Review by Choice Review
Much effort has gone into finding an AIDS vaccine, despite staggering scientific problems. Yet there are problems that supersede science. This book describes in detail how scientists came to the impasse they are facing, explaining plainly the complicated mixture of scientific, business, political, and ethical forces that haphazardly steer the enterprise. Cohen, a journalist who covers science and medicine for Science, offers a solution to the nonscientific problems that, he believes, ultimately would speed the search for a vaccine, possibly reducing the years off the time that it takes to slow HIV. He argues that scientists should approach the problem in a logical, stepwise fashion, testing vaccines in meaningful animal experiments and following up on all promising leads. His book documents how this has not happened to date, and shows the strong forces in the US scientific culture that resist such an approach. The author is convinced that similar problems hamper the search for vaccines against malaria, tuberculosis, and hepatitis C and will hamper vaccine research for new diseases that in the future will suddenly assault populations the way AIDS did in the 1980s. A thoughtful and provocative resource. Undergraduates. J. M. Howe AIDS Information Center, VA Headquarters (DC)
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Cohen thanks his editor for making him appear "smarter, wittier, and more clearheaded" than he really is. Maybe, but Cohen's considerable knowledge of a difficult subject and his engaging sense of humor help, too. Moreover, his lucid limning of the wayward AIDS vaccine story, the supersized egos of many of the actors in it, and the vital minutiae of the steps within it also make him look good. He proceeds chronologically through a search of labyrinthine complexity, full of dead ends, without minimizing its appalling elements. He brings the researchers to life, from such stars as Salk and Gallo to the lesser lights who have often been the real movers. He weaves in the struggles, often precipitated by turf wars, between live-virus vaccine and killed-virus vaccine advocates, between industry and government, between activists and scientists, and between military and civilian researchers. Unfortunately, he shows that good analytic leadership is generally missing from this tremendously expensive endeavor. A well-documented history, international in scope. --William Beatty
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In 1984, overzealous scientists proclaimed they would develop an AIDS vaccine in a mere two years. Now, 16 years later, researchers are still battling the bureaucracy and each other to decide which potential vaccines should be tested and who should pay for the testing. Although Cohen, a veteran science writer (who presently writes for Talk magazine) originally intended to document one year of the vaccine search effort, he quickly realized that "one year doesn't mean anything to AIDS vaccine researchers." Because of a lack of leadership, organization, funding and urgency, it may take a year for some scientists just to raise enough funding to subsidize their work. As Cohen notes, many of the major pharmaceutical companiesÄfrightened by the liabilities and low profit margins of vaccine researchÄhave pulled out, leaving scientists to vie for limited government support. Unfortunately, the researchers controlling the federal purse strings, though distinguished, often harbor conventional views about how to approach vaccine research. Therefore, innovative approaches, such as engineering or deleting viral proteins and genes, are often disregarded as either too elaborate or too risky to warrant funding. The competition for grants promotes rivalry among scientists, a rivalry that Clinton hoped to quell when he announced his vision of a "Manhattan Project" for AIDS in 1992. Although the project never materialized, there has been a recent increase in federal funding for AIDS research that Cohen hopes will inspire the testing of promising vaccines. An insightful glimpse of a fractured but important process, this highly readable, thorough account may engage and spur AIDS activists and scientists to form a united front against a pervasive disease. 8 pages of photos not seen by PW. First serial to The Sciences; 5-city author tour. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
While popular fear and urgency has declined since the early years of the AIDS epidemic, the success of various treatments in improving the quality and duration of the lives of AIDS patients may only have lulled the public into a false sense of security. Already there is evidence that the virus has developed resistance to certain drugs, and in many parts of the world it still rages unchecked. Ten years ago, science reporter Cohen (Science and Talk magazines) began this book intending to document the story of the discovery of an AIDS cure. Today, his story is instead a chronicle of the failure to do so, owing to a combination of bad scientific research, haphazard leadership, and obstructive political and economic agendas. The author's exhaustive sources include scientific literature, company reports, and hundreds of personal interviews. Despite this book's harsh criticisms, Cohen's purpose is not to muckrake but to issue a wakeup call. This engaging story with a vital message is recommended for all libraries.DGregg Sapp, SUNY at Albany Science Lib. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A spirited and wide-ranging inquiry into the scientific communitys failure, after nearly 20 years, to put an end to AIDS. Across the world, 16,000 people become infected with HIV every day; in sub-Saharan Africa alone, nearly 30 million suffer from the ravaging disease. Such numbers, Science journalist Cohen writes, are obviously horrific. Yet, he believes, most Americans have lost whatever interest they may have once had in the problem of AIDS: With the advent of powerful cocktails of anti-HIV drugs in the late 1990s, journalists began trumpeting the idea that AIDS was history, which the American public readily accepted. Those cocktails have led to falling death rates in populations lucky enough to have them, but the author suggests that the world at large might likely be free of AIDS had a vaccine been developed through the concerted efforts of government, industry, and academia. That vaccine hasnt been created for many reasons, among them an appalling level of ignorance (the Reagan administrations top health officer was apparently shocked to discover that homosexuals engage in anal intercourse), interagency rivalries, a lack of bold leadership or coordinated efforts, and the unwillingness of the pharmaceutical industry to turn its attention to a marginal profit center. By contrast, the author observes that Jonas Salk did not wait for the discovery of the ideal polio vaccine to begin treating patients, and he enjoyed the support of a vast organization (led by the March of Dimes) as well. Cohen invites us to consider what might have happened had similar research mandates and support been applied to AIDSan unlikelihood, he admits, given the fact that the US has created a scientific culture that looks askance at targeted research programs. A worthy addition to the body of popular literature on AIDS research.
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Review by Choice Review
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