The Cutter Incident: How America's First Polio Vaccine Led to the Growing Vaccine Crisis

by Paul A. Offit

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.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, History, Medicine, Vaccines, Medical, Politics

238 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Paul A. Offit, MD is the Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and the Director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Offit is also the Maurice R. Hilleman Professor of Vaccinology, and a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He is a recipient of many awards including the J. Edmund Bradley Prize for Excellence in Pediatrics bestowed by the University of Maryland Medical School, the Young Investigator Award in Vaccine Development from the Infectious Disease Society of America, and a Research Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Paul A. Offit has published more than 130 papers in medical and scientific journals in the areas of rotavirus-specific immune responses and vaccine safety. He is also the co-inventor of the rotavirus vaccine, RotaTeq, recently recommended for universal use in infants by the CDC; for this achievement Dr. Offit received the Gold Medal from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Jonas Salk Medal from the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology.

Dr Paul Offit was also a member of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and is the author of multiple books.

from www.paul-offit.com

Reviews

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an extremely informative and well-researched book. It's the first I've read from Paul Offit and I plan to read more. For a non-fiction piece, there was plenty of detail and dialogue to keep me interested. I was surprised how quickly I was able to finish - perhaps it's in part because the topic of vaccines is completely fascinating to me. I like that Mr. Offit explains not only the history of vaccines, but also brings up current events and lawsuits. He also issues several warnings about what could happen if some in our country continue to fear vaccines and their components for no scientific reasons. Though written in 2005, these issues are still hot-button topics today. I really enjoyed reading about the current state of vaccine manufacturing (shared between only four companies) and how little money they actually make from vaccine production. The fact that they could stop production without much impact on their bottom line is extremely concerning.

[Heidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating glimpse into a world I knew nothing about: well-researched and lucidly told. I'll be dipping into this book frequently for insight and clues to help determine if the local Ontario doctor who inoculated my mother in 1937, after she was already feeling poorly, used a vaccine with live polio virus, leading to permanent paralysis of her legs and a spinal fusion, and her need for crutches, braces, and now a wheelchair. I am also grateful to the author for providing such a goldmine of additional resources. Excellent book. Reads like a whodunit.

[Marcus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting history of the polio vaccine development and the "Cutter incident" which has resulted in long-lasting effects on the regulation and development of vaccines. If only we could get some reasonable tort reform in this country :-(

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great detailed coverage, and something a bit different was the legal analysis and implications at the back end which was really interesting around issues of liability versus negligence

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half of this book is an excellent, detailed account of the vaccine disaster that occurred with two of the companies that made Polio Vaccine at the height of the Polio vaccine development of the 50's. The author gives equal credit and blame to those involved in the incident and the follow-up investigation.
The end of the book was the lamest of attempts by a doctor to justify the poor behavior and performance of other doctors, researchers and government agencies. He makes an attempt to blame the failure of this vaccines on the court system, juries, lawyers and even victims. This part of the book gave me the mental image of a catholic priest defending the behavior of some perverted priest.
Dr. Offit (the author) maybe very qualified at what he does but lacks simple judgement and the capacity to evaluate fairly the actions and consequences of his peers.
Doctors and scientist should not be allowed to police themselves. It is tantamount to allowing any government agency to investigate itself.
The book is worth reading but not worth paying for . . . get if from the public library and return it as soon as your finished with it.

[Kim Wombles · Rating 4 out of 5]

For any of those anti-vaccine proponents who argue that Offit doesn't recognize the dangers that vaccination can pose, look no further than this book of his. Of course, if they'd been paying attention to what he says at almost every interview and in almost every book, they'd know that already.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started this because it was only 250 pages and I needed a short read. I had no idea what I was getting into. It was fascinating to read a history on vaccines in the US and what went wrong with the polio vaccine by the Cutter group.

[Jennifer Mangler · Rating 3 out of 5]

I knew of the Cutter incident, but I didn't know much about it. Offit does a terrific job explaining what happened and how it happened. I also appreciate the exploration of the impact of the event on our country, which is still being felt.

[Liquidlasagna · Rating 1 out of 5]

look into the fascinating history of Dr. Alton Ochsner
that's a part of the story

"1955: For Ochsner So Loved Vaccines That He Killed His Own Grandson"

"They rushed the polio vaccine due to the hysteria and ignored the lab studies showing it could be dangerous. Then to convince people it was safe, a main proponent and investor Dr. Alton Oschner publically vaccinated his two grandchildren. One died and the other was paralyzed for life. Only then did they finally recall the vaccine."

