Word: langmuir
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Million Shots. Vaccines of the general type developed by Dr. Salk have been widely used only in the U.S., Canada, Denmark, Australia and Israel. Noting 1956's 50% drop in polio in the U.S., the U.S. Public Health Service's Dr. Alexander Langmuir saw increasingly good results ahead: "With increasing immunization of the population under 40, a steady reduction in paralytic cases can be confidently anticipated." Denmark, long hard-hit by polio, had the brightest progress report: 99% of children up to the age of nine and 90% of all Danes aged ten to 40 have had shots...
Historically, the critics are right. The technological advances of the past century have stemmed from uncommitted experimentation. As G.E.'s Nobel Prizewinning Irving Langmuir points out: "Only a small part of scientific progress has resulted from a planned search for specific objectives. A much more important part has been made possible by the freedom of the scientist to follow his own curiosity in search of truth...
...verdict was that the vaccine was generally safe and effective. Normally cautious Epidemiologist Alexander Langmuir of the U.S. Public Health Service reported, on the basis of returns from eleven states plus New York City, that the vaccine had been 75% effective, or better, in preventing paralytic polio among children in the five-to-nine age group, even though many had received only one or two inoculations instead of the desired three...
Eastern Mystery. Dr. Langmuir was forthright in listing cases where something went wrong. Among those who got vaccine made by California's Cutter Laboratories, 79 developed polio; so did 105 members of their families and 20 "com munity contacts." Three-fourths of the cases were paralytic; there were eleven deaths. Vaccine from a second manufacturer, Pennsylvania's Wyeth Laboratories, was suspected of responsibility for an unstated number of polio cases in the East, but the most rigorous testing by the federal Division of Biologic Standards failed to demonstrate live virus. These cases remained a disguieting mystery...
...started chain reactions. Not all meteorologists will accept this conclusion. Vincent Schaefer, developer of Dry Ice cloud-seeding, says that Project Scud proves only that seeding of one type produces no startling results. It does not prove that other efforts would be ineffective His former boss, Nobel Prizewinner Irving Langmuir, asked to participate in Project Scud, but was refused...