The Panic Virus

The Panic Virus
Author: Seth Mnookin
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 466
Release: 2012-01-03
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 1439158657

A searing account of how vaccine opponents have used the media to spread their message of panic, despite no scientific evidence to support them.

Panic in Level 4

Panic in Level 4
Author: Richard Preston
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2009-06-16
Genre: Science
ISBN: 081297560X

Bizarre illnesses and plagues that kill people in the most unspeakable ways. Obsessive and inspired efforts by scientists to solve mysteries and save lives. From The Hot Zone to The Demon in the Freezer and beyond, Richard Preston’s bestselling works have mesmerized readers everywhere by showing them strange worlds of nature they never dreamed of. Panic in Level 4 is a grand tour through the eerie and unforgettable universe of Richard Preston, filled with incredible characters and mysteries that refuse to leave one’s mind. Here are dramatic true stories from this acclaimed and award-winning author, including: • The phenomenon of “self-cannibals,” who suffer from a rare genetic condition caused by one wrong letter in their DNA that forces them to compulsively chew their own flesh–and why everyone may have a touch of this disease. • The search for the unknown host of Ebola virus, an organism hidden somewhere in African rain forests, where the disease finds its way into the human species, causing outbreaks of unparalleled horror. • The brilliant Russian brothers–“one mathematician divided between two bodies”–who built a supercomputer in their apartment from mail-order parts in an attempt to find hidden order in the number pi (π). In fascinating, intimate, and exhilarating detail, Richard Preston portrays the frightening forces and constructive discoveries that are currently roiling and reordering our world, once again proving himself a master of the nonfiction narrative and, as noted in The Washington Post, “a science writer with an uncommon gift for turning complex biology into riveting page-turners.”

Panic Virus

Panic Virus
Author: Seth Mnookin
Publisher: Black Incorporated
Total Pages: 448
Release: 2016-08-01
Genre: Health behavior
ISBN: 9781863958769

"In 1998 Andrew Wakefield published a paper containing a shocking allegation- the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine might cause autism. Wakefield based his findings on a study of just a dozen children, and his methods and conclusions immediately came under fire. But the media seized on the story, launching one of the most devastating health scares of modern times. Soon, vaccination rates had started to fall, eventually resulting in deaths from diseases previously thought to be disappearing. Wakefield was eventually stripped of his medical licence, but the myth that vaccines cause developmental disorders lives on. Drawing on interviews with parents, public-health advocates, scientists, and anti-vaccine activists, The Panic Virusis a riveting and heartbreaking medical detective story that explores the limits of rational thought - a cautionary tale of our time."

Anti-vaxxers

Anti-vaxxers
Author: Jonathan M. Berman
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 299
Release: 2020-09-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0262539322

A “clear and insightful” takedown of the anti-vaccination movement, from its 19th-century antecedents to modern-day Facebook activists—with strategies for refuting false claims of friends and family (Financial Times) Vaccines are a documented success story, one of the most successful public health interventions in history. Yet there is a vocal anti-vaccination movement, featuring celebrity activists (including Kennedy scion Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and actress Jenny McCarthy) and the propagation of anti-vax claims through books, documentaries, and social media. In Anti-Vaxxers, Jonathan Berman explores the phenomenon of the anti-vaccination movement, recounting its history from its nineteenth-century antecedents to today’s activism, examining its claims, and suggesting a strategy for countering them. After providing background information on vaccines and how they work, Berman describes resistance to Britain’s Vaccination Act of 1853, showing that the arguments anticipate those made by today’s anti-vaxxers. He discusses the development of new vaccines in the twentieth century, including those protecting against polio and MMR (measles, mumps, rubella), and the debunked paper that linked the MMR vaccine to autism; the CDC conspiracy theory promoted in the documentary Vaxxed; recommendations for an alternative vaccination schedule; Kennedy’s misinformed campaign against thimerosal; and the much-abused religious exemption to vaccination. Anti-vaxxers have changed their minds, but rarely because someone has given them a list of facts. Berman argues that anti-vaccination activism is tied closely to how people see themselves as parents and community members. Effective pro-vaccination efforts should emphasize these cultural aspects rather than battling social media posts.

The Panic Virus

The Panic Virus
Author: Seth Mnookin
Publisher:
Total Pages: 643
Release: 2011-02-28
Genre:
ISBN: 9781458763013

In 1998 Andrew Wakefield claimed to have found a link between a common childhood vaccine and autism. Wakefield based his findings on a case study of just a dozen children, and his methods and conclusions almost immediately came under fire. Rather than appealing to his colleagues, however, he went to the press, who seized on the story of a maverick doctor standing up to the powerful pharmaceutical industry. Within months, vaccination rates across Europe and America had started to fall, resulting in deaths from diseases previously thought to be disappearing. The panic triggered by Wakefields study is part of a much bigger story about fear, myth and medicine. Decisions about childrens health have always aroused strong passions, but the rise of alternative medicine and the internet have magnified such anxieties. In The Panic Virus, Seth Mnookin takes us inside the anti-vaccination community and the medical establishment. He examines how the anti-vaccination movement spread, and looks at a controversial Australian case that exposed the claims and tactics of the movement to new scrutiny. Sorting fact from rumour, Mnookin confronts difficult questions: with more information at our fingertips than ever, why is our trust in science so fragile? Why did the anti-vaccination movement take hold so quickly? How to balance fact and intuition when it comes to decisions about health? The Panic Virus is an extraordinary and gripping feat of research and reporting.

