TRIAL BY FURY: The Polio Vaccine Controversy

Though Salk is treated sympathetically here and Sabin, at least until the last chapter, is merely a voice carping from the sidelines, Klein nevertheless offers a broad, inclusive view of the development of polio vaccine -- from the March of Dimes' inception to aid FDR's Georgia spa to the replacement of Salk's three-stage injections with Sabin's orally ingested live vaccine. Klein maintains a smoothly integrated balance between the science of virology and the politics of medical research -- the latter exemplified by the Foundation's optimistic publicity, timed to spur fund raising campaigns but threatening the researchers' credibility and status with their colleagues, and by the mad race for vaccine honors among the scientists themselves and their backers. Klein's realistic chronicle of the whole brouhaha represents a step forward in medical reporting for young people and a healthy antidote to the usual adulatory treatment of virology ""pioneers.