One of many books that can be considered backlash as a result of people beginning to think for themselves and say no to govt. forced vaccinations. Unfortunately, it's just easier for the masses to give in and be had...and spoonfed someone else's opinion, rather than think for one's self, do the research and stand up against the bandwagon mentality of conforming to the popular rather than the rational. We live in NJ and trust our child's powerful immune system and our own ability as responsible parents to ensure and teach him proper hygiene, health and nutrition. Follow the money! and you'll uncover the corruption and the conflicts of interests...

In approaching this book, I was hoping for an examination of both the medical and cultural history of vaccines, and I was not disappointed. The book starts at the beginning for the US with smallpox vaccination (using very, very crude methods) and works all the way to present day.
The book's subtitle portrays the author's attitude perfectly - "The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver" - the author's bias is that sure, there has been considerable controversy over the vaccines, but in the long run they have benefited society and humanity. The book definitely delves into the controversy - approximately the last 200 pages deal with post-1980 society, with extensive discussion of modern day controversies surrounding, and how the cultural and political landscape of the US has changed since World War II and thus changed vaccination. If anything, I wish the author would have discussed more about the earlier anti-vaccine groups, instead of focusing a lot on the recent issues with pertussis and thimerosal.
The current anti-vaccine groups do not like this book - just look at the one star reviews. In all fairness, the author does delve into their concerns, interviewing them extensively, and does not treat vaccines like they are the cure-all, but the anti-vaccine groups do come off as being, well, living with different perceptions than the rest of us. So, it's really not for them, but if you want a reasonable look at the facts, this is a good book to pick up.

A very good history of the vaccine discovery, implementation and political ramifications within religious groups once problems stemmed from discovered wrongdoing. the chapter on autism is the best.

Personally, I thought this book was about a 4-star, but I decided to give it 5 to somewhat counteract all the 1-star reviews by anti-vax nutjobs. Good book though, well worth the time spent reading it.

I thoroughly enjoyed Arthur Allen's book "Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver" (2007). The concept of vaccination is unique because, unlike asthma sprays, insulin shots, or liquid penicillin, vaccines prevent rather than battle disease. Allen highlights that during the first 200 years of vaccination's history, it could only stop smallpox, which was finally eradicated in 1980. None of my daughters born during that decade received any protection from smallpox as a result. There was no need for it. The medical establishment built upon a foundation of success and increasing credibility during the twentieth century and inaugurated campaigns to eliminate polio, malaria, measles, and hepatitis B too.

Life expectancy increased from 47 to 60 between 1900 and 1930 and medical doctors had become the most respected professionals. Many become celebrities and others became martyrs, such as Dr. Walter Reed for his work on yellow fever. Vaccination was one aspect of life in the twentieth century that improved the quality of life as outlined in my book: A World Perspective through 21st Century Eyes

Subsequent to World War II, vaccine development accelerated and conquered a number of major diseases. Public health effectively grew out of the scientific advances to tame diseases besides smallpox, which included the following, to name a few: Diphtheria, Polio, Pertussis (whooping cough), Measles and Rubella, Tetanus, Mumps, Typhoid, and many more.

Military vaccinations had proved successful in shielding troops from diseases that cost millions of lives in previous wars. Soldiers were inoculated to prevent typhoid fever, tetanus, smallpox, cholera, and the plague. It raised the power of this preventive technique to comparable status with "antibiotics, isolation, sanitation, and better disease treatment in general." For example, filtered water and pasteurized milk buried the typhoid bacterium, and therefore, it did not become a universal vaccine. Only during times of floods, for example, was the typhoid vaccine used. My mother and her family received typhoid shots from the Winnipeg Health Department during the Great Flood of 1950.

By 1955, government and public health officials had helped raise the life expectancy to 70 years, owing to better nutrition and housing, improved sanitation systems, vaccines, and other drugs. People respected the medical authorities and continued to get their shots.

Viruses do not grow like bacteria and so were harder to isolate in the lab. Once this problem was solved, and virus mutations in cells could be reproduced, viral vaccines were developed. Smallpox was the first due to trial and error, while polio was the second viral vaccine, but it used proven laboratory science. As Allen writes, "90 percent of Americans knew about the Salk trials in May 1954, more than could give Dwight D. Eisenhower's name."

