Bibliograph

You bet your life, from blood transfusions to mass vaccination, the long and risky history of medical innovation, Paul A. Offit, MD

Type

Label

You bet your life, from blood transfusions to mass vaccination, the long and risky history of medical innovation, Paul A. Offit, MD

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 223-240) and index

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

You bet your life

Nature of contents

bibliography

Responsibility statement

Paul A. Offit, MD

Sub title

from blood transfusions to mass vaccination, the long and risky history of medical innovation

Summary

Four months into the coronavirus pandemic, as the death count surged, the FDA made a risky decision: it approved an anti-malarial drug as a treatment for coronavirus, despite limited data on its efficacy or side effects. A month later, the FDA withdrew its recommendation, but by then, the damage had been done. The drug was ineffective and sometimes even lethal. The mistake was hardly a one-off. As virologist Paul. A. Offit shows here, medical risk and our understanding of it have shaped the course of modern medicine, paving the way for its greatest triumphs and tragedies. By telling the stories of the events--and of the frequent hypocrisy and cravenness of the characters at their center--Offit shows how risk, and failure, have driven innovation, and importantly, how by examining our mistakes we can make better medical predictions and decisions going forward

Table Of Contents

Louis Washkansky : heart transplants -- Ryan White : blood transfusions -- Hannah Greener : anesthesia -- "Jim" : biologicals -- Joan Marlar : antibiotics -- Anne Gottsdanker : vaccines -- Clarence Dally : x-rays -- "Eleven unnamed children" : chemotherapy -- Jesse Gelsinger : gene therapy -- Epilogue : living with uncertainty

Target audience

adult

Classification