The Cutter Incident

This book (Yale University Press ISBN 0 300 10864 8) by Paul Offit, an infectious disease physician traced the origins of today's "vaccine crisis" to an incident during the 1950s in which thousands of people received polio vaccine containing live polio virus. Offit describes the development of polio vaccine, from trials of early vaccines through to the appearance on the scene of Jonas Salk.
The vaccine was highly effective and safe. It was licensed the next day thanks to political pressure, and during the next two weeks, five companies distributed about five million doses. Thirteen days after the first doses were administered, there were reports of cases of polio in immunised children. All of these initial cases had received vaccine manufactured by one company—Cutter Laboratories (although vaccine made by Wyeth also caused some cases of polio). In the end, at least 220 000 people were infected with live polio virus in Cutter's vaccine (including 100 000 contacts of immunised children), 70 000 developed muscle weakness, 164 were severely paralysed, and 10 died.
We are used to the effectiveness and safety of current immunogens. Most of us have never been told, or read, about this incident and the subsequent lawsuits that finally lead to the 1986 Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.