The Panic Virus
Page 34
28 Throughout December: Ibid., 46, 62–72.
28 “entire ruin of the Army”: Bruce Chadwick, The First American Army (Naperville, Illinois: Sourcebooks, 2005), 100.
28 By Christmas Day: Fenn, Pox Americana, 64.
28 In the end, repeated rumors: Ibid., 91.
29 In 1763, the commander: Barquet and Domingo, “Smallpox,” citing J. Duffy, “Smallpox and the Indians in the American Colonies,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 1951;25: 324–41.
CHAPTER 2: MILKMAID ENVY AND A FEAR OF MODERNITY
PAGE
30 When naturally occurring: Collette Flight, “Smallpox: Eradicating the Scourge,” BBC: British History In-Depth, n.d., http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/
empire_seapower/smallpox_01.shtml.
30 As soon as the immune system: William T. Keeton and James L. Gould, Biological Science, 4th ed. (New York: W. W. Norton, 1986). See Chapter 4, “Structure of the Cell Membrane,” 100–4; Chapter 13, “Internal Transport in Animals,” 344–50; Chapter 27, “Transcription and Translation,” 709–13.
31 One popular rhyme: R. S. Bray, Armies of Pestilence: The Effects of Pandemics on History (Cambridge, U.K.: James Clark, 2004), 114.
31 An English scientist and naturalist named Edward Jenner: “Jenner and Smallpox,” The Jenner Museum, n.d., http://www.jennermuseum.com/Jenner/cowpox.html.
31 Jenner tried inoculating Phipps: Stefan Riedel, “Edward Jenner and the History of Smallpox and Vaccination,” Proceedings of the Baylor University Medical Center 2005;18(1): 21–25.
31 Nelmes was infected: “Campus Curiosities (10): Edward Jenner’s Cow, St. George’s, University of London,” The Times Higher Education (London), July 22, 2005.
32 The relative safety of the cowpox vaccine: Catherine Mark and Jose Rigau-Perez, “The World’s First Immunization Campaign,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 2009;83(1): 63–94.
33 Anne Harrington calls the feeling: Anne Harrington, The Cure Within (New York: W. W. Norton, 2008), 139.
33 the American Revolution’s promise: William Goetzmann, Beyond the Revolution (New York: Basic Books, 2009), 95.
34 When the American Medical Association was founded: “Our History,” American Medical Association, n.d., http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/about-ama/our-history.shtml.
34 gravitated toward the Eclectic Medicine movement: John S. Haller, Jr., A Profile in Alternative Medicine (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1999), 16–20.
34 A recent DAN! conference: Autism Research Institute/Defeat Autism Now! conference, Waverly Renaissance, Atlanta, April 16–19, 2009.
34 Lora Little, whom the journalist and author: Arthur Allen, Vaccine (New York: W. W. Norton, 2007), 104–5.
35 In her 1906 tract: James Colgrove, State of Immunity (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2006), 61.
35 Here’s Barbara Loe Fisher: Fisher, “Vaccine Education Seminar.”
36 For Little, that tragedy: Allen, Vaccine, 105.
36 For Fisher, a television program: Barbara Loe Fisher, “In the Wake of Vaccines,” Mothering, September/October 2004.
36 In 1910, Paul Ehrlich: Paul Ehrlich, Studies in Immunity (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1910).
36 in the 1930s: “Sulfa Drugs,” Encyclopedia, 2003, n.d., http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3409800539.html.
36 and in 1941: Lennard Bickel, Howard Florey: The Man Who Made Penicillin (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1996).
36 In the Spanish-American War: Allen, Vaccine, 159.
36 Over that same span: Ibid., 162.
37 the American government for the first time assumed a central role: “A Short History of the National Institutes of Health: WWI and the Ransdell Act of 1930,” National Institutes of Health, n.d., http://history.nih.gov/exhibits/history/docs/page_04.html; Elizabeth Etheridge, Sentinel: A History of the Centers for Disease Control (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1992), xv.
37 “in a futile attempt”: “Editorial,” The New York Times, April 1, 1894.
37 what physician Benjamin Gruenberg described: Colgrove, State of Immunity, 62.
37 By the time the country joined the Allied cause: Allen, Vaccine, 159.
38 as Arthur Allen wrote: Ibid., 158.
CHAPTER 3: THE POLIO VACCINE: FROM MEDICAL MIRACLE TO PUBLIC HEALTH CATASTROPHE
PAGE
39 On June 6, 1916: Paul Offit, The Cutter Incident (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005), 4.
39 It had been a quietly persistent presence: David Oshinsky, Polio: An American Story (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 10–11.
39 The virus quickly made up for lost ground: Ibid., 8–43.
40 polio victims in the first decade and a half: Ibid., 10–20.
