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https://theconversation.com/in-vaccine-nation-raina-macintyre-reflects-on-science-misinformation-and-the-threat-to-200-years-of-progress-257242>
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Review: Vaccine Nation: Science, Reason and the Threat to 200 Years of
Progress – Raina MacIntyre (UNSW Press)
Raina MacIntyre is one of Australia’s most respected epidemiologists. She was a
familiar face and calm voice during the COVID-19 pandemic. So when I was asked
to review her new book
Vaccine Nation I was delighted to accept.
Interestingly, MacIntyre initially planned to become a cardiologist, but was
drawn instead into infectious diseases and vaccines. Her subsequent career has
spanned everything from fieldwork during Australia’s early rollout of the Hib
vaccine – which protects against potentially fatal respiratory infections,
including meningitis – to advising governments on biosecurity and bioterrorism.
Her previous book,
Dark Winter, explored pandemic threats and biosecurity.
Vaccine Nation is, in many ways, a natural sequel to that earlier work –
though this time, the threats are as much social as they are biological. The
book blends a sweeping history of public health with a clear examination of our
messy present. It delivers a timely, urgent and often deeply personal account
of vaccination’s role in our world.
Despite its 247 pages and more than 400 references,
Vaccine Nation is
anything but dry. MacIntyre is a natural storyteller. She opens with a haunting
scene from 1953: a five-year-old girl named Martha Dillard contracted polio
after attending a birthday party. Dillard would spend the rest of her life in
an iron lung.
“Imagine being imprisoned in a metal casing, unable to walk or see the world,”
MacIntyre writes. “People have lived like that for up to 70 years.”
From there, the book takes readers on a brisk and engaging tour through the
triumphs of vaccination – its success in all but eradicating smallpox, polio,
Hib and measles. These quiet public health revolutions have boosted life
expectancy and saved millions of children."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
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mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