Vaccinations played a big role in society. They helped to produce healthier and better-protected children, which made it easier for women to work outside of the home. Some critics of vaccinations believe shots like chicken pox and Hib were developed to prevent sick children from keeping either caregiver in a family at home with their children for weeks at a time. Allen shares the fact that vaccines, in part, "played a role in the legalization of abortion, the disabled rights movement, and the creation of the welfare state." Inoculations came just in time with the rise in daycare centers as the family unit became smaller and women entered the work force in huge numbers; expectations of equality, fair treatment, and access to public resources arose from the civil rights movement; and, more people were traveling around the world spreading germs among different countries.

With the decline in disease, people became complacent and would let vaccination schedules lapse late in the twentieth century. Some parents would object to getting shots but they comprised the minority. Most parents, however, understood the importance of protection and ensuring the bigger community would not sustain the spread of disease. For those that did not, there was the 1944 Supreme Court Case ruling, in Prince vs. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which stated that "parents may be free to become martyrs themselves. But it does not follow that they are free...to make martyrs of their children." Parents were compelled to have their children vaccinated or else the government would do it for them.

I recommend this book for everyone since all of us have received a number of vaccinations and continue to get them for a number of reasons, many of them personal. I continue to get a tetanus shot every decade while my Dad gets his flu shot every year. Allen's book explores the history of vaccination and the pros and cons of getting shots as the years have gone by. He looks at how government regulators made them safer, while causing fewer side effects in an ever-decreasing small percentage of the population.

Remember to also check out this work at your convenience: A World Perspective through 21st Century Eyes

Books about biology that have journalists as authors tend to be less than desirable, often including instances of exaggeration for effect (such as in Hot Zone). Fortunately, this book appears to keep its subject material truthful and accurate, yet still manages to make it engaging enough for the reader.

Of course, those without a background in biology might find the book somewhat tedious, but the information provided can be of significant interest to those in the biological sciences, as well as those faced with the current social dilemma of vaccination vs anti-vaccination.

Readers should beware of the author's point of view as expressed in this book. Contrary to mass public belief, vaccines are not safe. They contain live viruses and neurotoxins, and are often contaminated with animal viruses from the culture mediums (i.e. cancer causing simian virus 40.) They are given to infants at a time when their brains and neurological systems are undeveloped and in combinations that have never been tested for safety. We are now giving 48 doses of 14 different vaccines to children by the time they reach kindergarten. Forty years ago, children received between 8 and 10 doses of 5 different vaccines. Instead of our children experiencing greater health as a result, we have more chronic illness among children than we did 40 years ago when we had far fewer vaccines. Asthma, severe food allergies, autism, ADD/ADHD, and diabetes were almost unheard of when I was a child, but are now affecting children at epidemic proportions. If these changes could be attributed to toxins in the environment, then the same proportion of adults facing these ailments would be in evidence, as adults have been exposed to and accumulated more toxins than infants and young children. Adult ratios of these ailments are still relatively low, so science must examine carefully what common denominators may be affecting children. An obvious answer is to look toward the toxic excessive vaccine schedule that is legally mandated by governments. More, rather than less, confidence would result in the vaccine system if careful long term studies could prove they were safe. Unfortunately studies comparing the overall health outcomes of vaccinated VS. unvacinated populations have never been done, nor have studies proving the safety of giving vaccines in combination with one another. Toxic ingredients including mercury and aluminum have also never been studied for safety.

The critical thing for parents to know is that vaccine manufactureres are exempt from liability for their products, and manufacturers are able to pay the FDA to fast track approval of their products, which has resulted in weakening the regulatory function of the agency. We now have a system that gives immunity for flawed or dangerous vaccines and which lacks oversight to prevent failures, while at the same time legally requiring parents to vaccinate without recourse. Every parent should be frightened out of thier minds at the prospect of injecting their babies with products that have undergone such inadequate scientific scrutiny and that are exempt from liability.

