Vaccinated: From Cowpox to mRNA, the Remarkable Story of Vaccines

As a science person, I love reading science based books. I bought this book after a forum with the author to celebrate Maurice Hilliman's birthday and after hearing Dr. Often talk, I wanted to read his books. This book blew my mind! The best part of this book is that you don't have to be a scientist to read it. The writing style is easy and at time quite humorous. The book itself was so interesting and I learned a ton. My husband, who is a history teacher and diesel mechanic, is even interested in it after my long list of people wanting to borrow the book. This may be my new favorite book (next to The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot). With so much disinformation out there today, this book was refreshing and armed me with new talking points. The thing I loved the most, however, was credit was finally given where credit was long overdo. Maurice Hilliman is finally recognized for his powerful work instead of just being a medical miracle who worked chickens in Miles City, MT.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, speaking at a 1997 award ceremony, said: “Every once in a while you come across a scientist whose list of accomplishments shines so brightly that you’re almost blinded by them.” Fauci was referring to Dr. Maurice Hilleman who practiced his profession in comparative civic anonymity and remains there in death.In the world of medicine, however, the microbiologist Maurice Hilleman is known as the father of modern vaccines.On Hilleman’s long list of immunization offspring is a mumps vaccine, its development featuring his own daughter after whom the vaccine is named. A sample of his “other” vaccines includes those for chicken pox, pneumonia, Hepatitis A and B, and combining into one shot the now-familiar vaccination for measles, mumps and rubella.Hilleman predicted the 1957 Asian Flu pandemic that infected 20 million Americans and killed 70,000. The US military awarded him the Distinguished Service Medal for his flu vaccine without which it was estimated one million Americans might have died. He also was the first to determine the flu virus changes from year to year.Dr. Paul Offit’s book was published in 2007. He is a lively and able story teller. And he tells the full story. He writes candidly of the Willowbrook State School on Staten Island, a facility for retarded children where a number of vaccines were first tested on its patients. He delves into the flash topic of fetal cells as a culture for vaccine growth. And he addresses the contaminant issues connected with some earlier vaccines.People opposed to vaccination will, no doubt, find examples in this book to stiffen their position. Yet it is undeniable that vaccines have prevented infection in tens of millions and saved the lives of countless others. The risks will not go away. Contending vaccine viewpoints, however, can still profit from facts and history, and this book is a useful source of both.