Ochsner was invested in Cutter Labs:

“This infamous polio disaster is known as the Cutter Incident, after Cutter Laboratories of Berkeley, California, which produced the faulty batch of Salk’s polio vaccine. Dr. Alton Ochsner was a major stockholder in Cutter at the time. When Ochsner’s son sued Cutter Labs over the death of his son, he was, in essence, suing his father, who had, after all, administered the lethal dose. He eventually dropped the suit.”

In 1954, the NIH delegated Eddy to perform safety tests for a batch of inactivated polio vaccines developed by Jonas Salk for Cutter Laboratories. Salk’s inactivated polio vaccine was a killed-virus vaccine that was to be used in a massive national vaccination program. Eddy’s job was to test the inactivated vaccines from five different companies.

After testing the vaccines on 18 monkeys, she and her team discovered that Cutter Laboratories’ vaccine contained residual live poliovirus, resulting in the monkeys showing polio-like symptoms and paralysis. Eddy found that three of the six batches paralyzed monkeys and therefore contained live polio virus.

These findings pointed to a flawed vaccine manufacturing process at Cutter Laboratories. Eddy reported her findings regarding the flawed vaccines to the head of the Laboratory of Biologics Control, William Workman.

Unfortunately, Workman did not heed Eddy’s warnings, the identified problems with the vaccine was not passed down to the licensing advisory committee. Workman invalidated Eddy’s findings and dismissed her off of the polio research. She was put back on duty to test on flu vaccines in response.

In April 1954, Walter Winchell, radio commentator and gossip columnist, broadcast a report on ABC raising alarm over Salk’s vaccine. What happened?

Before the clinical trial, all vaccine had been made in Salk’s laboratory. Once production left his hands [since there was no way his lab could make enough doses for the trial], there was always the possibility for error.

He found vaccine made by one pharmaceutical company tainted with live virus. Someone leaked the story, and three weeks before the trial was to begin, Winchell shocked the public when he announced: “In a few moments I will report on a new polio vaccine. It may be a killer!”

The public reaction ranged from fear to outrage. “The public is entitled to accuracy in journalistic reporting,” a Pittsburgh judge wrote to ABC, “not statements made in reckless disregard of their accuracy.”

Even Albert Sabin [usually a Salk opponent] called Winchell’s broadcast “irresponsible.”

Still the harm had been done: Frightened parents withdrew an estimated 150,000 children from the trial, and the state of Minnesota declined to participate.

What about what’s been called the “Cutter incident”—the paralysis of children injected with vaccine from Cutter Laboratories? What is your best explanation of why these events unfolded? And what effects did the Cutter incident have on the production process for Salk’s vaccine, going forward?

Two weeks into the national immunization program, the surgeon general received reports that seven children had become paralyzed following inoculation, most with vaccine from Cutter Laboratories in Berkeley, California. He suspended all vaccinations.

Although government regulators reported no problems with Cutter’s production, Salk did his own investigation and found Cutter had deviated from his procedures, which left behind live virus in some lots of vaccine.

In the March of Dimes trial, no one had contracted polio from the vaccine. But commercial vaccine production differed from that used in the field trial in several major ways. [In the trial], triple-testing for live virus was performed by the company, the Biologics Control Laboratory, and Jonas Salk’s laboratory. [In commercial vaccine production, that] had been reduced to one test, done by the company itself.

The government laboratory had neither the funds nor staff to test all manufactured vaccine before its release. Secondly, the six pharmaceutical companies varied somewhat in their interpretation of the manufacturing requirements.

And thirdly, the Public Health Service rules had been relaxed such that the companies did not have to divulge how many batches they had thrown away because of live virus contamination.

Two hundred sixty people contracted polio directly or indirectly from Cutter’s vaccine; 11 died. Salk felt devastated. Then came the finger-pointing: The government, the companies, the March of Dimes, and Salk himself were among those blamed for the tragedy. Stricter manufacturing guidelines were imposed, and the vaccination program resumed.


.......

Ochsner was strongly opposed to the domestic and foreign policy of President John F. Kennedy. He wrote to Senator Allen Ellender:

"I sincerely hope that the Civil Rights Bill can also be defeated, because if it was passed, it would certainly mean virtual dictatorship by the President and the Attorney General, a thing I am sure they both want."

