SKU: 58793038405

The Vaccine Race: Science, Politics, and the Human Costs of Defeating Disease

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The Vaccine Race: Science, Politics, and the Human Costs of Defeating Disease"Riveting . . . The Vaccine Race] invites comparison with Rebecca Skloot's 2007 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks." Nature "This is a story about the war against disease a war without end and the development of enormously important vaccines, but in telling that story, in showing how science works, Meredith Wadman reveals much more. I loved this book." John M. Barry, New York Times bestselling author of The Great Influenza The epic and controversial

"Riveting . . . The Vaccine Race] invites comparison with Rebecca Skloot's 2007 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks."--Nature

"This is a story about the war against disease--a war without end--and the development of enormously important vaccines, but in telling that story, in showing how science works, Meredith Wadman reveals much more. I loved this book."
--John M. Barry, New York Times bestselling author of The Great Influenza

The epic and controversial story of a major breakthrough in cell biology that led to the conquest of rubella and other devastating diseases.

Until the late 1960s, tens of thousands of American children suffered crippling birth defects if their mothers had been exposed to rubella, popularly known as German measles, while pregnant; there was no vaccine and little understanding of how the disease devastated fetuses. In June 1962, a young biologist in Philadelphia, using tissue extracted from an aborted fetus from Sweden, produced safe, clean cells that allowed the creation of vaccines against rubella and other common childhood diseases. Two years later, in the midst of a devastating German measles epidemic, his colleague developed the vaccine that would one day wipe out homegrown rubella. The rubella vaccine and others made with those fetal cells have protected more than 150 million people in the United States, the vast majority of them preschoolers. The new cells and the method of making them also led to vaccines that have protected billions of people around the world from polio, rabies, chicken pox, measles, hepatitis A, shingles and adenovirus.

Meredith Wadman's masterful account recovers not only the science of this urgent race, but also the political roadblocks that nearly stopped the scientists. She describes the terrible dilemmas of pregnant women exposed to German measles and recounts testing on infants, prisoners, orphans, and the intellectually disabled, which was common in the era. These events take place at the dawn of the battle over using human fetal tissue in research, during the arrival of big commerce in campus labs, and as huge changes take place in the laws and practices governing who "owns" research cells and the profits made from biological inventions. It is also the story of yet one more unrecognized woman whose cells have been used to save countless lives.

With another frightening virus imperiling pregnant women on the rise today, no medical story could have more human drama, impact, or urgency today than The Vaccine Race.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Group
Published: 09/04/2018
ISBN: 9780143111313
Pages: 464
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.40w x 1.10d
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SKU: 58793038405

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Kelly Garcia
Los Angeles, US
★★★★★ 5
Cutest Book
Format: Paperback
My 7 year old loved this book. We laughed the whole time while reading it. Hoping this becomes a series because she just thought it was great!
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Reviewed in the United States on October 9, 2020
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Kim
Grantham, US
★★★★★ 5
Short and Funny Graphic Novel
Format: Paperback
Great for beginning readers. Short and funny.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2022
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Casey L Edwards
Dallas, US
★★★★★ 5
Great book
Format: Paperback
This book is enjoyable if you're 4 or 40.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2023
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Nicole Witkowski
Charlottesville, US
★★★★★ 5
Funny book!
Format: Paperback
My daughter loves this book in kindergarten! It motivates her to start reading. She thought it was so funny!
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Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2020
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Henry R. Frankel
Charlottesville, US
★★★★★ 5
Wonderful and short introduction to plate tectonics for those with little background in Earth science or mathematics
Format: Paperback
Molnar does an excellent job explaining key elements of plate tectonics. His book is understandable even for those with little background in geology or geophysics. Molnar, an expert on mountain building, nicely explains how collisions of plates with continents atop cause mountain belts to form. He also questions the limitations of plate tectonics in explaining formation of such mountains. Understanding Molnar's very short book requires little mathematics. An ideal text for college science courses for non-science majors, and for those who want to understand the evolution of Earth's geological features and phenomena.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2017

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