40 Even more terrifying: “Day Shows 12 Dead by Infant Paralysis,” The New York Times, July 2, 1916, 6.
40 Since 1911, when New York’s Department of Health: City of New York Department of Health, “Some Increase in Poliomyelitis,” City of New York Department of Health Weekly Bulletin, July 18, 1931, 199.
41 One local expert: “Day Shows 12 Dead by Infant Paralysis.”
41 In Staten Island: “Paralysis Figures Rise in Manhattan,” The New York Times, July 26, 1916, 5.
41 a local newspaper reported: “Oyster Bay Revolts over Poliomyelitis,” The New York Times, August 29, 1916, 1.
41 In Hoboken, New Jersey: “31 Die of Paralysis; 162 More Ill in City,” The New York Times, July 15, 1916, 1.
41 By early August: “Defense League of 21,000 Citizens Fights Paralysis,” The New York Times, July 9, 1916, 1.
41 city counselors accused: “Oyster Bay Revolts over Poliomyelitis.”
41 26,212 people had been infected: Barry Trevelyan et al., “The Spatial Dynamics of Poliomyelitis in the United States,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 2005;95(2): 276.
42 In New York City alone: City of New York Department of Health, “Some Increase in Poliomyelitis,” 199.
42 For the next thirty years: Trevelyan, “The Spatial Dynamics of Poliomyelitis in the United States,” 276.
42 polio ranked second: Offit, The Cutter Incident, 32.
42 a leading medical writer: Leonard Engel, “The Salk Vaccine: What Caused the Mess?,” Harper’s, August 1955, 30.
42 which had been founded in 1937: David Rose, March of Dimes (Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia, 2003), 9.
42 In 2003, an academic paper: Armond Goldman et al., “What Was the Cause of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Paralytic Illness?,” Journal of Medical Biology 2003;11: 232.
42 Year after year, its celebrity-studded: Oshinsky, Polio, 55.
43 When, in November 1953: Ibid., 174.
43 The Salk trials began: Ibid., 187.
43 At the end of the year: Ibid., 188.
43 That summer and fall, another 25,000: Trevelyan et al., “Spatial Dynamics of Poliomyelitis,” 276.
43 At one point, the New York World-Telegram and Sun: Engel, “The Salk Vaccine: What Caused the Mess?,” 28.
44 On April 12, 1955: Oshinsky, Polio, 201–3.
44 one newspaper described the morning: “Salk Polio Vaccine Proves Success,” The New York Times, April 13, 1955, 1.
44 At the back of the auditorium: Oshinsky, Polio, 203.
44 Reporters on site: Val Adams, “Release Broken by N.B.C. on Polio,” The New York Times, April 13, 1955, 40.
44 In ballrooms and conference halls: Offit, The Cutter Incident, 55.
44 Six thousand crammed into: “Fanfare Ushers in Verdict on Tests,” The New York Times, April 13, 1955, 1.
44 At 10:20 a.m. as spotlight clicked: Offit, The Cutter Incident, 54.
44 Salk’s vaccine, he announced: Joe Palca, “Salk Polio Vaccine Conquered Terrifying Disease,” National Public Radio, April 12, 2005.
45 Air raid sirens were set off: Offit, The Cutter Incident, 56; Engel, “The Salk Vaccine: What Caused the Mess?,” 28.
45 “one of the greatest events”: Harold M. Schmec
k, Jr., “Dr. Jonas Salk, Whose Vaccine Turned Tide on Polio, Dies at 80,” The New York Times, June 24, 1995.
45 “Gone are the old helplessness”: “Dawn of a New Medical Day,” The New York Times, April 13, 1955, 28.
45 “It’s a wonderful day”: Offit, The Cutter Incident, 58.
45 At five that afternoon: Oshinsky, Polio, 208.
46 failed to generate immunity: Ibid., 204.
46 Republicans spoke sotto voce: Engel, “The Salk Vaccine: What Caused The Mess?,” 29.
46 Ten days after Francis’s: Morris Kaplan, “Tighter Controls over Vaccine Due,” The New York Times, April 27, 1955, 1.
46 In the midst of this frantic activity: Engel, “The Salk Vaccine: What Caused the Mess?,” 29.
46 By April 26, exactly two weeks: Offit, The Cutter Incident, 68–78.
46 “This action does not indicate”: “Govt. Experts Push Polio Vaccine Probe,” The Spartanburg Herald (South Carolina), April 29, 1955, 1.
47 The foundation said it had “no control”: “Text of the Statement by Basil O’Connor,” The New York Times, May 9, 1955, 15.
47 they had not been shown an advance copy: Oshinsky, Polio, 240.
47 President Eisenhower, at a loss: “Transcript of President’s Press Conference on Domestic and Foreign Affairs,” The New York Times, May 5, 1955.
