The Moth in the Iron Lung: A Biography of Polio Paperback – June 5, 2018

Read in my kindle app. Held my attention the entire time. I feel wiser after reading this. More grounded in my choices and understanding of vaccines

I just finished this book last night and wow, what a fascinating yet tragic read. Maready takes us back to 1835 when the first cases of infantile paralysis appeared but were completely rare until the summer of 1894 when it struck with a vengeance. The number of cases escalated in different communities and with varying symptoms through the years, reaching a peak in the US in 1952 and fading out through 1957. Experiments with polio vaccines began in 1935, with a still completely ineffective and in many cases harmful version in 1955. The first live polio vaccine was not approved until 1963, when the polio outbreaks were already past. Corresponding with the rise in poliomyelitis cases was the use of Paris Green, Lead Arsenate, and DDT – all used to the extreme in an attempt to kill the gypsy moth which was a plague of Biblical proportions in Massachusetts, as well as the potato bug which was making its way eastward from central U.S. As polio cases were rising the cause was still unknown but suspected to be carried by flies or mosquitoes, so the application of pesticides increased even more. (Can you believe they would actually sprinkle DDT powder directly on children, animals, and their food! And for a while, victims of polio were treated with mercury pills!?!) Only a few doctors and scientists along the way theorized that the ingested metals and pesticides may be the suspect, but eventually, in the early 50’s, the harmful effects of DDT were undeniable and it was finally being discouraged from use. We know now these harmful chemicals are capable of creating cell membrane dysfunction in the intestines, allowing enterovirus infections to work their way out and into adjacent spinal cord tissue where lesions then develop, causing paralysis and other terrifying symptoms. The author concludes with a modern-day example of a similar phenomenon, the Zika virus. He reflects on the fact that , “Humans prefer a heroic story rather than one of dismal failure.” We seem bent on crediting doctors with a cure rather than admit the cause was man-made all along. Read this chilling book for yourself and see if it doesn’t shake the foundations of what you think you know about medial science and what we’ve been trained to believe.

My Mom and her little sister were victims of polio in the late 40's. Her little sister was horribly crippled and ended up in an iron lung, and mercifully perhaps only survived a few years.This account of medical history at that time, as well as the insane use of arsenic and DDT is just horrific, really. Early medicine is the stuff of nightmares. I was curious to find out more about the disease that affected my Mom's life so much. She had periods of grief over her little sister off and on throughout her life.I'm glad I came across this book, however, because it is so enlightening. Well written, compelling - I could go on. I couldn't put it down.

I’m almost 60 years old and was ignorant to the impact of pesticides during the polio era in the mid 1900’s. I recall my parents fear that my sister and I would contract it and Salk and Sabin’s vaccines were the sole reason polio was retreating. Ironically, the middle school (junior high back then) was named after Salk. Forrest Maready provides an eye-opening revelation to the deleterious effect that lead arsenate and DDT on the world.

There are certain mysteries in life, and for me, one of them was, where the heck did polio appear from? It wasn’t an issue in revolutionary times or before, so where did it come from? It just evolved out of nowhere? Why did it have such strange outbreak patterns?This book does much to answer this question. If anything, it could have even more detail on the populations where the “polio” virus is found that don’t have polio at all. Otherwise, well-written and cogent.This asks a lot of questions that haven’t been asked. If you go and debate people on social media, you will find they don’t have answers, just assumptions.

This booklist fascinating because it highlights the hubris humans have toward our scie ce and technologies. Even if the common story of polio is true, this book highlights the shocking absurdity of heavy metal use in medicine and pesticides. Truly and eye opening book.