David M. Oshinsky

When was the last time you heard the word “polio?” It was probably in reference to a vaccine, not the disease. So thoroughly have the effects of polio vaccination been felt that less than 2,000 cases exist each year and only in remote regions of Nigeria, India, and Pakistan. Ridding the world of it forever (in other words, complete eradication, like with smallpox) is in sight.

Polio once caused swimming pools and movie theaters to shut down in order to prevent possible venues to transmit show more disease, so Oshinsky tells us in this well-told history. The verification of the Salk vaccine produced utter euphoria in America and amplified the American ethic of can-do-know-how-ism.

He also shares the tale of the rivalry between polio virologists Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin (and truth be told, other virologists as well). Both deserve credit for their cure and for their respective work, each producing an effective vaccine. However, both had different methods, different audiences, and different attitudes. Fortunately for us, each vaccine could serve its part to contribute to the global effort to eradicate polio – even if their respective inventors could not get along.

As such, this book teaches functions not merely as another history of disease but also as an important commentary on the culture of science. It teaches us how to get along and how to work together – especially when we work differently than the people sitting next to us. This intricately human story should not perish among the annals of American history. show less

Mention the word "Bellevue" and most Americans think of a derelict, frightening mental asylum, made notorious by Nellie Bly's exposé in 1887. In truth, Bellevue Hospital's history is long and often revolutionary. In this history, David Oshinsky weaves together the history of a hospital, a city, and medicine itself.

Bellevue Hospital began as an almshouse infirmary in the 1790s. From the very beginning, it never turned away patients, no matter their ability to pay, their religion, or show more ethnicity (a very unusual stance for the time). Soon it became a dumping ground where other hospitals sent their incurables so as to maintain high cure rates. Whenever epidemics swept through NYC, Bellevue took the brunt of it. Because of the large number of immigrants passing through its doors, Bellevue treated a wide variety of disease and illness, and soon doctors were eager to do a stint at Bellevue in order to gain experience. As apprenticeship gave way to medical schools, Bellevue teamed up with New York University, Columbia, and Cornell to become a premier teaching hospital. Despite its reputation as the hospital for the poor, it's emergency and trauma centers became first-class and if celebrities or visiting dignitaries had a medical emergency, they often chose to go to Bellevue.

Bellevue was often on the cutting edge of medical research and practice as well. The first American civilian ambulance service began here, medical photography was developed, and in 1956 two of its physicians won the Nobel Prize for their groundbreaking work in cardiac catherization. The first doctor to reach Lincoln in Ford's theatre was a Bellevue physician as was the doctor in charge of President Garfield's gunshot wound (unfortunately that doctor was not a subscriber to germ theory and probably unwittingly abetted his death). In the 1980s, Bellevue was at the forefront of the AIDS epidemic, both in terms of research and treatment. Although there was never enough funding for a hospital of its size and mandate to treat the indigent, Bellevue achieved remarkable things.

Oshinsky doesn't shy away from the dark side of Bellevue either, such as the murder in 1989 of a pregnant doctor in her office by a squatter, or the use of electric shock therapy on children, but he does put these events into perspective.

I enjoyed reading Bellevue and learned a lot about the history of NYC and of American medicine, as well as of this storied hospital. Oshinsky has a knack for describing the personalities and quirks of those who impacted Bellevue, from politicians at Tammany Hall to the doctors and nurses who worked on the wards to the researchers in its famous pathology labs and morgue. A fantastic piece of narrative nonfiction, I would recommend it to anyone interested in NYC and/or medicine. show less

The Race to Cure Polio

In this highly engaging historical narrative, Historian David M. Oshinsky highlights the race for a vaccine for poliomyetitis. The story is one of tragedy and triumph, controversy and concensus.

What makes this story worth telling? The triumph over Polio in the United States during the post-war period represents a landmark in the history of medicine and technology, of human progress. The process that led to the Salk and Sabine vaccines is a true American success story, show more borne out of the good old American values of hard work and determination.

The story of how America conquered Polio is not without its controversies and skeptics. There was a real sense both at the time and looking back that "Polio had been oversold as a menace to public health" (p.239). That the Dimes March On campaign, the posters with the poor suffering children, had created a false panic. That this relatively uncommon disease had been turned into a public-relations media blitz which threatened the ethics of scientific research. It was the first campaign of its kind, and though controversial as it was, it was ultimately successful through its relentless advertising, fund-raising and lobbying efforts; it helped pave the way for all future disease awareness campaigns.