47 Eisenhower’s emphasis on damage control: Engel, “The Salk Vaccine: What Caused the Mess?,” 32.
48 On May 7, Scheele announced: Offit, The Cutter Incident, 98.
48 At one point Eisenhower attributed: William Blair, “Eisenhower Sees Polio’s Early End with Salk Shots,” The New York Times, May 12, 1955, 20.
49 Hobby told a Senate committee: Oshinksy, Polio, 218.
49 it took only a week for the government: Offit, The Cutter Incident, 120.
49 “The nation is now badly scared”: “Confusion over Polio,” The New York Times, May 22, 1955, E1.
49 The government had not required the pharmaceutical companies: Offit, The Cutter Incident, 61.
49 Cutter had discarded a full third: Ibid., 67.
49 The children of several friends: Sabin Russell, “When Polio Vaccine Backfired,” San Francisco Chronicle, April 25, 2005, A1.
50 With a vacation planned: Offit, The Cutter Incident, 3.
50 On November 22, 1957: Ibid., 134.
50 If anyone was capable of convincing a jury: Jim Herron Zamora, “ ‘King of Torts’ Belli Dead at 88,” San Francisco Chronicle, July 10, 1996.
51 a waitress named Gladys Escola: Escola v. Coca Cola Bottling Co., 24 C2d 453 (Cal. Sup. Ct. 1944).
51 In order to win that case: “The Cutter Polio Vaccine Incident,” Yale Law Journal 1955;65(2): 262.
52 “There is no doubt in my mind”: Offit, The Cutter Incident, 142.
52 “If you find that the vaccine”: Lawrence Davies, “2 Polio Victims Win Vaccine Suit but Cutter Is Held Not Negligent,” The New York Times, January 18, 1958, 1.
52 The jurors made their frustration known: Offit, The Cutter Incident, 150.
52 The $147,300 the Gottsdankers: Russell, “When Polio Vaccine Backfired.”
52 For the remainder of their lives: Ibid.
52 “He was a scientist”: Ibid.
53 a contemporaneous account that ran in . . . Harper’s: Engel, “The Salk Vaccine: What Caused the Mess?,” 27.
54 The Epidemic Intelligence Service: Alexander D. Langmuir, “The Epidemic Intelligence Service of the Center for Disease Control,” Public Health Reports 1980;95(5): 470–71.
54 It had been the EIS that had first traced: “The Salk Verdict,” Time, November 28, 1955.
54 But in the same investigation: Lawrence K. Altman, M.D., “An Elite Team of Sleuths, Saving Lives in Obscurity,” The New York Times, April 6, 2010, D5.
54 Seven years later: Donald A. Henderson et al., “Public Health and Medical Responses to the 1957–58 Influenza Pandemic,” Biosecurity and Bioterrorism. 2009;7(3): 265.
54 Given this situation, Langmuir chose to bury: Altman, “An Elite Team of Sleuths, Saving Lives in Obscurity.”
CHAPTER 4: FLUORIDE SCARES AND SWINE FLU SCANDALS
PAGE
55 In its 1962 annual report: Colgrove, State of Immunity, 155.
55 One of the first indications of this shift: D. T. Karzon, “Immunization and Practice in the United States and Great Britain: A Comparative Study,” Postgraduate Medical Journal 1969;45: 148.
55 Soon, state legislatures: Colgrove, State of Immunity, 176–77.
56 Before the measles vaccine: Philip J. Landrigan and J. Lyle Conrad, “Current Status of Measles in the United States,” The Journal of Infectious Diseases 1971;124(6): 620–22.
56 A 2006 study by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health: Kimberly Thompson and Radbound Tebbens, “Retrospective Cost-Effectiveness Analyses for Polio Vaccination in the United States,” Risk Analysis 2006;26(6): 1423.
56 Just as the benefits: Colgrove, State of Immunity, 150–60.
57 The first hint that fluoride: Christopher Toumey, Conjuring Science (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1994), 64.
57 The next piece of evidence came from Minonk: Ibid.
58 By 1950, the children in the communities: Ibid.
58 In the vast majority of places: Ibid.
58 Fifty-nine percent of the time: Ibid, 65.
58 One of New Jersey’s most prominent: “Prevent Mandated Water Fluoridation in NJ, Please Make Three Calls Today,” New Jersey Coalition for Vaccine Choice, December 10, 2009.
58 What we know as “fluoride”: Toumey, Conjuring Science, 66.
59 that amount was fifty bathtubs’ worth: “Fluoride Facts and Myths,” Kern County Children’s Dental Health Network, n.d., http://www.kccdhn.org/stories/storyReader$97.
59 Consuming as little as a tenth: T. D. Noakes et al., “Peak Rates of Diuresis in Healthy Humans During Oral Fluid Overload,” South African Medical Journal 2001;91(10).
