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1. About Dr Posner's attribution of a Nobel prize to Jonas Salk in Modern Biology:
Yes, I know, Salk never got a Nobel Prize. The whole problem with Salk vaccine, Koprowski vaccine, Sabin vaccine, and all the rest of the polio vaccines was that they were half-assed and caused disease and controversy. Hence, no Nobel for de Salkman. For more on this subject, read Edward Hooper's The River, a nonfiction book that came out in 1999, ISBN 0 316 37261 7. Hooper's condemnation of Koprowski is almost paralyzing in its bulldog-like shaking of Koprowski's reputation. I knew all about Koprowski because I went to Penn, but that was mostly a coincidence. Maybe Hoooper's book will popularize the subject. I recently saw a newspaper article that said that OPV's (oral polio vaccines) were being withdrawn from the marketplace by Government directive (late 1999) and IPV's (injectible vaccine) would be used again. Get this: The Government told the doctors that they could continue to use any stocks of OPV's they had on hand!!!! Can you believe that? For even better material on this subject, look on the Web for articles by Tom Curtis and by Louis Pascal, material available at the Wollongang website; just surf toward Wollongang e.g. www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Pascal91.html.
Getting back to the play, and Dr Posner: The point here is that, while Salk never got a Nobel prize, everybody thinks he did. The accuracy of the play lies in the depiction of what a guy like Dr Posner, a real scholar even, has in his head.
Richard Katz
BTW, I'm not providing any anchors to get back to where you were in the play. Too much trouble. Just hit your Back button in your browser, and then do a Find for "mutant". That'll work.
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