(33 reviews) Author: ISBN : 9780061227950 New from $5.26 Format: PDFMaurice Hilleman's mother died a day after he was born and his twin sister stillborn. As an adult, he said that he felt he had escaped an appointment with death. He made it his life's work to see that others could do the same. Born into the life of a Montana chicken farmer, Hilleman ran off to the University of Chicago to become a microbiologist, and eventually joined Merck, the pharmaceutical company, to pursue his goal of eliminating childhood disease. Chief among his accomplishments are nine vaccines that practically every child gets, rendering formerly dread diseases—including often devastating ones such as mumps and rubella—practically toothless and nearly forgotten; his measles vaccine alone saves several million lives every year.
Vaccinated is not a biography; Hilleman's experience forms the basis for a rich and lively narrative of two hundred years of medical history, ranging across the globe and throughout time to take in a cast of hundreds, all caught up, intentionally or otherwise, in the story of vaccines. It is an inspiring and triumphant tale, but one with a cautionary aspect, as vaccines come under assault from people blaming vaccines for autism and worse. Paul Offit clearly and compellingly rebuts those arguments, and, by demonstrating how much the work of Hilleman and others has gained for humanity, shows us how much we have to lose.
- Hardcover: 272 pages
- Publisher: Smithsonian; 1 edition (June 12, 2007)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0061227951
- ISBN-13: 978-0061227950
- Product Dimensions: 0.9 x 6.3 x 9.2 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Vaccinated: One Man's Quest to Defeat the World's Deadliest Diseases PDF
I love this book. I appreciate the realistic portrayal of Maurice Hilleman and his contemporaries, and how realistic the portrayal of the way vaccines were created in the 1950's, including the fact that the scientists tested out the vaccines on themselves and their families. I think I will always remember the pictures of Hilleman's daughters including the one who had been the host of the mumps virus that her father turned into a vaccine for mumps. It is officially called the Jeryl Lynn mumps strain even today. Hilleman encouraged his daughters to study science.By C. Clark
I also like Dr. Offit's style of writing.
I greatly enjoyed reading this book on a subject which I was unfamiliar with. Dr. Offit is a good writer.By George Barnstone
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