60 in the words of the social anthropologist Arnold Green: Toumey, Conjuring Science, 67.
60 In 1942, an American scientist: Colgrove, State of Immunity, 111.
60 a decade in which more than 60 percent: Jeffrey Baker, “The Pertussis Vaccine Controversy in Great Britain, 1974–1986,” Vaccine 2003;21: 4003–10.
60 After mass DPT inoculations began: Ibid.
60 While whole cell vaccines can be both effective and safe: Paul Offit, interview with author, February 3, 2009.
61 In Britain, this veneer of nonchalance: Baker, “The Pertussis Vaccine Controversy in Great Britain, 1974–1986,” 4004.
61 After decades of close to one hundred percent employment: Mark Tran, “Unemployment,” The Guardian (London), May 15, 2002.
61 One particularly flimsy example: Baker, “The Pertussis Vaccine Controversy in Great Britain, 1974–1986,” 4004.
61 Within months, vaccination rates began to fall: Ibid.
62 On February 4, 1976: Joel Gaydos et al., “Swine Influenza A Outbreak, Fort Dix, New Jersey, 1976,” Emerging Infectious Diseases 2006;12(1): 24.
62 the 1918 flu pandemic: C. W. Potter, “A History of Influenza,” Journal of Applied Microbiology 2006;91(4): 575.
62 “the greatest medical holocaust”: Ibid.
63 On March 11, CDC director David Sencer: Richard Neustadt and Harvey Fineberg, The Swine Flu Affair: Decision-Making on a Slippery Slope (Washington, D.C.: Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1978), 11–14.
63 “I certainly thought of it”: Ibid., 24.
63 “each and every American”: Harold M. Schmeck, Jr., “Ford Urges Flu Campaign to Inoculate Entire U.S.,” The New York Times, March 25, 1976, 1.
64 did nothing to mollify: Neustadt and Fineberg, The Swine Flu Affair, 45.
64 when a jury ordered Wyeth Pharmaceuticals: Colgrove, State of Immunity, 189–90.
64 “particularly if you are talking about”: Neustadt and Fineberg, The Swine Flu Affair, 45.
64 an article had appea
red in Pediatrics: Richard Krugman, “Immunization ‘Dyspractice’: The Need for ‘No Fault’ Insurance,” Pediatrics 1975;56(2): 159–60.
65 On August 12, Ford signed: Neustadt and Fineberg, The Swine Flu Affair, 53.
65 On October 1, the government’s massive: Harold Schmeck, “Swine Flu Shots Will Start Today for the Elderly and Ill in 2 Cities,” The New York Times, October 1, 1976, 14.
65 By the end of December: Arthur Silverstein, Pure Politics, Impure Science: The Swine Flu Affair (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982).
65 among the forty million: Stephanie Beck, “When Politics, and Swine Flu, Infect Health,” San Francisco Chronicle, April 30, 2009.
65 it occurs at an incidence: A. H. Ropper, “The Guillain-Barré Syndrome,” New England Journal of Medicine 1992;326(17): 1130–36.
66 On December 16, it was called off: Neustadt and Fineberg, The Swine Flu Affair, 1.
66 “Any program conceived by politicians”: Richard Cohen, “Science as Fiction Makes Skeptical Fan,” The Washington Post, November 14, 1976.
66 By 1977, uptake of the pertussis vaccine: Baker, “The Pertussis Vaccine Controversy in Great Britain, 1974–1986,” 4004.
CHAPTER 5: “VACCINE ROULETTE”
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67 On April 19, 1982: Vincent Fulginiti, “‘Red Book’ Update,” Pediatrics 1982;70: 819–22.
67 “For more than a year”: Lea Thompson, “DPT: Vaccine Roulette,” WRC-TV, Washington, D.C., April 19, 1982, unofficial transcript.
69 “[DPT] was without a doubt”: Paul Offit, interview with author, February 3, 2009.
69 A UPI wire dispatch: Michael Conlon, “Report Says Vaccines May Cause Brain Damage,” United Press International, April 20, 1982.
69 The Washington Post gave Thompson: Sandy Rovner, “Risks, Benefits & DPT,” The Washington Post, April 30, 1982, C5.
70 At the awards ceremony: Ann Trebbe, “Local TV Honors Its Own; Channels 4 and 7 Sweep the Emmys,” The Washington Post, June 27, 1983, B1.
70 What it found was a dispatch rife: Elizabeth Gonzalez, “TV Report on DPT Galvanizes US Pediatricians,” Journal of the American Medical Association 1982;248(1): 12–22.
71 the extent to which Thompson misstated: Ibid.
71 in 1977, he published a paper: Gordon Stewart, “Vaccination Against Whooping Cough: Efficacy Versus Risks,” The Lancet 1977;309(8005): 234–37.