Ochsner was also friends with Clay Shaw. Ochsner was president of the International House, whereas Shaw was director of the organization. Both men were also directors of the Foreign Policy Association of New Orleans and arranged for CIA Deputy Director to New Orleans to discuss the communist threat.

On 21st July, 1964, Mary Sherman was murdered. The following day, Ochsner wrote a letter to R. H. Crosby, his largest financial contributor saying "our Government, our schools, our press, and our churches have become infiltrated with Communism".

.......

"Alton Ochsner and Sherman on a clandestine CIA project to develop a biological weapon that could be used to assassinate Fidel Castro."

.......

Edward Haslam argues in Dr. Mary’s Monkey that Sherman was involved in carrying out secret research into developing a vaccine to prevent an epidemic of soft-tissue cancers caused by polio vaccine contaminated with SV-40. This work included using a linear particle accelerator located in the Infectious Disease Laboratory at the Public Health Service Hospital in New Orleans. According to Haslam there was a second-lab working on this project. This was being run by David Ferrie on Louisiana Avenue Parkway.

Mary Sherman was murdered on 21st July, 1964. She had been stabbed in the heart, arm, leg and stomach. Her mattress had been set on fire, but her massive burns could not have come from the smoking mattress. The crime has never been solved. Sherman’s death occurred on the day the Warren Commission came to her city (New Orleans) to obtain testimony about the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

In 1995 Edward Haslam published Mary, Ferrie & the Monkey Virus : The Story of an Underground Medical Laboratory. In 1999 Judyth Baker revealed her involvement in an anti-Castro conspiracy to individuals outside her family and to CBS Sixty Minutes investigators. In late 2000, newsgroups learned who she was and began speculating on what she had to say. She asserted she had been (at first unwittingly) recruited by Dr. Alton Ochsner and Dr. Mary S. Sherman into a get-Castro project that had the backing of the CIA and of the Mafia in New Orleans.

........

Dr. Alton Ochsner was interviewed by the New Orleans States Item about the activities of INCA (16th April, 1963)

As a surgeon, I know that in an emergency, sometimes you are forced to do things quickly or the patient will die... We must spread the warning of the creeping sickness of communism faster to Latin Americas, and to our own people, or Central and South America will be exposed to the same sickness as Cuba.

.......

Ochsner was a passionate anti-communist and after becoming friends with Cordell Hull, was invited to look after Tomas Gabriel Duque, the former dictator of Panama. He also become friends with Anastasio Somoza, the dictator of Nicaragua. Ochsner also treated Juan Peron, the dictator of Argentina.

The FBI maintained a file on Ochsner. This file was recently released under the Freedom of Information Act. It shows that Ochsner had a long relationship with various U.S. government agencies.

Ochsner also developed a close friendship with Clint Murchison who helped fund various right-wing organizations. Ochsner was also connected to Warren Commission member, Hale Boggs. According to one Louisiana State Representative, Ochsner was "the most aggressive seeker and recipient of so-called federal handouts in the Second District (Hale Boggs' district).

.......
.......

Researcher Ed Haslam authored a remarkable book entitled Mary, Ferrie and the Monkey Virus: The Story of an Underground Medical Laboratory (1995)

In this penetrating work, Haslam develops fascinating connections between the milieu apparently involved with the assassination of President Kennedy and medical research that may have been connected to a soft-tissue cancer epidemic that is sweeping the United States

The central figure in the book is Dr. Mary Sherman, one of the most important, and sadly neglected, figures in post-World War II American medicine.

Prior to her murder in 1964, Sherman was involved in a clandestine medical laboratory in New Orleans, that also employed right-wing political extremist and U.S. intelligence operative David Ferrie - the central figure in New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison’s investigation of the Kennedy assassination.

The central focus of the work performed in this laboratory was cancer research—specifically, the injecting of mice with monkey viruses to determine if the viruses cause cancer.

Haslam skillfully develops connections between Ferrie, the laboratory, Mary Sherman, the Guy Bannister detective agency (an apparent intelligence front that is widely believed to have figured in President Kennedy’s assassination) and Dr. Alton Ochsner, a very powerful figure in American medicine and politics.

