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The vaccine race: science, politics, and the human costs of defeating disease

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"The epic and controversial story of a major breakthrough in cell biology that led to the creation of some of the world's most important vaccines. 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"--Provided by publisher.
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ISBN:
9780525427537
9781524751999
9780698177789
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Grouping Information

Grouped Work IDd9f52d17-dd40-e782-d40d-cc6755c666c4
Grouping Titlevaccine race science politics and the human costs of defeating disease
Grouping Authormeredith wadman
Grouping Categorybook
Grouping LanguageEnglish (eng)
Last Grouping Update2024-03-29 02:17:20AM
Last Indexed2024-03-28 02:24:37AM

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Wadman, Meredith
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Wadman, Meredith
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display_description
"The epic and controversial story of a major breakthrough in cell biology that led to the creation of some of the world's most important vaccines. 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"--Provided by publisher.
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eAudiobook
eBook
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Audio Books
Books
eBook
id
d9f52d17-dd40-e782-d40d-cc6755c666c4
isbn
9780525427537
9780698177789
9781524751999
itype_catalog
Adult Book Non-Fiction
last_indexed
2024-03-28T09:24:37.294Z
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literary_form_full
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local_callnumber_catalog
614.523 W123 2017
owning_library_catalog
Sacramento Public Library
owning_location_catalog
Central
primary_isbn
9780525427537
publishDate
2017
publisher
Books on Tape
Penguin Publishing Group
Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
recordtype
grouped_work
subject_facet
Human experimentation in medicine -- Political aspects -- United States -- History -- 20th century
Human experimentation in medicine -- United States -- History -- 20th century
MMR vaccine -- Research -- United States -- History -- 20th century
Rubella -- Vaccination -- History -- 20th century
Rubella vaccines -- Political aspects -- United States -- History -- 20th century
Rubella vaccines -- Research -- United States -- History -- 20th century
title_display
The vaccine race : science, politics, and the human costs of defeating disease
title_full
The Vaccine Race Science, Politics, and the Human Costs of Defeating Disease
The vaccine race : science, politics, and the human costs of defeating disease / Meredith Wadman
title_short
The vaccine race
title_sub
science, politics, and the human costs of defeating disease
topic_facet
History
Human experimentation in medicine
MMR vaccine
Medical
Nonfiction
Political aspects
Research
Rubella
Rubella vaccines
Science
Vaccination

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