At the heart of Oshinsky's narrative is the intense competition between rivals Jonas Salk and Albert Sabine over the race to a vaccine. Salk was the first to come up with his killed-virus vaccine but not without his critics who labeled Salk a quack and sell-out for rushing to market his vaccine. Oshinsky calls the 1954 Salk polio vaccine field trials, "the biggest medical gamble in history" (p.189). And indeed it was, and almost failed miserably after the Cutter fiasco where 1 pharmacy manufacturer had mishandled the production of the Salk vaccine allowing some live viruses to mix with the production batch.

Oshinsky further provides insights into the ethical dilemmas all scientists face such as conducting vaccination trials on "volunteers" and the treatment of lab animals. The story is not so black and white as it may appear.

It is also worth noting that during the period, 1945-1956, regulation of public health was nowhere near the level it is today in the United States.

Overall, Oshinsky delivers both as a Historian and a great storyteller. Oshinsky is well deserving of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in history for this significant contribution to the scientific and social history of the post-war US period. show less

Professional jealousy. Capitalist profiteering. Derision. Elitism. Greed. Laboratory incompetence. Glory hogging. Slighting coworkers. Jealousy. Governmental dereliction. Vaccines that killed. All of these and more are part of the “American Story” in David Oshinsky's history Polio: An American Story. Most Americans, at least most of those of a certain age, recognize the name of Jonas Salk as in “Salk vaccine.” Slightly fewer still recognize the name of Albert Sabin. Few will show more recognize the name of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis although more will remember its fund raising campaign “The March of Dimes.” Then there are the names that few, if any, of today's general public will recognize: Hilary Koprowski, Mikhail Chumakov, David Bodian, Basil O'Connor, Julius Youngner,...

Hopefully, nearly all Americans will recognize the name of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, FDR, but do they know of his involvement in the nascent fund-raising activities that culminated years after in the widely known March of Dimes movement? Are there any FDR dimes in their coin collections? Do they know when those dimes were struck and why their date of issuance was significant?

How well known is the lengthy scientific tug-of-war between adherents of a killed-virus vaccine and a live but attenuated virus vaccine? How many know which type is in favor today and why?

What happened to the hundreds of youngsters and young adults encased in prisons of iron lungs, kept alive and breathing only by the rhythmic fluctuation of air pressure inside those metal capsules?

In which country was the development and distribution of the polio vaccine left up to profit-making capitalist laboratories and in which country did the government ensure production and distribution of vaccine because it cared more to protect its children than to safeguard the profits of private enterprise? If one guesses the United States as the former and the post-Stalinist Soviet Union as the latter, one has guessed correctly. The Republican Eisenhower administration in the U.S. was averse to anything that even suggested the possibility of “socialized medicine,” children's continuing paralysis and death notwithstanding.

Oshinsky's book is the backstory of the spread of poliomyelitis in the U.S., with some mention of its prevalence in other countries as well, and of the research that went into development of a vaccine to subdue the easily-spread virus. Contrary to what many likely assume, research and development efforts were characterized more by antagonisms and hostile competition than by any spirit of mutual cooperation to achieve a common goal for the benefit of the nation's children. Even after a vaccine was developed and declared safe, incompetence by one manufacturer, Cutter laboratories, turned its vaccines into agents of further infection. There is much to the story of polio and its impact on U.S. scientific and academic communities that is not widely known among today's general populace. Oshinsky's book is a highly readable history that fills in numerous gaps in our knowledge.

Readers who lived through the 1940s and 50s will find their memories of those decades refreshed, particularly insofar as the polio epidemics are concerned—closed swimming pools, shuttered movie theaters, avoidance of groups, cancellation of birthday parties. Younger readers may find themselves amazed at what transpired in the U.S. not all that long before their births. I myself was left with a thought that the book does not actually address: Given the “anti-vaxxer” movement of today, fueled as it is by ignorance and superstition and promulgated through various social media, and given the fact that wild polio virus still thrives in some countries, it is far from impossible that polio may again make its ugly appearance in any of our neighborhoods.

Polio: An American Story gives us a fascinating look at a rather recent era in U.S. (and, to a lesser extent, world) history that should be of interest to every reader, and I found it completely worth the time that I devoted to its reading. show less