This author does a great disservice to the hundreds of thousands of parents who have taken a perfectly healthy baby with all of the potential and promise of a healthy and productive life to the pediatician for a well baby visit, and who has come home with a child that within hours or days is seizing, experiencing severe chronic diahrea, feverish, listless, comatose, drifting away into the world of autism or at worst case, dead. These parents know that it was the vaccine, not some phantom gene, that caused their babies harm. Their concerns cannot and should not be dismissed, as it is they who are sounding the alarm for the rest of society.

It is the advent of good sanitation, good nutrition and better access to healthcare which has resulted in reduced incidence of disease. Ask yourself - are children healthier today than they were 40 years ago? Do I feel comforatable giving my tiny baby 6 or 7 vaccines in one visit? Am I comfortable with the skyrocketing rates of autism, allergies and other chronic illness in children that can not be addressed adequately by current medical or scientific knowledge? Are the medical establishments ignoring the legitimate concerns of parents in light of strong evidence that there is a problem in the system? A better book to read about this topic is by Dr. Richard Halvorsen called "The Truth About Vaccines."

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"In telling the story of vaccination, this book makes an assessment that is as fair as I can make it, based on the available evidence. I [the author] am neither a scientist nor someone with personal experience of a severe vaccine reaction [vaccines carry some measure of risk to the patient]...This book deals with preventive vaccines [that produce an artificial immunity] against infectious diseases [smallpox, polio, measles, whooping cough, etc.)...a vaccine's success as a public health measure relies on three legs of support: (1) the public, which must be confident of the safety and worth of the procedure; (2) manufactures, who seek to generate profits by making vaccines; and (3) government and public-health [workers] who...[help] further population-wide health goals. As [the reader] will see throughout this book, none of these legs is entirely stable."

The above is found in the introduction of this well-researched, easy-to-read book by writer Arthur Allen. Be aware that the author also says in the introduction the following: "I do...bring personal agendas to this book." The book itself is divided into three parts.

In the first two parts, Allen describes the history of the development of vaccines in a time when there were no clinical ethics boards or informed consent laws, the defeat of such infectious diseases as smallpox & polio, and public resistance to widespread vaccination. There's a lot here to disturb both proponents and opponents of mandatory vaccination.

The author devotes the third and last part of his book to the vaccine controversies of the last few decades. I found that this relatively brief analysis was not well connected to the first two parts. Actually, I can't understand why Allen added this third part except to "bring [his] personal agendas" to the "controversial story" of vaccination.

Allen does, in my opinion, highlight the crux of the vaccination issue by quoting somebody else:

"As in all wars, some soldiers are injured...At present, the draftees [mainly babies and small children] injured in the war on infectious diseases are in effect told by conscripting authorities, `Thank you for your contribution to the war effort, and best of success in coping with your [life-long] disability [caused by the vaccination].'"

There are two sets of black and white pictures or "plates" found in the book consisting of fourteen and sixteen pictures respectively. My favorite picture has the following caption:

"Six million New Yorkers were vaccinated within a few weeks after smallpox appeared in the city in 1947. Contemporaries were struck at the willingness of Americans to accept vaccination in this postwar period--even though the [smallpox] vaccine killed and maimed far more people that did smallpox itself."

Finally, those readers seeking a comprehensive treatment of the vaccine debate and history of vaccination outside the United States should go elsewhere.

In conclusion, readers seeking a solid history of the first 2 1/2 centuries of vaccination will find a lot to think about in this book!!

*** 1/2

(first published 2007; introduction; three parts or 10 chapters; epilogue; main narrative 440 pages; acknowledgements; notes; index)

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Today I emailed Mr. Allen regarding an article in Slate Magazine that he wrote. He emailed me back twice and by his response I must have hit a nerve when I suggested that he was bought and paid for. He did not respond to any point I made but made snide and sarcastic remarks. This man is a real jerk, don't believe a thing he writes -- he's on somebody's payroll.

