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The Virus and the Vaccine: Contaminated Vaccine, Deadly Cancers, and Government Neglect

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Jonas Salk's polio vaccine has taken on an almost legendary quality as a medical miracle, for it largely eradicated one of the most feared diseases of the 20th century. But the story of the vaccine has a dark side, one that has never been fully told before...Between 1954 and 1963, close to 98 million Americans received polio vaccinations contaminated with a carcinogenic monkey virus, now known as SV40. A concerted government effort downplayed the incident, and it was generally accepted that although oncogenic to laboratory animals, SV40 was harmless to humans.But now SV40 in showing up in human cancers, and prominent researchers are demanding a serious public health response to this forgotten polio vaccine contaminant. A gripping medical detective story, The Virus and the Vaccine raises major questions about vaccine policy.

401 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 29, 2004

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Debbie Bookchin

8 books12 followers

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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
Profile Image for Cynema.
602 reviews102 followers
September 1, 2020
WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW ABOUT THE DARK SIDE OF VACCINES WILL ASTOUND -- OR EVEN KILL -- YOU!

Cancer-causing viruses and vaccines
– 2 things that most of us ordinarily know very little about. We trust the experts, but we shouldn’t. Many who read this book will undoubtedly have also read – or should read – Dr. Mary’s Monkey, the gripping expose of murder, cancer research, tainted vaccines, infected monkeys, and covert government operations. What you don’t know will absolutely astound and hurt you.

Ever wonder about the insane rise in human cancers? Here are some shocking answers. SV-40. A carcinogenic monkey virus and vaccine contaminant in the polio vaccine that you will never forget. Now it’s showing up now in humans and from a surprise source no one ever anticipated, except those who kept its top-secret dangers confidential. This font of knowledge is perfectly organized and eye-opening in its scope.

I can’t think of a book more worthwhile for our time or with more profound implications, especially since the whole world is in the grip of the Covid-19 pandemic and NO ONE is immune to it. Everyone is looking to the development of a vaccine as the Holy Grail cure. We thought the worst was behind us with eradication of the polio virus in the 20th Century, but wait til you find out what that vaccine really is and how it was developed. The facts of this powerfully illuminating and cautionary book chilled me to the bone. But I won’t say that I didn’t always suspect such things and am very anti-viral vaccine by nature. The author details the dark side of a vaccine, but in truth, ALL vaccines have a dark side and the medical establishment has sold the public a bill of goods about their efficacy and safety.

Either you have cancer, know someone who has or had cancer, or may get it yourself in the future. Any way you slice it, this book is a must-read to arm yourself with the facts, take control and advocate for your own medical and health safety, and arm yourself with the best knowledge to keep your body healthy. I only recently learned of this book but better late than never. It is now a medical bible for me. We all deserve to know how and where our vaccines are researched and made, what risks they pose, especially as we await a rushed to delivery Covid-19 vaccine that I already distrust heavily. Read this book and blow your mind. It will bring sadness and a great deal of understanding to those who are living it in the dark.
Profile Image for Terri.
1,354 reviews706 followers
March 18, 2008
People are leary over vaccines.And you an't blame them when you read a book like this. Basically, the original polio vaccines were made in a base from monkey kidneys. The part everyone ignored, is that those kineys tended to carry lots of diseases. Cancer causing viruses. Even when the resarch started to show this, the government and NIH repeatedly ignored it, called it bad science and used their own bad science to prov it wrong. As they did, more and more kids were infected and developed cancer.

Vaccines are important and necessary. But it is the government's and doctors making the vaccines to avoid taints to them. Of course, it is about money and greed (for money and fame). We need vaccines but we need to demand they are safe and make sure our lawmakers demand it as well.

This book is a fasincating read and it is scary and sad to see what went on in agencies we trust.
Profile Image for Vheissu.
210 reviews61 followers
June 21, 2019
This book should be read by everyone, including casual readers, but it probably won't be. Not only is it necessarily technical, although not so technical as to be incomprehensible to the untrained mind, but the overwhelming majority of well-educated, literate Americans simply don't want to hear what the book demonstrates in vast detail: government health officials and vaccine manufacturers shouldn't be trusted. Some will likely close their minds to this review after reading the preceding sentence. That is too bad, but understandable, given the tremendous lengths to which the vaccine industry and government agencies have gone to shape public opinion on the safety of these products.

