Vaccination in America: medical science and children's welfare / Richard J. Altenbaugh.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Altenbaugh, Richard J., author.

Series:

Palgrave studies in the history of science and technology

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Vaccination of children--United States--History--20th century.

Vaccination of children.

Immunization of children--United States--History--20th century.

Immunization of children.

Children--Health and hygiene.

Children.

History.

United States.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

viii, 355 pages ; 22 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cham, Switzerland : Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.

Summary:

The success of the polio vaccine was a remarkable breakthrough for medical science, effectively eradicating a dreaded childhood disease. it was also the largest medical experiment to use American schoolchildren. The author examines an uneasy conundrum in the history of vaccination: even as vaccines greatly mitigate the harm that infectious disease causes children, the process of developing these vaccines put children at great risk as research subjects in the first half of the twentieth century, in the face of widespread resistance to vaccines, public health officials gradually medicalized American culture through mass media, public health campaigns, and the public education system. Schools supplied tens of thousands of young human subjects to researcher, school buildings became the main dispensaries of the polio antigen, and the mass immunization campaign that followed changed American public health policy in profound ways. Tapping links between bioethics, education, public health, and medical research, this book raises fundamental questions about child welfare and the tension between private and public responsibility that still fuel anxieties around vaccination today.

Contents:

Introduction: to vaccinate, or not to vaccinate. Part 1 Diseases, death, and disability : Living on the edge

Bad odors, nasty dust, and dangerous bugs

Not my child! Part 2 Friendly persuasion : Invisible bugs are bad for you

Schoolhouse medicine

Capstone events. Part 3 Ethical authority? : Mistakes and misdeeds

Blood

A moral compass?

A problematic process

School days. Part 4 Line up and roll up your sleeves : "Operation needle"

The complexities of mass immunization culture. Part 5 Intellectual authority? : A little knowledge is a dangerous thing

What is science? Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 303-329) and index.

ISBN:

3319963481

9783319963488

OCLC:

1041475716