My sister received a flu vaccine last year. Within days she was in the hospital and came within inches of losing her life. She was diagnosed with myotitis brought on by the flu vaccine, a rather common illness which is infrequently discussed. Further readings found that the increasing level of flu shots has not improved mortality rates for the flu (which are small to begin with) and enforced shots in the military have killed and handicapped many of our nation's soldiers. Of course, these kinds of stories and this science are left out of Allen's one-sided account. Vaccines can save lives, but they can kill too.

I am interested in all aspects of science, particularly recent controversies. This book covers the mixed history of vaccines in a very thorough way. The author does not hesitate to criticize vaccines, and points out with great clarity those problems that did occur with shots in the past. I especially enjoyed how he was able to bring the personalities of the characters so vividly to life. But his overall conclusion is that vaccines are presently safer than ever before. And that's not because he is a "pharma tool", but because he has really looked at this issue and has made a rational, realistic conclusion.

This book deserves to be read by everyone, and in particular by those parents hesitating over the question of whether to vaccinate their children.

and the author does a good research job and then takes the time to document all his sources. This is why I still buy books and don't take what I see on the internet too seriously. Those who still believe that vaccines are to blame for autism or other ills their children contract won't like this book. Those who don't believe that members of a society have a certain obligation to one another as a result of living in a community won't like this book. I think that author is a little degoratory when speaking about the movements that have sprung up around the previously mentioned misconceptions but to give him his due, he does methodically go through all the material, studies etc that have been done to test these unproven hypothesis, sooooooooo. I think this is a very well written and well researched book.

Fantastic read! As a scientist, I blindly had both of my children vaccinated per the doctor's recommendations. Knowing what I learned in this informative narrative, I would still vaccinate my children. The difference now is that I would ask more informed questions. Support of those who cannot fford vaccines is a huge concern that this book touches on at the end. We need to improve work in this area moving forward. Thanks for the great book, Arthur Allen!

Having read this book, I am outraged at the lies. I, as many other who have researched the vaccination debate am completely outraged that vaccines are still in practice. Denmark, who stopped using Mercury years ago dropped their autism rates by 2/3. Vaccinations are and will be more closely tied in the future to ADHD, ADD, Asperger's Syndrome and Autism. AS WELL AS Sudden Infant Death. WAKE UP AMERICA AND SEE VACCINATIONS FOR WHAT THEY REALLY ARE.............HUGE PROFIT MAKERS FOR AN ELITE FEW.......AT WHAT COSTS? The costs of our children's health.

Arthur Allen has written a fascinating history of the science and policy of immunization. The story he tells is more than a medical history. It is also a social and political history of the US--how Americans have responded to, and in some cases, resisted, one of the 20th century's most important public health interventions. Policymakers and vaccine manufacturers would do well to remember the lessons of the yellow fever and swine flu vaccines. And parents who think that vaccines are worse than the diseases that they prevent may find the horrifying descriptions of vaccine-preventable whooping cough outbreaks in the US very informative.

"Vaccine" is a timely and pertinent book that does an outstanding job of analyzing the many controversies that have plagued (pun intended) vaccines since their beginning. Always a hotbed of controversy, the debate surrounding vaccines has arisen again as a new generation of parents questions the politics and implications behind the HPV vaccine for girls.

This book should be a must-read for parents before they decide NOT to inoculate their children. The book notes there are pockets within communities of highly educated (and very, shall we say, freethinking) parents who don't vaccinate their kids. The chapter titled "People Who Prefer Whooping Cough" tells the intriguing story of a Waldorf School (this one in Boulder, Co.) which maintains that children should become very ill in order to develop into spiritually whole human beings. Public health officials have been tracing many whooping cough outbreaks to this school in Boulder, and cases were showing up more and more in nearby cities like Golden, Colorado Springs and Fort Collins.

Also of interest is the chapter that examines vaccines and whether there is a link to the recent `epidemic' of autism. This book can be a valuable resource for families looking for a comprehensive history of the issue.

Arthur Allen has exhaustively researched and dissected his subject matter, as his 50 pages of footnotes show. His narrative, conversational tone and his skill at weaving the pieces of the story together help make this a highly readable, informative book despite its inherent complexities.