The relationship between Simian Virus 40 (SV40) and human cancers has been studied for fifty years. There is more evidence to suggest a positive relationship between the virus and human cancers than not, and there is overwhelming evidence to show that the exposure to the virus in the human population resulted from contaminated polio vaccines, both the Salk and the Sabin varieties. The scientific and medical professions know this, but their warnings have been stifled, suppressed, misrepresented, and undermined by the vaccine industry (Lederle, Merck, etc.) and the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control, and the Food and Drug Administration. For the industry, company earnings and liability concerns are sufficient to explain their suppression of public information regarding their products. The motives of those government officials that have been complicit in misinforming the public about SV40 and human cancers are a bit more nuanced.

Public officials, of course, worry about exposure to public criticism for their incompetence and, in some cases, outright lies and malfeasance when it comes to SV40 and cancer. As Bookchin and Schumacher point out, "Vaccines are the only product manufactured by a private industry whose universal consumption is mandated by the government (as a prerequisite for attending public school or college"; p.281). Then, there is allure of the "revolving door," for example, when director of the U.S. Bureau of Biologics, Dr. Harry Meyer, left government service to assume a high-paying executive position with vaccine maker Lederle (p. 274). But the overarching mission of the federal vaccine bureaucracy is to sustain public confidence in its public health programs. Bookchin and Schumacher write:
Universal immunization is one of the cornerstones of this nation's public health policies, and the reputation of vaccines has long been a concern among federal health officials. But the story of SV40 calls into question whether protecting the reputation of vaccines at times has been more important to these health officials than actually ensuring they are safe (p. 280).
The authors note a "common refrain from within the NIH is that associating SV40 with human tumors will scare people away from the polio vaccine and other vaccines" (p. 280-81).

Which brings us to the current controversy regarding mandatory vaccinations. California, New York, and other states are eliminating most exemption claims for parents and schoolchildren. Opposition to these measures is small but vocal, but supporters of mandatory vaccination have reviled so called "anti-vaxxers" with a vehemence and vitriol I haven't personally experienced since the 1960s. Ask a supporter of mandatory vaccines if they actually know the ingredients of the vaccines they demand--both intentional and unintentional, both known and unknown--and you'll get a blank stare. Public confidence in vaccines is based largely if not solely on the reassurances of public health officials, physicians, pundits, and the vaccine industry, not informed choice.

The SV40/cancer story is, indeed, cautionary, as the authors note. As a parent of a child, I find myself in complete agreement when they write, "...individuals, not governments, must maintain the right to control what medical procedures they and ther children undergo and what pharmaceuticals they consume" (p. 284).

Amen.
Profile Image for Lisa Eirene.
1,625 reviews11 followers
March 3, 2013
First: I do NOT believe that autism is caused by vaccines. The so-called doctor who perpetrated this claim has since been debunked, called out as a fraud and has had his medical license taken away (http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/01/05/...). Yet thanks to Jenny McCarthy and other brain-dead idiots, this thought continues to thrive. I cannot list on both hands how many people I've talked to who actually believe vaccines are bad and cause autism (I don't have enough hands).

That being said, this book was very scary. I'm on the fence on whether I believe it.

I WANT to believe it because I know our government is corrupt and I think there is too much money in "finding a cure" and "raising awareness" than there is in actually CURING cancer. I do think the government and pharmacies are probably screwing us all royally. At the same time, I've been vaccinated for things my whole life, as my family has, and none of us have any medical issues as a results.

