The Vaccine Race
Science, Politics and the Human Costs of Defeating Disease
Event
In The Vaccine Race, Meredith Wadman depicts the cutthroat competition, ugly politics, brilliant science, and questionable ethics that underscored the research and development of vaccines that have protected many millions of Americans from rubella, polio, rabies, and other diseases.
In particular, Wadman tells the history of the race to find a vaccine for rubella, which, like Zika, inflicts terrible damage on babies whose mothers are infected during their pregnancies. In the 1960s, the search for a safe and effective vaccine was just beginning.
Wadman's book is "an exemplary piece of medical journalism" (Publisher's Weekly) that makes clear the human costs of medical developments. Says Peter Petre, former executive editor at Fortune: "More than any other writer, Wadman is startlingly, utterly lucid about the moral ambiguity of medical endeavor."
Follow the conversation online with @NewAmerica and #VaccineRace.
Books will be available to purchase by credit card or check.
Speaker:
Meredith Wadman, BM, BCh @meredithwadman
Author, The Vaccine Race: Science, Politics and the Human Costs of Defeating Disease
Staff writer, Science
Moderator:
Liza Mundy @lizamundy
Senior Fellow, Better Life Lab, New America