Ochsner was the head of a right-wing propaganda outfit and possible intelligence front called, The Information Council for the Americas, or INCA, that recorded interviews with Lee Harvey Oswald, in which Oswald proclaims his Marxist sympathies.

This interview received much publicity in the wake of President Kennedy’s assassination and convinced many Americans that communists were responsible for the assassination.

Many researchers believe that this perception contributed to the official cover-up of the assassination, because individuals who knew what had actually happened covered up the truth out of fear that that the situation could have led to a Third World War.

Haslam presents his thesis that Sherman was probably involved in this underground medical laboratory in order to research the contamination of the polio vaccine with SV40, a monkey virus that causes cancer in humans.

Haslam feels that Sherman was involved with using a linear accelerator to create genetic mutations in the SV40.

This was being done as an effort to create harmless strains of the virus for use in a vaccine to guard against a cancer epidemic.

This viral contamination of the polio vaccine may very well be the cause of a soft-tissue cancer epidemic currently sweeping the United States, as well as the deliberate or accidental creation of AIDS.

Haslam discusses the possibility that Oswald may have been spying on this clandestine research and that this work may have been centrally involved in the cover-up of Kennedy’s assassination.

.......
.......

On the American side, Ochsner accumulated many celebrities in his patient portfolio, from golf legend Ben Hogan to movie star Gary Cooper to the mega-wealthy Clint Murchison of the Texas oil family.

Murchison's involvement with Ochsner seems to me to have been as political as medical. Yes, he was a personal patient of Alton Ochsner and gave him a Cadillac as a "thank you" present, but he also donated $750,000 to the Alton Ochsner Medical Foundation as seed money for Ochsner's new hospital.

......

As for Oschner and Mary Sherman, you have Ed Haslam with an interesting story

I’m speaking with Ed Haslam, a researcher and author of Dr. Mary’s Monkey: How the Unsolved Murder of a Doctor, a Secret Laboratory in New Orleans and Cancer-Causing Monkey Viruses Are Linked to Lee Harvey Oswald, the JFK Assassination and Emerging Global Epidemics.

This incredible saga teems with murder, conspiracy and a host of connections between people that you might not think were related.

Some of the topics we broach include the murder of Dr. Mary Sherman, how the polio vaccine is likely related to the current cancer epidemic, how the issues concerning the polio vaccine led to the framing of Lee Harvey Oswald for the murder of John F. Kennedy, and how the Cuban missile crisis fits in.

Ed’s interest in the topic was piqued by his father’s profession. The senior Haslam taught orthopedic surgery at Tulane Medical School in New Orleans and was a colleague of Dr. Mary Sherman, whose murder in 1964 affected the Haslam family.

Ed asked his father as a child if he could have a pet monkey, and his father said no, explaining that monkeys carried dangerous diseases, a fact that Ed later researched further in his efforts to piece together the circumstances surrounding Dr. Sherman’s suspicious death.

.......

The gruesome details of Dr. Sherman’s death were rife with inconsistencies, including the fact that her arm and ribcage were burnt to the point of disintegration, a fact that was never released to the media.

Sarah Stewart, a researcher at the National Cancer Institute, and Bernice Eddy, an epidemiologist with the National Institutes of Health, discovered that polyomavirus, a component of the first polio vaccines that was derived from the monkeys whose kidneys the vaccine was grown on, was responsible for causing cancer in humans.

Dr. Alton Oschner, a major stockholder at Cutter Laboratories, one of the labs producing the polio vaccine, inoculated his grandchildren with the vaccine in an effort to prove its safety. Within 48 hours, his grandson was dead and his granddaughter was infected with polio.

A lab was set up on federal property in New Orleans at a national public health hospital. The goal was that the dangerous monkey virus would be radiated to make it benign.

The machine used was a linear particle accelerator, which is the machine Ed believes was used to burn Dr. Sherman’s arm and ribcage at the time of her death.

The CIA and the Mafia worked together to find a way to kill Fidel Castro following the Cuban missile crisis. They decided to try to weaponize the monkey virus project to design bio-warfare against Castro, leading the project in a new direction.

In order to test the biological weapons being created, the medical research team took “volunteers” from death row at Angola Penitentiary and brought them to be experimented on at East Louisiana State Mental Hospital in Jackson, Louisiana.


