The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "polio" ...
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The Thirty Years' War
The New Yorker reports on the progress of our war on cancer, which has lasted more than thirty years. The question is whether we've been fighting cancer the right way. "If you had demanded that the N.I.H. solve the problem of polio not through independent research, but by means of a centrally directed program... you would get the very best iron lungs in the world... but you wouldn't get the vaccine that eradicated polio," the New Yorker quotes a former National Cancer Institute director. New discoveries are often touted as miracles without ever causing significant drops in mortality rates. Though knowledge about cancer has been increasing, the American mythology of cancer is running into the realities of federally run programs.
Tags: cancer; Richard Nixon; Citizens Committee For The Conquest of Cancer; National Cancer Institute; National Institutes For Health; STI-571; cancer treatments
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Vaccines: An issue of trust; Missed shots
In a two-part investigation Consumer Reports examines the pros and cons in regard to modern-day vaccines. The first part looks at the parents' dilemma: "Do I expose my child and community to the risk of a serious disease? Or do I expose my child to the risk of one of those rare catastrophic reactions to the vaccine itself...?" The story examines some "significant gaps" in the vaccine-safety system, but it also points to studies showing that unimmunized children are many times more likely to contract dangerous disease than vaccinated children. The second part reports on the neglect of adult immunization, and points out that every year as many as 400,000 Americans die of diseases that could have been prevented by routine vaccines.
Tags: polio; immunization; measles; mumps; rubella; doctors; patients; parents; diseases; GlaxoSmithKline; Aventis Pasteur; Wyeth Lederle; Merck
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The Virus and the Vaccine
The Atlantic Monthly investigates the claim that a simian monkey virus known as SV40 may cause mesothelioma, a rare but pernicious form of cancer. From 1955 to 1963, the polio vaccine was mass produced using monkey kidneys and thus was contaminated with SV40. According to the magazine's investigation, "the presence of SV40 in human tumors has been reported on in more than forty independent research papers" but federal health officials, who cite two studies to the contrary, believe the positive results were caused by laboratory contamination.
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No title (id: 13849)
As Baby Boomers have become parents themselves, the list of vaccines required to fully immunize a child in this country has grown to include 16 immunizations that guard against 11 different diseases, making the vaccine industry a booming business with estimated revenues of more than $1 billion in the U.S. alone, up from $500 million in 1990. Money decided to investigate this rapidly growing business by closely examining two of the vaccines with the longest track records in this country: polio and DPT. Parent trust that producing the safest vaccines possible is a goal that manufacturers will strive for and that federal regulatory agencies will ensure is met on their behalf. Unfortunately, Money's investigation revealed that public trust has been violated. The result: hundreds of previously healthy children needlessly have suffered vaccine-caused death or permanent injury when safer alternative were available. (December, 1996)
Tags: Rock Kirwan The lethal danger of the billion-dollar vaccine business Contest entry 17 pgs.
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No title (id: 13402)
New York magazine investigates the government's early attempts to vaccinate the public against polio. Scientists and public administrators may have acted too quickly, injecting unsuspecting citizens with contaminated batches of the vaccine linked to a monkey virus which is believed to cause cancer.
Tags: Wechsler Shot in the Dark Preventative health care SV40 7 pgs.
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Polio Redux
The Sciences magazine reports that "Decades after the frightening epidemics of the 1940s and the 1950s, some polio survivors are haunted by a troubling new affliction: post-polio syndrome."
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No title (id: 8873)
Rolling Stone Magazine looks at a new theory on the origins of AIDS, which connects the immunization of African children with the polio vaccine in the 1950s to the initial AIDS infections, March 19, 1992.
Tags: NY Curtis Sabin