University of Chicago and started the Rockefeller Institute in NYC and this is where much of the Polio research began.
The book then covers in great detail the presidential candidacy of President F.D. Roosevelt, how he was stricken with polio, how Dr. William Keen billed the family $600 for a house visit and recommended deep massage and exercise (the worst possible treatment) and a few days later he had lost all movement below his waist. The author covers how FRD’s campaign managers convinced the press to not take photos of him in a wheel chair and how by the end of the 1932 election the American people didn’t care at all about the wheel chair they only cared about the economy, which is logical given the circumstances of the Great Depression. The book also suggests that it was because an American President became stricken with Polio that it took the stigmatism out of it having it and put urgency into curing it. FDR became a great crusader for curing the dreaded illness.
But my favorite person in the book by far is an unsung hero in American history named Basil O’Connor. He was FDR’s Wall Street Law partner he and reluctantly agreed to take over FDR’s Warm Spring’s Institute for Rehabilitation which later led him into his real mission in life –raising money for Polio research and the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. O’Conner raised over 1,800,000(in 1950 dollars) for Polio, you might recognize the name as “The March of Dimes”. It was with this money that O’Conner funded Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin to ultimately find a vaccine for Polio.
As a side note LADIES, a women named Isabel Morgan was actually the first researcher to successfully test a killed polio virus on a monkey in 1949 (6 years before Salk) But left her Johns Hopkins career to marry and raise a family.
I could go on and on, I only covered 1 one hundredth of this book. Suffice it to say, it was outstanding and completely deserving of the Pulitzer for History books.
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Nov 03, 2012 Tina H. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ya, adult

Having grown up during the high-tide of the polio epidemic and being a witness to my cousin in a iron lung, I found this book riveting. It is steeped in science and the politics of scientific research (how much has changed?), so it may be a bit slow for those who are not interested in personalities. But, it is precisely the personalities that moved a cure forward. Fascinating. Little did I understand the fear that parents were living with at this time of my own innocence (this too has probably n...more

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Nov 07, 2011 Brian rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: american-history-post-ww2-to-reagan

The quest to find the cure for Polio is one of the most interesting medical stories in history. How did a disease that was not a major threat compared to Influenza, cancer or heart disease capture the nations attention and spend millions if not billions in a search for a cure. The answer is miraculously in the private sector where the national foundation harnessed the resources of a nation to bring together top scientific talent. The real story lies behind two scientists, Salk and Sabin, who wou...more

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Jan 28, 2013 Trena rated it 5 of 5 stars

Fascinating, well-written book. The book sort of starts with FDR as the impetus behind the national crusade against polio. I was planning to judge the author harshly if he didn't acknowledge current theories that FDR had not been struck by polio but by Guillain-Barre Syndrome, which as an armchair diagnostician I find convincing based on his age and the bilateral involvement. Oshinsky passed the test.

The book covers both the social and the scientific angles, describing equally adeptly the birth...more

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Ruth Ann Polio was so much a feared viral disease that the government conducted mass inoculations in the schools once the vaccines were approved. I was given b...more
Jan 28, 2013 06:48pm

Trena Ruth Ann wrote: "Polio was so much a feared viral disease that the government conducted mass inoculations in the schools once the vaccines were approv...more
updated Jan 29, 2013 07:16am

Ruth Ann I was born in 1950. Salk's vaccine was available to the public a few years before Sabin's. I thought I received Sabin's in elementary school. When I l...more
Jan 29, 2013 07:58am

Sep 05, 2012 Kressel Housman rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, philanthropy, non-fiction, science, medical-history

I know it’s become cliché, particularly in my reviews, to say that a history book reads like a novel, but this one really does, and not just a contemplative novel, but a page-turning drama. The protagonist is Dr. Jonas Salk and he and rival scientist Dr. Albert Sabin are in a race to conquer a truly frightening enemy: the polio epidemic.

Having read Laser, I suppose I shouldn’t have been shocked that science is as ego-driven as any other pursuit, but the self-interest of the scientists was prett...more I know it’s become cliché, particularly in my reviews, to say that a history book reads like a novel, but this one really does, and not just a contemplative novel, but a page-turning drama. The protagonist is Dr. Jonas Salk and he and rival scientist Dr. Albert Sabin are in a race to conquer a truly frightening enemy: the polio epidemic.

Having read Laser, I suppose I shouldn’t have been shocked that science is as ego-driven as any other pursuit, but the self-interest of the scientists was pretty appalling, especially when the risks were so high. Dr. Salk definitely lost luster in my eyes, and Dr. Sabin was even worse. But lest I give the wrong impression, the book covers much more than those two and their race to the vaccine. It begins with the rise of germ theory in the early 20th century and then takes us to the first polio epidemic of 1916. It explores FDR’s conflicted relationship with his handicap and the founding of the March of Dimes. My favorite “minor character” was Sister Elizabeth Kenny, an Australian nurse who took on the medical establishment with her unorthodox but highly effective physical therapy treatments. She was a celebrity in her time, and a movie was made about her life. I think it’s time for a remake. After all, “The King’s Speech” covered the unorthodox Australian speech therapist, Lionel Logue.

I recommend this book particularly to people who aren’t in the habit of reading history. It covers the 20th century, so it’s close enough to most of us to be somewhat familiar, if only through history classes and films. At the same time, though, it’s a different world – a time when kids weren’t free to go out to play for fear of spending the rest of their lives in an iron lung. The people are multi-dimensional, and you get a sense of dialogue because the author quotes extensively from interviews. I admit I didn’t “get” all the science, but the book is what it says: the story of how the American people banded together to wipe out one terrible threat. May Hashem help us to rise to face our current challenges with such unity.
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Aug 24, 2011 Linda rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: from-library

I've always been fascinated by polio since being a child and lining up for the sugar cube on what I now know are called "Sabin Sundays". And I read about fears that prevented summer gatherings and kept kids out of cities. I saw people that survived the disease wearing braces and saw pictures of iron lungs.

So I knew they eliminated polio by finding a vacine, but what caused it? How was it spread? What was the key to making this amazing progress?

It was hard to find a book that answered my question...more

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/335598.Polio?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348641550l/335598.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/335598.Polio?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Polio: An American Story by David M. Oshinsky[/url]

Polio: An American Story

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