Back to the book. I knew very little about Sark, the polio virus, and new zilch on SV40. I'd read somewhere that there was a 10 year span where the polio virus accidentally infected people with polio instead of preventing it, but I didn't know much. This books delves into the history, the science, the controversies and the current day stuff. It was fascinating, I read it in one day, I was curious and wanted to read more and I hope to god that SV40 isn't in any vaccines I give my future children!!!
1 review1 follower
July 18, 2008
I am a science major and therefore embrace science, this book terrified me. I had to do background research on the internet to see if the people mentioned in the book are real, the people I looked up did exist. I know that the government doesn't tell us everything but if half of the information in this book is real I would be appalled.
Profile Image for Lyne.
20 reviews
July 28, 2009
makes you wonder what ELSE we don't know that can hurt us
Profile Image for TimsGlitterBug.
192 reviews2 followers
January 12, 2022
A well researched history of the polio vaccine debacle as is. No, polio vaccines did not stop the spread of polio. In fact, they often gave polio to those who received such an inoculation, as the Cutter Incident so clearly proved. The whole processes that those in power decided upon to 'cure' polio by means of 'vaccination' proved profoundly problematic. A fact which they briefly admitted there may be a need to potentially scrap and restart, that is, if it weren't for the whole back to the drawing board thing might one mess with their reputations, for they put everything into this one thing and wanted to make it happen. Add to that the worry the public would not to trust vaccines enough if they publicly scraped the present course they where on. What to do but stay the course and hope not to crash and burn. I'm sorry, weren't these PUBLIC health officials and scientists?! Why would public safety not be their first concern?

Especially disheartening is it to read that these people knew, THEY KNEW very early on there was some contaminations found in these injections. Thanks in part by Bernice Eddy and her work and her integrity to share the results of finding SV40- which was later to be determined and scientifically confirmed to cause many types of aggressive cancers in anything it was injected into. For her courage to speak up about her discovering something was arwy, she risked her job/career to make others aware there was something very dangerous going on here, that she was told not to pursue.

Sadly, that wasn't the only monkey virus with terrible potential for illnesses, found within these, inoculations. Yet arrogance and hubris kept the rush to vaccinate on track like an overloaded freight train barreling full speed ahead, so they keep their illusion going. In my opinion, it's here that a great myth was what started, (my hubby said it sounds more like a new religion was formed; Science as a religion, unproven but strongly believed in came to the fore.) Saying a thing does something that's it's not ever been scientifically proven to actually do, using merely correlation as causation as said proof holds little weight and doesn't make it true. For this vaccine did not cure polio.

Nor do I suspect any vaccines do protect or cure anyone. After reading this and other books that discuss the immense amount of poisons being regularly doused on the human population by the government and 'scientists' in order to 'control pests' after WWII. 'Vaccines' as is, merely inoculate those receiving them. They potentially will give one receiving them animal viruses from the animal cells they're grown on, and maybe even give a recipient cancer. Too many beautiful people, young and old have died from this cover up and it's incredibly sad to know they call these things miracles of science! Again, in my opinion, they're absolutely the newest form of snake oil with a mountain of paid or incentivised salesmen of the 20th-21st century, included in this are sadly many nurses, doctors and institutions supposedly looking out for the patients best interests and long term health and wellness.

I look forward to a current printing of true science on this vaccine subject. One where we would actually see the long-term safety studies as to which group is healthier, those taking these mythological potions into their bodies, or those who chose to obstain?

Remember science? That process of trying to study/understand what one sees or believes as to whether it is true or not, and can it then be duplicated? (It's not just a rigged study done to verify a preconceived notion in order get some medical drug/device approved in order to market it to the public and make millions.)


I digress. Yes. I am clearly biased, on this subject. I ask you, how can one not be, when one has seen their beautiful children personally injured by these supposedly 'modern day miracles'?