After Dr. Sherman’s death, J. Edgar Hoover sent a memo to the special agent in charge of the New Orleans FBI, warning him not to investigate the murder of Dr. Sherman, because it was out of the NOLA FBI jurisdiction.

n fact, it’s likely that the murder took place on the federal property where the research was being done, however this fact was not released.

Ed asserts that the whole point of creating the polio vaccine was to make the world safe enough to handle the marketing of antibiotics. There is evidence that shows that the introduction of antibiotics is what caused the polio epidemic of the mid-20th century.

In the Family Jewels memo put out by the CIA, all of the documentation of events taking place between 1958 and 1964 has been redacted. There is evidence that the hidden information relates to the polio vaccine trials and subsequent events.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating history of the events surrounding the polio vaccination program in the 1950s, which resulted in the unfortunate use of some batches of vaccine that contained live polio virus. These tainted batches of vaccine passed all the specified safety tests known at the time and were manufactured according to the guidelines specified by the government.

In fact, the company that manufactured these tainted batches of vaccine, Cutter, was found not guilty of negligence. Despite this, due to very narrow jury instructions dictated by the judge in the case, the jury was forced to find Cutter liable for damages to a patient who contracted polio as a result.

Just as interesting are the subsequent chapters describing how these events have changed liability law and have affected vaccine development and production since the Cutter incident.

The bottom line is that since the 1950s, pharmaceutical companies have been avoiding developing and marketing vaccines, despite the strong science supporting their effectiveness at very low relative dollar cost. Much of this is thanks to an embarrassing -- literally deadly -- scientific illiteracy amongst both judges and juries (ie, the US public). Thanks to this illiteracy, children today are dying due to preventable diseases. Unfortunately, they will continue to die until laws are enacted to put more weight on scientific evidence than on the ability of trial lawyers to sway the opinion of a scientifically illiterate jury.

[Carl]

Full of utterly fascinating -- and often horrifying -- history about the development of vaccines, specifically polio. Excellent popular history.

Of special interest to me was Offit's chapter 8 commentary about fear of lawsuits and how that has affected the vaccine industry (he makes an implicit case for tort reform too, whichis especially relevant in this era of healthcare debate). It was very interesting to read his angle -- a doctor's angle -- on the difference between "truth" for lawyers and scientists on pp. 176-177. A further indictment of the cost of our population's scientific illiteracy and our collective susceptibility to disingenuous or even illogical arguments. Of course, now I want to read the other side (the lawyers' side, I suppose) of the argument.

Thanks to David K. for the tip -- when it comes from a doctor who specializes in vaccines, the tip means more!

[Rae · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very interesting history on the development of the polio vaccine, and the failure of the early authorities to put into place effective guidelines for manufacture of potentially fatal medical products. In hindsight, it is obvious that the science was not adequate to ensure vaccine safety in the early stages of approval, evolving in response only to the morbidities and mortalities of early recipients. Latter chapters are particularly impressive as the legal system overtakes scientific authorities in dictating vaccine development and ultimately, availability.

It was concerning to learn of vaccines that have been developed, but shelved due to implications of litigation potential.

The book also effectively presents the expensive legal problems encountered by drug manufacturers when the science of safety is trumped by the sympathy of the courts.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Offit has a knack for explaining complex medical issues in lay terms, and this book does an engaging job of following the development of the first polio vaccine and how it went badly awry, leading to our current system of vaccine regulation. He then goes on to explain how the fear of lawsuits limits development of new vaccines -- making one of the most balanced and apolitical arguments for tort reform I've seen.

Recommended for people with an interest in the history of vaccine development, and for people who enjoyed Offit's more recent book, Autism's False Prophets.

[Cara W · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found this in a bookbub email.

About problems with vaccines, explaining why some people are unwilling to get vaccinated.

Early vaccines (as early as 1600's to late 1800's) were anecdotal and made at the time to be used. Not all turned out well.

In the early 1900's vaccines were more company made but the glycol incident happened.

Then Polio was sweeping through the US. Keeping kids inside during the summer helped, because summer was the highest occurrence of infections. Salk and others found a workable vaccine. Almost 20 years after Salk found the vaccine, The March of Dimes and US Govt did large scale studies with success, and the vaccine was to be rolled out. Cutter, Pfizer and Wyeth were the companies chosen to make the vaccine. There were problems in deactivating the virus, so some vaccines held live virus and actually gave the patient (kids) polio. Some died and some were permanently disabled. The problems were recognized fairly quickly and the vaccines recalled. Not all vaccines were bad. Cutter Labs Berkeley (now Bayer) had the largest problems and more bad vaccines went out. The other two companies had bad batches, but not as bad as Cutter.