Vaccinated: One Man’s Quest to Defeat the World’s Deadliest Diseases by Paul A. Offit“Vaccinated” tells the important yet little known story of the father of modern vaccines Maurice Hilleman. Professor of Vaccinology and Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Paul A. Offit describes in wonderful detail the research behind the vaccines that transformed the world. This insightful 272-page book includes the following twelve unnumbered chapters: The Time Capsule, “My God: This Is the Pandemic. It’s Here!”, Jeryl Lynn, Eight Doors, The Destroying Angel, Coughs, Colds, Cancers, and Chickens, The Monster Maker, Political Science, Blood, Animalcules, An Uncertain Future, and an Unrecognized Genius.Positives:1. A well-researched, well-written book. Accessible for the masses.2. Interesting topic, the little known story behind the man and his nine vaccines. “Hilleman talked to me about his life and work. This book—the story of the triumphs, tragedies, controversies, and uncertain future of modern vaccines—is largely his story.”3. Offit is fair and backs his statements with facts and sound logic.4. Effectively includes photos into the narrative.5. Eye-opening facts throughout the book. “When it was over, the 1918 pandemic—the most devastating outbreak of an infectious disease in medical history—had killed between fifty million and one hundred million people worldwide, all within a single year. In comparison, since the 1970s the AIDS pandemic has killed twenty-five million people.”6. Describes the life of Maurice Hilleman. “As a boy, Hilleman found solace in the pages of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species, which he read and reread. “I was enthralled by Darwin because the church was so opposed to him,” he recalled. “I figured that anybody who could be so universally hated had to have something good about him.” Hilleman read everything he could find about science and the great men of science.”7. The story behind the vaccine that originated from the back of his daughter’s throat. “Hilleman reasoned that as his daughter’s virus adapted to growing in chick cells, it would get worse at growing in human cells. In other words, he was trying to weaken his daughter’s virus. He hoped that the weakened mumps virus would then grow well enough in children to induce protective immunity, but not so well that it would cause the disease.”8. The book addresses sensitive matter of ethics. “Retarded children living in large group homes suffered severe and occasionally fatal infectious diseases more commonly than other children. They weren’t tested because they were more expendable; they were tested because they were more vulnerable.”9. The fascinating history and impact of deadly diseases. “In 1492, when Christopher Columbus crossed the Atlantic Ocean, seventy-two million Indians lived in North America; by 1800, only six hundred thousand remained. Smallpox—brought by European settlers—killed most of the rest. Indeed, smallpox has killed more people than all other infectious diseases combined.”10. Differences between bacteria and viruses. “Martinus Beijerinck had recognized the single most important difference between bacteria and viruses. Bacteria, capable of independent growth, can multiply on the surface of furniture, in dust, in rainwater, or on the lining of the skin, nose, or throat. But viruses, incapable of independent growth, can reproduce only within the “living protoplasm of the cell.””11. Describes techniques behind the vaccines. “Theiler’s technique of weakening human viruses by growing them in cells from other species remains the single most important method for making live weakened viral vaccines. His method has been used to make vaccines against measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox, and polio. In 1951, “for his discoveries concerning yellow fever and how to contain it,” Max Theiler won the Nobel Prize in medicine.”12. The impact of individual vaccines described. “Measles vaccines save more than seven million lives a year.”13. The challenges of cold viruses. “Colds account for half of all acute medical conditions. But despite tremendous technological advances in isolating, identifying, sequencing, and cloning cold viruses, as well as advances in understanding how the immune system responds to these viruses, scientists and researchers have done nothing to prevent the common cold.”14. The destructive force of rubella. “Although rubella virus was the first infection found to cause birth defects, it wasn’t the last. Bacteria such as Treponema pallidum, which causes syphilis; parasites such as Toxoplasma; and other viruses such as the chickenpox virus all cause birth defects. But no organism is more common, more thorough, or more consistent in its destruction of unborn children than rubella virus.”15. Science. “The great thing about science is that authority doesn’t hold sway. Eventually scientific studies will be the deciding factor and outweigh prevailing opinion. Science is always self-correcting. Today’s heresy becomes tomorrow’s orthodoxy.””16. When science meets religion. The ethics behind the use of fetal cells. “Seeing what I saw about the damage that rubella virus could do to infants,” he said, “I consider the use of [fetal] cells as 100 percent moral. Frankly, I think that our rubella vaccine has prevented more abortions than all the antiabortionists put together.”” “ALTHOUGH THE USE OF FETAL CELLS TO MAKE VACCINES REMAINS CONTROVERSIAL for some, the vaccines made from them are safe. Fetal cells allowed Hilleman and others to avoid contaminating viruses like chicken leukemia virus and SV40.”17. Cancer, cancer, cancer. “Victims of chronic hepatitis B are at high risk for two possible fates: dying of cirrhosis, a progressive destruction of the liver, or dying of liver cancer. Hepatitis B virus is the third most common known cause of cancer in the world. The sun, which causes skin cancer, is the first; cigarette smoking, which causes lung cancer, is the second.” ““Hilleman’s heroic role in controlling the hepatitis B virus scourge ranks as one of the most outstanding contributions to human health of the twentieth century or any century,” recalls Thomas Starzl, a pioneer of liver transplantation.”18. Disasters that impact the pharmaceutical industry. “The thalidomide disaster caused a reevaluation of the U. S. Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, passed in 1938. Congress amended it in 1962 to compel pharmaceutical companies to show that their products actually worked before selling them.”19. The doctor behind the anti-vaccination movement and its damage. “WHEN SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE CONVINCINGLY REFUTED WAKEFIELD’S notion that MMR caused autism, antivaccine activists in the United States didn’t stop. They shifted their vaccines-cause-harm hypothesis to thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative contained in some vaccines. Thimerosal, they said, was causing autism. Again, Hilleman found himself in the middle of the fray.”20. Bibliography provided.Negatives:1. Lacks charts and diagrams that would have complemented the excellent narrative. As an example, a chart depicting the deadliest diseases and their impact.2. Notes included but not linked.3. Some missed opportunities to tackle some additional topics.In summary, I really enjoyed this book. Offit does a wonderful job of describing the history of Hilleman and his quest to develop vaccines. He keeps the hard-to-follow medical jargon to a minimum while successfully describing the wonderful biography of Maurice Hilleman. A worthwhile read for laypersons with a curious nature, I recommend it!Further recommendations: “Deadly Choices”, “Do You Believe in Magic”, “Bad Faith” and “Bad Advice” by the same author, “Spillover” by David Quammen, “The Panic Virus” by Seth Mnookin, “The Story of the Human Body” by Daniel Lieberman, “The War on Science” by Shawn Lawrence Otto, and “The Great Influenza” by John M. Barry.

I love this book. I found myself highlighting something in every chapter. The stories are just THAT important. The thing with public health is that, if it works, no one notices it. But if it goes wrong, there's almost always an outrage. So, it's easy to take for granted all the good things that made our health now possible. I'm glad someone took the time to tell Hilleman's story because people have terrible memories.

Offit has written this piece in a very accessible and easy to follow format.Using the life of Maurice Hilleman who worked for Merck, he explains the evolution of vaccines from Edward Jenner to the modern scandal with Andrew Wakefield, or to give him his proper medical title, Mr Andrew Wakefield.Reading through this chronicle of the life of Hilleman it is really easy to see where some anti-vaxxers can be honestly mistaken in thinking there may be harm in vaccines as there are plenty of chemicals that sound at face value rather unappealing. However, understanding the research, testing procedure, and measured results that are clearly laid out by Offit, it's very satisfactory and straight forward to put one's mind at rest that these common claims are entirely unfounded.Hilleman comes across as being a rather uncomplicated, tenacious individual determined to save as many lives as he possibly could, failing in only one self-selected goal, that of making a cancer vaccine.if you currently have any opinion on vaccines, positive or negative, then get this book and inform yourself as to how they work, why they contain the chemicals they do and also how wonderfully effective they are!

Now my favourite book. Gives such an insight into the development of various vaccines as well as a general knowledge about a lot of different scientific events throughout history as well as their creators. A great book for anyone interest in science and vaccines in particular. It also gives a great insight into the viewpoint of anti-vaxxers and explains the events that they use for their arguments.

An interesting topic I enjoyed reading about. It may be a bit repetitive a times in its style, but overall I recommend it.