Take any vaccine you want for yourself and your family, but PLEASE know ALL the risks.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Mike Lisanke.
1,454 reviews33 followers
November 8, 2023
This is an excellent science book which tells the story of a virus caused disease which was epidemic at a time when vaccine science was in its infancy And the history of a vaccine whose method of preparation likely caused disease injury and death while possibly outliving its usefulness in preventing its intended disease! This is both a lucid understandable narrative and history as well as a well referenced detail of the history of the medicine science and pharmaceutical engineering of the time And the virology which explored the prevention of polio and the side-effect causing of cancers by the hitchhiker SV40 virus from the rhesus monkey whose kidneys were used to host live virus polio growth for the vaccine. The is also an excellent documentary on the health agency, pharmaceutical companies and a few brave PhDs to debate and lose control of regulatory mechanisms and allow the widespread inoculation of vaccines with both live polio cells And simian virus 40 (SV40) whose presence both made the vaccination an unworthwhile gamble for disease and death.
Profile Image for Charlotte.
2 reviews8 followers
March 14, 2022
"What ultimately counts is the patient. His clinical experience has taught him the difference
between test-tube and sick bed. He is more aware than most AIDS researchers of how little the
behavior of cultured virus stems in incubator cells has to do with those that grow naturally in a
network of hormones, antibodies, scavenger and T cells of the immune system of a living person.
Andreas Meyerhans, from the Institute Pasteur in Paris uses the phrase: To culture is to disturb,
which basically means that the results obtained in vitro only confuse."
223 reviews
July 8, 2017
In this well researched and clearly presented work of non-fiction, both the history and the legacy of unintended consequences associated with the polio vaccine is examined. While undoubtedly the story of a modern era medical miracle, it is also the a very complicated story about the intersection of politics, government regulatory systems, pharmaceutical companies and academic research. Unlikely bedfellows with a fascinating trail to follow.
Profile Image for Hillary Anderson.
50 reviews4 followers
July 12, 2017
This meticulously researched book tells the interesting story of polio in America, the development of the polio vaccine and then the shocking discoveries later. The urgent need for a solution for polio may excuse or justify some unintentional consequences but what happens when those very serious consequences are revealed is a truly shocking look at government and pharmaceutical interference with the truth. The implications for those of us who were vaccinated between 1955 an 1961 are dire.
Profile Image for Paperclippe.
532 reviews106 followers
March 28, 2022
Okay well FDR didn't have polio so everything else this book has to say is probably bullshit too I'd bet
Profile Image for Jostalady.
467 reviews5 followers
November 1, 2023
Detailed and shocking!

There are technical explanations of testing procedure's that can seem a bit dry, but definitely necessary to the story.
Profile Image for Tracy.
9 reviews2 followers
May 22, 2012
More distubing than a sci-fi - this is not relaxing reading. The authors do not seem to have an agenda other than truth. They carefully used informative details to make a very strong case about the state of todays Polio vaccines being affected by yesterdays original strains some of which had a dangerous monkey virus in them. The book paints a fact filled and clear picture of a bleak situation of the often imperfect batches of vaccines sent out to different locations at different times. It details their impact on the public, specifically a few that get the wrong vaccine etc. Even goes as far as to detail where some bad batches have went geographicallyand affected a large population segment such as the north east. Well written, factully based more than opinionated and no circular arguments etc.

It is compelling to begin with, as a sweet boy Michael Horowitz from San Francisco comes down with a deadly cancer and his parents believe it was triggered by a recent vaccine. They go above and beyond what most parents will do by insisting on detailed lab work where it is revealed there is a presence of a monkey virus in their son. Not having any exposure to monkey's or at any zoo's they determine through research there is a strain of a monkey virus which varies in different polio vaccines. Coincidently which he had prior to his reaction / onset of cancer.

They believe (and it appears to be the case)their son got a bad batch, and as a result his P43 gene was damaged by the Simian Monkey Virus which prevents damaged cells from self destructing. Hence tumors etc..

Very compelling, disturbing in it's view of the bureaucracy that oversees regulation - which is clearly conscious of liability to the public in it's investigations and response.

A lot to think about in today's day and age when "big pharma" (which although we need to stay in business) is lobbying every day for more vaccinations to infants. Neurotoxins etc...

Disturbing state of science is what the end result is after reading this. The book makes a case that we need to be vigilant in our watch for what our kids are given.

We have so far to go. We are not yet in control of our health. That is scary.

