Title: Jonas Salk: A Life
Author: Charlotte Decroes Jacobs
Read by: Pam Ward
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Read by: Pam Ward
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Length: 20 hours and 15 minutes
Source: Review Digital Audio from Audiobook Jukebox – Thanks!
Source: Review Digital Audio from Audiobook Jukebox – Thanks!
Jonas Salk: A Life tells the
complete story of Jonas Salk from his birth through his death and is a fascinating
look into the research involved in the discovery and production of the polio
vaccine. What fascinated me is that
while Salk is primarily known for his polio vaccine, it only occupied a small
portion of his actual research work. The
notoriety from this research impacted the rest of Salk’s life.
This biography started with Salk’s early life in the Bronx as the son
of ambitious Jewish immigrants. It also
set the tone telling of the devastation of the great influenza of 1918 as well
as polio epidemics that swept through killing and disabling primarily children,
but also adults as well. Salk did well
in school and was able to become a researching M.D.
As a Michigan native, I was fascinated that Salk’s first research was
on the influenza vaccine at the University of Michigan. It was disturbing how inmates at prisons,
people at mental institutions, institutionalized children were used for testing
vaccines in the 1940’s and 1950’s in particular in Michigan by Salk and all
across the United States by other various researchers. I know that this research helped with many
important discovers, but the ethicacy of it troubles me.
Salk left the University of Michigan and went to the University of
Pittsburg where he started his groundbreaking Polio Vaccine. With an entire crew of great researchers,
they were able to put together an effective polio vaccine that used a killed virus. This was a fact widely disputed by Saber a
leading proponent of using a life virus.
After discovery, the vaccine was taken away from Salk and was tested on
second graders throughout the United States.
One of the venues that was making the vaccine did not follow the detailed
directions first put together by Salk, which led to the death of many children
and adults. It was a disturbing look at
how you can have a good idea that works in a lab, but without oversite, companies
will try to cut corners.
Once the vaccine was proven to be safe, the public clamored for it and
Salk become an instant celebrity. This
put a giant strain on his wife and three young boys. Much changed for Salk and his family after
this with Salk founding the Salk Institute in California.
Later in life Salk studied MS, cancer, and AIDs and seemed to make good
progress, although he was never able to have a breakthrough as he did with
Polio.
I was frankly disturbed by what a womanizer Salk was. He seemed to be bowled over by any pretty
young thing that was smart and liked his ideas from his night time ramblings. A seventy-something year old married man hooking
up twenty something year olds makes me question the elder man’s ethics and
morality. There seemed to be some
rationalization in the book such as either of his wives were not paying
attention to him or that he needed validation because other scientists didn’t
respect him. I kept thinking, maybe his
wives aren’t paying attention to him because he’s never home and it’s widely
known he has a lot of girlfriends. One
of the stories was rather disturbing where he seemed to take advantage of his
stepdaughter’s friend although she rationalized it later on.
It was also strange in the book that there seemed that pretty much the
entire scientific community did not like Jonas Salk and there didn’t seem to be
an answer besides that he liked to be in the public eye too much and that other
scientists were jealous. It really made
me want to look at the science angle and see for myself. What else was going on? I wish this question would have had a more satisfactory
answer.
One of my favorite quotes was, “But once again sensationalism trumped
science.” This is sadly too true even
now.
Pam Ward was a good narrator for this book and I found the material to
be fascinating. It was a great audiobook
to keep me interested during my daily commute.
Overall, Jonas Salk: A Life is a very interesting audiobook that
details the life of one of the most famous scientists of the 20th
century. I learned a lot and I really
liked learning about the disease of polio, its devastation, and how the vaccine
successfully eradicated it. I liked how
Salk and Sabine’s dispute about which vaccine was the best was discussed throughout
the book as it happened in the timeline.
