Shots in the Dark: The Wayward Search for an AIDS Vaccine

by Jon Cohen

Book Overview

When scientists proved in 1984 that HIV causes AIDS, a vaccine race spun into action. But the sprint to develop an AIDS vaccine now more closely resembles a crawl. Jon Cohen elucidates the forces that... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393050270
• ISBN13: 9780393050271
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 440 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.5" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Impressive

The book is nothing short of a fantastic account of the events which have shaped policy and prejudice of the AIDS anatomy and policy. At first the chapter all about Saul was wierd. Wondering where is the author leading me, and the chapter on the companies in it for PURE profit, and not creating ANYTHING worth publising. And of course you can't leave out the workings of a beaurocratic government (HA)! I had to drop the book after about 3/4 through it just because it started to write/read like a history book - which is why it gets four stars instead of five. As far as content and points of view (unbiased) it was GREAT and would recommend to anyone interested in POLICY of governments, companies, public view, and history of expirments shaping the AIDS vaccine (or should I say cure since there will never be a true "vaccine").

An excellent, readable overview of vaccine research

Jon Cohen is probably the most knowledgable journalist on the topic of HIV vaccines and has been following developments in this area for over a decade. He's had unparalleled access to people working in the field and it shows in this well organized history of the search for an HIV vaccine. I used to work in this area of research and, although there are issues where I have quibbled with the author, I can think of no better introduction to the field and the key issues that have shaped it. Cohen has been uniquely able to maintain the trust and respect of key people working in the field, while also raising important social and scientific issues. The result is a thoughtful, relatively thorough chronology that is also readable and concise. At a more personal level, the book brought back many forgotten controversies and issues that formed the background for almost a decade of my own work. The writing is that vivid, while also maintaining a high standard of scientific journalism.

They themselves are the experiment

Buy this book, read it, and pass it on to a friend. In short, make it infections, as it is one of the best hopes for `enlightened' men to capture the future.This is a massive journalistic endeavor for a single man to mount, set against the hurdles of the decidedly clubby world of big-money medicine and ten-plus years of the Byzantine complexities of many different scientific disciplines, not one. Its factual, story-to-tell approach, is a breath of fresh air in a miasma of empty government panel reports, obtuse scientific ramblings, sensationalist hardcopy, and necessarily overstated activist rancor. For those who take time with it, it works its way, not "into your face", but slowly into your heart. For the less passionate, however, it is not clear, that this book, stoutly rendered by Cohen and W.W.Norton, carries its burden of proof, in all cases. Where are the numbers? We read that vaccine research persistently remained at 10% of the overall NAIAD budget, but, W.W., a data table would have been nice. The same with the grant evaluation-success rates and total project funding(s), and other small things here and there. But these points hardly sacrifice the whole. The broader picture and point to be made is overwhelmingly clear: Physician, help thyself! Alternatively, one might call it, "When bad things happen to really, really smart people."This realization builds from page to page with almost every conflict and with almost every story of pursuit recounted. **The "endless frontier" of medicine-man-directed-science has not been expansive enough to include the basic, fundamental lessons of process science, risk bearing and decision making under uncertainty, strategic planning, and public relations.** It is no accident that Jonas Salk's last recounted wish is for "better ways", and the attentive reader will find similar hints or cries for help from other scientists as well.Since 1981, it is a time for *war*, man against microbe. These scientists seem to miss the lessons of the *harsh*, *daily* reality that THEY AND THEIR ETHOS *ARE* THE EXPERIMENT! This is true, notwithstanding, of course, of the great "Nobel prize experiment", that perniciously hangs like a collaboration-distracting "mirror, mirror" amid the lab-rats. At other times, the profession also seems oddly self-aware, as the paucity of those interested in putting themselves in harm's way of such a dashing "experiment" is laid bare, for example, while the directorship for the new NIH Vaccine Center goes unwanted. Now, in 2001, the field seems blood red and who will say which fault belongs to whom? Who could fault the NIH, who, after all, have only the power to subsidize? Who could fault the politicians, who thought the scientists had it "under control (at least contained, ahem!) and adequately funded"? Who could continue to fault the system, when incremental changes have been made? Finally, what Prince will come at the end to say, "And I, for winking at your discords too,

Search for an AIDS vaccine

Jon Cohen has written an absolutely masterful history of the search for an Aids vaccine. His book poses all the right questions. He explores all the political and scientific issues that have affected this long journey to a vaccine. His research is exhaustive and the book is well documented. It reads as the very best kind of scientific adventure tale. It is the best account that I have read about this disease and the people who have tried to unravel its mysteries.