Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It

by Gina Kolata

Ford felt confident that the medical community was behind the decision to start a swine flu campaign. But, Neustadt and May argue, that consensus was less than firm. Look at the medical experts who were invited to the meeting. Salk and Sabin agreed with each other for once and supported Sencer and Cooper, who were sponsoring the program. Sencer himself had suggested the others at the meeting, and most of them had already made up their minds to support the program. Alexander was there but, Neustadt and May observed, he “rarely spoke up anyway.” The others “were already committed to Sencer’s plan.” As a result, the group’s “unanimity meant less than Ford assumed. It neither kept Sabin and Salk together (Sabin turned against the program three months later) nor reflected firm views in the medical community where opposition (and indifference) mounted as months passed without swine flu,” they write.