Cutter was held accountable but wasn't criminally charged. The way the law was written after made it possible for pharma companies to be held liable easily. Since there was no profit in making vaccines after paying for insurance against bad vaccines, many companies won't make vaccines anymore. Seasonal flu vaccines can be in short supply because of this. Diseases that have vaccines aren't stopped even though researcher's found vaccines because companies won't make them.

Not a good result and now anti-vaxxers are making it hard all around. Kids and adults are dying for lack of vaccines.

[George Avery · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an outstanding balanced look at a tragic error that occurred during the initial polio vaccination campaign, resulting in the infection of several hundred children with the polivirus. In tracing the history of the incident, Offit finds that the primary actor responsible was the US government, which distributed incorrect quality control instructions with the contracts for vaccine production. The results of this tragedy helped fuel anti-vaccination sentiment, probably resulting in more injuries and deaths.

This book is very relevant in the current environment where debates and misinformation over the safety of vaccines are leading to a resurgence of cases of measles and mumps. I strongly recommend this book to those working in healthcare and public health (I used it with my own students as a required reading in my graduate health policy seminar) in order to understand the real issues in vaccine safety, which predate the hoax article in the journal the Lancet regrading MMR vaccine safety. In order to address fears of vaccination, we need to understand the fears of anti-vaxxers and address real safety concerns in an open fashion rather than dismiss those concerns out of hand as irrational.

[Brenna · Rating 2 out of 5]

The historical retelling of the incident and all the players involved was wonderful!

The last thirty pages just ruined the book for me and left a horrible taste in my mouth. Reading the background, I was anticipating great things for the conclusion. Hinging most of the blame upon litigation attorneys just seemed like it disregarded some of the themes and details mentioned in the rest of the book. Some details about the rather theatrical press conferences covering the field trial and the inspection of Cutters facility before the incident (live polio stored in the same fridge as vaccine?) seemed to me like they would come up again in the conclusion. Given how our government, the insurance system, and capitalism in general treats folks with disabilities or health issues, I think we should be cautious regarding passing any kind of judgement regarding how people attempt to deal with their health problems, including the use of the legal system. The conclusion mainly was a HUGE oversimplification of a complex incident with no nuance or empathy present.

[E. Kahn · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first three quarters of the book are a readable (if not particularly compelling) account of a very interesting incident, unfortunately peppered through with attacks on the character of Dr. Albert Sabin. I can only speculate the author was forced to watch as Dr. Sabin raped and murdered his family and was then dosed with some memory-loss drug that left only overwhelming hatred and resentment for the doctor.

The final quarter of the book is the author soapboxing about the tort system with some pretty one-sided accounts to "prove" that evil lawyers are actively preventing altruistic pharmaceutical companies from introducing wonderful new vaccines that will prevent everything from AIDS to Zellweger syndrome and the only solution is to subsidize Big Pharma even more and shield them from lawsuits. Producing vaccines in gov't labs (you know, the way *most* of the world does it) isn't even discussed, because this is Trump's America.

[Nicholas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written and cogent book

The concerns this book addresses seem almost quaint in the era we now live in. mRNA shots for the masses and the current day's highly suspicious and hubristic partnership between governments around the world and the global biopharmaceutical complex, raise many new and unexplored issues this book could not possibly address. Still the book is a great primer on the polio menace of the 20th century and the limits of technical knowledge and capability at the time. Worth a read. You will learn things you did not know about a deeply troubling and important time in the history of medicine and health issues in the United States. The clownish US product liability system in the 1960s and later, looks as feckless and reckless as ever. Fascinating book.

[Susan Ferguson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read of the polio vaccine that Cutter didn’t prepare properly which caused the death of many children that received the vaccine. One result is the later litigation that established a precedent for making an award to a plaintiff even tho the jurors said the company wasn’t responsible but wanted to award her something. (Cutter never did admit it had done anything wrong.) So juries give awards for conditions there is no way the vaccine could have caused. More and more companies have dropped vaccine production and they are not interested in researching any. Many pharmacies have folded over the lawsuits. Some vaccines are no longer being made because there is no desire to be run out of business continuing to make them. These have been researched and studied and proved safe - but science is ignored in the court room because most people don’t understand it.

