The Panic Virus

The Panic Virus PDF

Author: Seth Mnookin

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2012-01-03

Total Pages: 466

ISBN-13: 1439158657

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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 PDF

Author: Richard Preston

Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks

Published: 2009-06-16

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 081297560X

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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.”

Anti/Vax

Anti/Vax PDF

Author: Bernice L. Hausman

Publisher: ILR Press

Published: 2019-04-15

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 1501735632

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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.

Anti-vaxxers

Anti-vaxxers PDF

Author: Jonathan M. Berman

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2020-09-08

Total Pages: 299

ISBN-13: 0262539322

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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.

Rage

Rage PDF

Author: Bob Woodward

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2021-09-14

Total Pages: 480

ISBN-13: 1982131748

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An account of the Trump presidency draws on interviews with firsthand sources, meeting notes, diaries, and confidential documents to provide details about Trump's moves as he faced a global pandemic, economic disaster, and racial unrest.

Deadly Choices

Deadly Choices PDF

Author: Paul A. Offit

Publisher: Basic Books (AZ)

Published: 2015-03-10

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 0465057969

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

Immunization

Immunization PDF

Author: Stuart Blume

Publisher: Reaktion Books

Published: 2017-08-15

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 1780238681

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As the world pins its hope for the end of the coronavirus pandemic to the successful rollout of vaccines, this book offers a vital long view of such efforts—and our resistance to them. At a time when vaccines are a vital tool in the fight against COVID-19 in all its various mutations, this hard-hitting book takes a longer historical perspective. It argues that globalization and cuts to healthcare have been eroding faith in the institutions producing and providing vaccines for more than thirty years. It tells the history of immunization from the work of early pioneers such as Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch through the eradication of smallpox in 1980, to the recent introduction of new kinds of genetically engineered vaccines. Immunization exposes the limits of public health authorities while suggesting how they can restore our confidence. Public health experts and all those considering vaccinations should read this timely history.

Feeding the Monster

Feeding the Monster PDF

Author: Seth Mnookin

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2007-06-05

Total Pages: 464

ISBN-13: 0743286820

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Presents a comprehensive history of the Boston Red Sox baseball league describing the players, coaches, management, and politics that contributed to their 2004 World Series championship.

The Cutter Incident

The Cutter Incident PDF

Author: Paul A. Offit

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2007-09-18

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 9780300126051

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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.

Panic Virus

Panic Virus PDF

Author: Seth Mnookin

Publisher: Black Incorporated

Published: 2016-08-01

Total Pages: 448

ISBN-13: 9781863958769

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"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."