Polio: An American StoryHere David Oshinsky tells the gripping story of the polio terror and of the intense effort to find a cure, from the March of Dimes to the discovery of the Salk and Sabin vaccines--and beyond. Drawing on newly available papers of Jonas Salk, Albert Sabin and other key players, Oshinsky paints a suspenseful portrait of the race for the cure, weaving a dramatic tale centered on the furious rivalry between Salk and Sabin. He also tells the story of Isabel Morgan, perhaps the most talented of all polio researchers, who might have beaten Salk to the prize if she had not retired to raise a family. Oshinsky offers an insightful look at the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, which was founded in the 1930s by FDR and Basil O'Connor, it revolutionized fundraising and the perception of disease in America. Oshinsky also shows how the polio experience revolutionized the way in which the government licensed and tested new drugs before allowing them on the market, and the way in which the legal system dealt with manufacturers' liability for unsafe products. Finally, and perhaps most tellingly, Oshinsky reveals that polio was never the raging epidemic portrayed by the media, but in truth a relatively uncommon disease. But in baby-booming America--increasingly suburban, family-oriented, and hygiene-obsessed--the specter of polio, like the specter of the atomic bomb, soon became a cloud of terror over daily life. Both a gripping scientific suspense story and a provocative social and cultural history, Polio opens a fresh window onto postwar America. |
Contents
1 | |
8 | |
2 Warm Springs | 24 |
3 Cripples Money | 43 |
4 And They Shall Walk | 61 |
5 Poster Children Marching Mothers | 79 |
6 The Apprenticeship of Jonas Salk | 92 |
7 Pathway to a Vaccine | 112 |
12 The Biggest Public Health Experiment Ever | 188 |
13 The Cutter Fiasco | 214 |
14 Mission to Moscow | 237 |
15 Sabin Sundays | 255 |
16 Celebrities and Survivors | 269 |
Epilogue | 287 |
Notes | 289 |
Selected Bibliography | 328 |
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Common terms and phrases
Albert Sabin American April Archives Author’s interview Basil O’Connor Benison Breakthrough Byoir Carter Chumakov David Bodian disease doctor Dorothy Horstmann Edward Litchfield Eisenhower epidemic experiments FDR’s field trials Flexner Folder Foundation for Infantile foundation’s Francis Papers Franklin grant Harry Weaver hereafter cited Hilary Koprowski History of Poliomyelitis hospital human Ibid immunity Infantile Paralysis injected iron lung John Enders John Paul Jonas Salk Koprowski laboratory Litchfield live March of Dimes medical school Medicine million monkeys National Foundation officials Olitsky Papers paralyzed Parke-Davis Patenting the Sun patients Peter Olitsky Pittsburgh polio research polio vaccine polio victims poliovirus President problem produced Public Health recalled Rockefeller Institute Roosevelt Sabin Papers Salk Papers Salk vaccine Salk’s scientific scientists Simon Flexner Sister Kenny strains testing Thomas Francis Thomas Rivers tion tissue told Tom Rivers Type United University virologist virus viruses volunteers Warm Springs wrote York Youngner