The book is very well-written and extensively researched. The information provided is accurate and balanced. Mr. Allen does not shy away from criticizing the public health establishment when it refused, for instance, to recognize dangers associated with small pox vaccine during the early days of vaccination. At the same time, he clearly recognizes and accurately gives credit to vaccination for the many health benefits provided by vaccines.

By the way, there are not "mounting problems with the current vaccination schedule" and mercury was removed from childhood vaccines several years ago.

I bought this one because I want to better research the subject of vaccination before I have kids, but I didn't find anything credible here. Allen simply wants to tell his opinion and skew stats toward his point of view. True, there's a good story here and it's actually entertaining, but I encountered so many half-truths and so much misinformation that I had to put the book down.

And I couldn't even recommend it for it's entertainment value because of the fact that so many things there are blatant lies. For instance, in a passage where he was talking about Franz Kafka meeting Rudolf Steiner he says, "Steiner picked his nose throughout the whole conversation and Kafka was disgusted." Well I own Kafka's diaries and here's what Kafka actually wrote, "At first a quiet head cold disturbed him (Steiner), his nose ran, he kept working his hankerchief deep into his nostril one finger at a time." (page 49) And that's it. Kafka says nothing else about it.

So the guy had a head cold and was using a hankerchief, but because Rudolf Steiner had a different position on vaccines than Allen, he is portrayed as a nosepicker so as to lose credibility. There's soooo many pieces of data that he spins in order to support his position, but you know what,that's done by many people today who just want to sell a book. But it's a shame that even in the stories themselves the guy in not credible. Stay away from this one.

Allen clearly did a tremendous amount of research for this book. He has managed to imbue the historical narrative with enough context that all the pieces make sense. Also, he doesn't gloss over the facts and figures, but salts the text with enough colloquialisms and anecdotes to keep it from becoming a lugubrious read.

I wish the anti-vaccine activists described in this book would read it. I think they'd be surprised at the understanding he conveys of their position, and might benefit from the perspective.

The only accurate part of this book is where Allen refers to CDC scientists believing that they do "God's work" and that parents questioning vaccine safety are "questioning God". That accurately reflects the current and past culture of those proporting to do vaccine safety research at the CDC. This also explains the lack of accountability at the CDC in the face of the mounting problems with the current vaccination schedule.

The remaining arguments are flimsy at best. Allen is no scientist and he has bought into many lies, hook, line and sinker. Do your kids a favor - move on... Buy a rational and balanced book about toxicology before vaccinating.

This will appeal to many people, from history buffs to health professionals and those of us who also love a good story. Myself, I always enjoy the human behavior aspect to how things came to be in our society, and the story of vaccination is terrific. Aside from the fun aspect of this book, Mr. Allen manages to write compassionately about the real people who have believed that their children's autism was caused by vaccines. There has been so much propaganda and spurious argumentation around this issue (particularly by people like Don Imus--he should be ashamed of himself), which has unfortunately lead many parents of children with autism to believe that vaccination caused their child's disability. I hope very much that Mr. Allen's work will help shine the light of reason on that sad situation.

Arthur Allen is a really gifted writer with the ability to make history and science come alive in this compelling look at vaccines. I think Vaccines is an especially important book for people -- and especially parents -- to read right now because of the re-appearance of diseases we thought we had long ago eradicated and the decision some people are making not to vaccinate their children because of fears that it may do more harm than good. This is a complicated and emotional topic, and Allen does us all a great service by presenting the facts, opinions, propaganda and misconceptions with no ax to grind. Even if you don't find all the answers you seek in this book, you will be much better equipped to ask the right questions.

I loved this book. It's a big book but it reads so easily that you don't realize until your done just how much you've read. He is an incredibly skilled writer. It's both superb history and investigative journalism. I think it will be a classic. The last section, about autism, was especially interesting because there is so much in the news these days about whether vaccines are related to autism. I couldn't put it down. Why vaccines are so maligned these days is beyond me. Allen has done a great service to humanity by reminding people how many lives have been saved by vaccines and how much misinformation is being generated by a small number of fringe journalists and pseudo-scientists.