Anti/Vax

Anti/Vax
Author: Bernice L. Hausman
Publisher: ILR Press
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2019-04-15
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1501735632

Antivaxxers are crazy. That is the perception we all gain from the media, the internet, celebrities, and beyond, writes Bernice Hausman in Anti/Vax, but we need to open our eyes and ears so that we can all have a better conversation about vaccine skepticism and its implications. Hausman argues that the heated debate about vaccinations and whether to get them or not is most often fueled by accusations and vilifications rather than careful attention to the real concerns of many Americans. She wants to set the record straight about vaccine skepticism and show how the issues and ideas that motivate it—like suspicion of pharmaceutical companies or the belief that some illness is necessary to good health—are commonplace in our society. Through Anti/Vax, Hausman wants to engage public health officials, the media, and each of us in a public dialogue about the relation of individual bodily autonomy to the state's responsibility to safeguard citizens' health. We need to know more about the position of each side in this important stand-off so that public decisions are made through understanding rather than stereotyped perceptions of scientifically illiterate antivaxxers or faceless bureaucrats. Hausman reveals that vaccine skepticism is, in part, a critique of medicalization and a warning about the dangers of modern medicine rather than a glib and gullible reaction to scaremongering and misunderstanding.

Rage

Rage
Author: Bob Woodward
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 480
Release: 2020-09-15
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1982131764

Rage is an unprecedented and intimate tour de force of new reporting on the Trump presidency facing a global pandemic, economic disaster and racial unrest. Woodward, the #1 international bestselling author of Fear: Trump in the White House, has uncovered the precise moment the president was warned that the Covid-19 epidemic would be the biggest national security threat to his presidency. In dramatic detail, Woodward takes readers into the Oval Office as Trump’s head pops up when he is told in January 2020 that the pandemic could reach the scale of the 1918 Spanish Flu that killed 675,000 Americans. In 17 on-the-record interviews with Woodward over seven volatile months—an utterly vivid window into Trump’s mind—the president provides a self-portrait that is part denial and part combative interchange mixed with surprising moments of doubt as he glimpses the perils in the presidency and what he calls the “dynamite behind every door.” At key decision points, Rage shows how Trump’s responses to the crises of 2020 were rooted in the instincts, habits and style he developed during his first three years as president. Revisiting the earliest days of the Trump presidency, Rage reveals how Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats struggled to keep the country safe as the president dismantled any semblance of collegial national security decision making. Rage draws from hundreds of hours of interviews with firsthand witnesses as well as participants’ notes, emails, diaries, calendars and confidential documents. Woodward obtained 25 never-seen personal letters exchanged between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who describes the bond between the two leaders as out of a “fantasy film.” Trump insists to Woodward he will triumph over Covid-19 and the economic calamity. “Don’t worry about it, Bob. Okay?” Trump told the author in July. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll get to do another book. You’ll find I was right.”

Deadly Choices

Deadly Choices
Author: Paul A. Offit
Publisher: Basic Books (AZ)
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2015-03-10
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0465057969

A renowned researcher vigorously challenges the anti-vaccine movement in this powerful defense of science in the face of fear.

The Panic Virus

The Panic Virus
Author: Seth Mnookin
Publisher: Black Inc.
Total Pages: 425
Release: 2011
Genre: Health behavior
ISBN: 9781863955188

In 1998 Andrew Wakefield published a paper containing a shocking allegation: the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine might cause autism. Wakefield based his findings on a study of just a dozen children, and his methods and conclusions immediately came under fire. The media, however, seized on the story - and so helped launch one of the most devastating health scares of modern times. Within months, vaccination rates across the West had started to fall, resulting in deaths from diseases previously thought to be disappearing. Wakefield eventually lost his medical licence, yet the myth that vaccines cause developmental disorders lives on. In The Panic Virus Seth Mnookin examines how the anti-immunisation panic spread and looks at a controversial Australian case that exposed the claims and tactics of the movement to new scrutiny. Sorting fact from rumour, he confronts fundamental questions: with more facts at our fingertips than ever, why is our trust in science so fragile? Has the internet made us better informed, or simply enabled panic to spread more quickly? And how might we balance fact and intuition when it comes to decisions about children's health? The Panic Virus is a riveting and sometimes heartbreaking medical detective story, a gripping work of investigative journalism and a cautionary tale for our times.

The Cutter Incident

The Cutter Incident
Author: Paul A. Offit
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2007-09-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780300126051

Vaccines have saved more lives than any other single medical advance. Yet today only four companies make vaccines, and there is a growing crisis in vaccine availability. Why has this happened? This remarkable book recounts for the first time a devastating episode in 1955 at Cutter Laboratories in Berkeley, California, thathas led many pharmaceutical companies to abandon vaccine manufacture. Drawing on interviews with public health officials, pharmaceutical company executives, attorneys, Cutter employees, and victims of the vaccine, as well as on previously unavailable archives, Dr. Paul Offit offers a full account of the Cutter disaster. He describes the nation's relief when the polio vaccine was developed by Jonas Salk in 1955, the production of the vaccine at industrial facilities such as the one operated by Cutter, and the tragedy that occurred when 200,000 people were inadvertently injected with live virulent polio virus: 70,000 became ill, 200 were permanently paralyzed, and 10 died. Dr. Offit also explores how, as a consequence of the tragedy, one jury's verdict set in motion events that eventually suppressed the production of vaccines already licensed and deterred the development of new vaccines that hold the promise of preventing other fatal diseases.