8 reviews
February 15, 2021
Fascinating read

Astonishing book about the contamination of the polio vaccine and the resistance to amend it or even admit it was contaminated. Stunning denial by the powers that are in charge of our health and the lengths they will go to avoid liability. It's all about the money -always. It's a sad and scary thing. In light of our current climate i shudder to think of the hurried covid-19 vaccine that will be forced upon us all I was also stunned to even know that this happened. It was assuredly kept from the general public as well as doctors administering these vaccines . I happened to be born in 1955 and now assume I was inoculated with a contaminated polio vaccine. Nice. Real nice. When I asked my mother about it she said she never heard anything about it and her pediatrician at the time to!d her they were safe as I am sure he truly believed they were. Its frighteningly to think you were forced to accept the lesser of two evils. Polio or monkey virus. The fear of polio was intense enough that human beings would do almost anything to avoid it and be protected from it - and they did. A nasty virus was unleashed upon the world. A virus that is insidious enough to fool even the highly educated and survive today hiding and lurking among our genes. Very scary indeed!
Profile Image for Alissa McCarthy.
400 reviews8 followers
June 12, 2014
Gregg, a friend at the bagel store I frequent, lent me this book. Jonas Salk's polio vaccine is regarded as a veritable medical miracle, for it largely eradicated one of the most feared diseases of the 20th century. As a parent, I cannot even imagine the terror summer's would bring never knowing if that one trip to the public swimming pool would leave your child unable to walk. What I did not know was the dark story behind the vaccine. The book states that between 1954 and 1963, close to 98 million Americans received polio vaccinations contaminated with a carcinogenic monkey virus, now known as SV40. The government downplayed the incident, and it was generally accepted that although oncogenic to lab animals, SV40 was harmless to humans. But now SV40 is showing up in human cancers, and prominent researchers are demanding a serious public health response to this forgotten polio vaccine contaminant. If the facts in this book are accurate, and there are 4 very long appendices citing sources which would at a minimum suggest more than cursory research, then the government, the drug companies, and the scientific community that perpetrated this fraud should be held accountable.
Profile Image for John Meagher.
Author 2 books6 followers
March 17, 2020
The backstory of how and why monkey kidneys became a perfectly acceptable ingredient in the polio vaccine, and the unforeseen cancer-causing consequences. The experts were quite certain it was safe, and it was, according to the testing equipment at the time. In hindsight it's always, "who could have known!?" Yes, who would possibly have thought injecting DNA fragments from another species into your bloodstream might have any type of negative effect whatsoever? Lo and behold, years later it's uncovered that the cells were unwittingly tainted with the SV40 virus, which was also found to be a carcinogen. Yet, methods for using foreign DNA particles are still common practice today, to the most stringent standards available, of course.
Profile Image for Cecil Maranville.
2 reviews2 followers
June 5, 2015
This is a startling revelation into the development of vaccinations and how they came to be normal within the Western culture. Due to circumstances in the 1950s, the U.S. government health agencies wanted "a winner" vaccine for polio. Politics at its worst entered the process of research and reporting, which opened the door to health issues still affecting the Western world. Don't misunderstand. This is not a "conspiracy theorist" book. It is well researched and documented.
Profile Image for Richard.
Author 18 books17 followers
November 15, 2008
This is a good over view of what is in vaccines and what the consequence of receiving multiple vaccines might be. It includes a good overview of the recent (past 100 years) history of vaccines. There are plenty of real life heroes and villains. This is a nonfiction that might scare you out of your wits but it's better to be informed and aware then shocked, after the fact.
Profile Image for Willa.
5 reviews2 followers
December 20, 2021
Even though it took me forever to read, this was a fascinating and disconcerting book about the development of vaccines and the responses of the scientific and governmental communities in response to unintended negative fallout.

I have never been and am not against vaccines, but I understand a bit better now the reasons that some people have.
Profile Image for Jonathan.
41 reviews2 followers
July 29, 2009
I am a public health student. I believe everyone should (want) to get vaccinated.

That said, this is a scary book. Fascinating ... but scary.
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