[AtticusAU · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent history of medical, legal and cultural issues via Cutter

This text was simply exceptional, and accessible without being watered down, nor impenetrable with respect to the scientific challenges met, the political challenges faced and overcome in vaccine development, and ultimately the remarkable turn of events that hobbled vaccine development as much as polio hobbled its early victims. Dr. Offit did a remarkable job tracking the challenges individuals faced, an honest portrayal of scientific inquiry, as well as an honest portrayal of a legal profession. Indeed, the author was comparatively polite towards those who practise tort law, and profit from its modern basis in, essentially, spectral evidence. I'm sorry I had to read an e-version of the book. I'd prefer a hard copy exist in my library.

[Sean Reeves · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book, written in 2005 by a doctor who is very much pro-vaccines, nonetheless lays bare the awful catastrophe that unfolded in the United States in 1955 when over four hundred thousand people, mostly children, were injected with a polio vaccine. The vaccine should have contained only killed virus but instead it contained, alive and well, the most virulent of all the polio strains. It shows how dangerous vaccines can be and how cautious we should be allowing ourselves and our children to be injected with them. The book is a timely read in light of the rolling out of the experimental and untested Covid-19 vaccines around the world.

[O · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read about an interesting period in public health history. The author takes the legal system to task over the abundance of lawsuits based on sometimes dodgy evidence. He makes good points about how that has adversely affected the creation of vaccines. I do think Big Pharma has unclean hands in this as well. Cutter Laboratories seemed to flourish after being found negligent but not liable for the polio vaccines it created. The price gouging these companies do in the present day does not allow for consumer confidence that these products are being made in our best interests. I wish the author explored that aspect a bit more. Otherwise, it was a great read.

[Mark A Chapman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had no clue

I lived through the Polio scare of the 50's and was one of the recipient's of the first vaccines.

This incident I have never heard of before. I was only 6 when I was vaccinated so I wasn't reading the newspapers yet.

Very well written and helped with understanding the times and the terror that my parents went through.

This book is worth your time to read, if for nothing else it can relate to the current Covid vaccines. I thank the author for researching and writing.

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating read about how the polio vaccine came about, the politics behind it and how a huge screw up left with the first manufactured polio vaccine GAVE people polio instead.

The book does a fabulous job explaining how this incident became the springboard for all the legal settlements against pharmacy companies and how that in turn has drastically limited vaccine production and research. It’s a great read!

[Barbara J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jury decisions directly and adversely impact human lives

An interesting review of the impacts of science, litigation, and populr opinions on public health and the availability of disease prevention via vaccine. Especially of interest during these SARS-COV2 times and the worldwide pandemic. It is a pity that a basic understanding of science, scientific method, health, medicine, and law appear to be in short supply in American society.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish this were two books! The first is the fascinating and tragic story of developing the polio vaccine. The book goes into great detail to discuss vaccine history, development, and what went wrong with polio.
The latter part of the book goes into the greater consequences of litigation against vaccines, and how humanity is really stacking the odds against ourselves. I'd love to dive into that more, especially as the world learns just how necessary vaccines are.

[Bonnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paul Offit writes like he speaks, clear, clean and easy to understand. He voices what it true, dis uses what is not true and where these untruths arose from and gives the science behind the history. He does not pull punches but he also does not take the easy way and cast blame on one source. The Cutter Incident is a great read to understand how the safe guards that we currently have in place came about and more importantly why.

[Tfalcone · Rating 5 out of 5]

I guess what I am learning is that up to 80 years ago, infections like we are seeing now were common. I knew about small pox and the polio virus, but did not really appreciate the impact of diphtheria, yellow fever, the measles, whooping cough and the toll they took on the population, children and life span. We have been lucky.

[Cary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly, I have no idea why I even started reading this. It maybe just looked kinda interesting? Well, it was interesting. And horrifying, heartbreaking, emotional, illuminating, etc. Did I enjoy it? Well... No. I don't think it's a book you're going to 'enjoy'. But it was interesting and educational, and I don't regret reading it.

[Janie McAdams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worth reading in these pandemic times

The true and often tragic stories about the multitude of obstacles to make a polio vaccine are amazing. They show how many voices were clamoring for an answer. They also show how the pressures can cause mistakes that cost lives.