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Great Book

I just finished reading, "The Moth In the Iron Lung: A Biography of Polio" by Forrest Maready

I read a lot and it's one of the top 5 influential books I've read in my life. It really made me change my perspective and ask new questions and reframe my understanding about Polio and even history.

It turns out the story I always thought I knew, I didn't. It made me look at my Grandparents generation in a different light (I was born in '75).

Far from being a dry academic read it's a page turner on par with Upton Sinclair's 'The Jungle'.

If you like books like The Andromeda Strain, or Hot Zone - give this a read. Does it have anything to do with ME / CFS? Well, you decide. It's an enterovirus mystery with some surprises. There are some parallels with ME / CFS of today. I'm sure this forum will have probably already discussed this book, but if not, thought I would drop it here.

Cheers
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L
Thanks @Runner5, being an insatiable reader, I'll definitely check this one out.

I remember the polio epidemic and the first immunizations against it. I'm sure that as time passes we'll have more surprises in store to be discovered. Lenore.
 
L
I should have added that your blog and @sunshine44 have some parallels and that is that reading does give the ability to read and understand different points of view.

When younger it can be confusing and we don't like changing our beliefs. As we age, our thinking becomes more flexible while our bodies always don't.

Decisions should be made upon many points of view, although we don't want to end up totally confused. We just do what's best for ourselves and for others...or at least try very hard to do so. Above all I believe this: Mankind will never, ever get things perfectly right....we can only take the evidence at hand at the time and use it in the best possible way.

As most people my age (75) I was sprayed with DDT, have mercury fillings, lived in houses sheathed in asbestos and certainly acknowledge that they were detrimental in many ways. However, this was not something done on purpose and we have to bear that in mind. Thinking and research change as the years pass, let's bear that in mind. Yours, Lenore.
 
L
Just about finished with the book. I have many thoughts....first, of course that yes, more than one virus or even a bacterium could have been involved in the polio outbreaks over the years.

All in all, I still feel that vaccines have proven time and again to save the mass of mankind, but there will always be exceptions. Before the 1700's there was little done to advance mortality and even think a cure could be found for most diseases....so how can science advance?

The times we're born in are generally the biggest predictor of who will live and who will die. "Survival of the Fittest" I guess you may say.

Still, I'm glad I read the book - another point of view (& I consider them to be good things to learn), but am I 100% sold? The answer is "No."

Thanks for the book suggestion. Yours Lenora.
 

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Runner5
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