New Book On Polio Vaccine and SV 40
In their stunning new book, THE VIRUS AND THE VACCINE (St. Martin's Press;
May 2004), Debbie Bookchin and Jim Schumacher uncover a frightening and
largely untold government secret that affects almost every American over age
40 and some of their children and grandchildren as well: In the 1950s and
1960s, the polio vaccine used to inoculate millions of Americans carried
within it a monkey virus called SV40, one of the deadliest carcinogens known
to man. Even worse, Bookchin and Schumacher discover that the U.S.
government - fearful of the public's reaction - systematically covered up
and disregarded the danger that SV40 poses to humans.
The revelation that this medical blunder occurred, and that a cover-up has
been in place for decades, marks a huge breach of trust between the public
and the government-sponsored medical agencies that are supposed to be
looking out for our welfare. It also asks the question: Just what kind of
safeguards are in place to prevent similar mishaps from occurring in the
many other inoculations that are routinely administered to Americans?
In THE VIRUS AND THE VACCINE, Bookchin and Schumacher reveal that SV40 has
been linked to such cancers as mesothelioma, lymphoma and a variety of brain
and bone tumors. They also unearth some startling facts, including:
The U.S. government used its influence to try to thwart the work of
researchers who attempted to expose the link between SV40 and cancer.
In the 1960s, the U.S. government knowingly allowed SV40-contaminated polio
vaccine to be administered and maintained that SV40 was harmless to humans,
even as the evidence pointed to the contrary.
There is evidence that SV40 is present in some blood samples taken from
children today, indicating that the virus is spreading even beyond the
original 100 million Americans who received widely contaminated vaccine back
in the 1950s and 1960s.
There is evidence that more modern polio vaccine may, at times, have been
contaminated right through the 1990s, decades after it was supposedly
cleaned up.
Consumer fact-sheets prepared by the Centers for Disease Control and other
government agencies contain misleading and inaccurate information
downplaying the dangers of SV40 despite the substantial data to the
contrary.
The Virus and the Vaccine follows the dramatic story of how SV40 came to
taint America's most famous vaccine - from the early search for a polio cure
in the 1950s - to the heartbreak of family members watching loved ones dies
of cancer caused by the virus 40 years later.
In a book that critics have hailed as "meticulously researched, levelheaded,
and well-written" and a "gripping," "page-turning narrative," that "reads
like a novel," Bookchin and Schumacher present a meticulous, well-documented
investigation into this largely unknown story in medical history, detailing
the disturbing government efforts to keep the link between SV40, cancer and
the polio vaccine quiet.
Likewise, they follow the recent struggles of a group of prominent cancer
researchers led by an enterprising doctor named Michele Carbone, whose
persistence in linking SV40 to cancer has finally brought this issue to
light. Carbone and other scientists familiar with SV40 maintain that it is
imperative to understand how the virus may spread among humans, how to
prevent it from causing cancer, and what therapies might be available for
those who already have SV40-related cancers. This is especially true
because SV40 is now showing up in pediatric brain and bone tumors, not just
in tumors of the elderly and Baby Boom generation.
In the era of SARS, Avian Flu virus, West Nile virus and other
animal-to-human transmitted viral diseases, the story of how a carcinogenic
monkey virus contaminated America's "miracle" vaccine offers important
lessons, especially when parents across the country are looking for
reassurance that their government is doing its best to guarantee the safety
of vaccines used today.
Debbie Bookchin is a prize-winning journalist who has written for numerous
newspapers and magazines including the New York Times and The Boston Globe.
Jim Schumacher has written science articles for periodicals including the
Atlantic Monthly and Boston Magazine.
For more information about The Virus and the Vaccine, (ISBN: 0312278721) or
to read an excerpt, go to www.thevirusandthevaccine.com
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