The Moth in the Iron Lung
A biography of polio
A fascinating account of the world’s most famous disease—polio— told as you have never heard it before. Epidemics of paralysis began to rage in the early 1900s, seemingly out of nowhere.
Doctors, parents, and health officials were at a loss to explain why this formerly unheard of disease began paralyzing so many children—usually starting in their legs, sometimes moving up through their abdomen and arms. For an unfortunate few, it could paralyze the muscles that allowed them to breathe.
The Moth in the Iron Lung is a fascinating biography of this horrible paralytic disease, where it came from, and why it disappeared in the 1950s. If you’ve never explored the polio story beyond the tales of crippled children and iron lungs, this book will be sure to surprise.
Unvaccinated
Why growing numbers of parents are choosing natural immunity for their children
When I first heard that people were purposefully not vaccinating their children, I was shocked. Vaccines have been described as the most incredible medical invention of all time—a miracle of science and technology that has saved the lives of untold millions. I couldn’t believe that seemingly intelligent, educated parents were purposefully foregoing vaccines for their children, and in fact, were so convinced these medical procedures were harming us, they would go out of their way to try to convince others.
I was convinced there was a giant conspiracy to try and discredit vaccines, but after diving headfirst into recent scientific research seldom mentioned in the news, I eventually came to believe much differently about vaccines and the diseases they are supposed to protect us from.
The Autism Vaccine
The story of modern medicine's greatest tragedy.
In the late 1800s, a new disease arrived in North America from Europe and began to claim the lives of children everywhere. Though most today have never even heard of this illness, it would routinely kill over ten thousand children in a single year—more than polio might take in an entire decade. After much trial and tribulation, a shot was developed that helped both those already afflicted with the illness, and those who might one day become infected. But the shot was dangerous, and many parents refused it for their children.
In 1932, a safer version of the shot was developed, but contained a new ingredient never before tried on humans. Due to aggressive immunization campaigns, children all over the country began to receive this shot. Within a year, a new mental disorder—unknown to even the most knowledgeable child psychologists in the country—began to appear. It affected toddlers, and mostly boys. Children were losing the ability to speak and would take little interest in any other humans—even their parents.
The Autism Vaccine chronicles the story of two of these children—one known throughout the world, the other completely unknown until recently—and why modern medicine’s attempts to explain what happened to them have so far come up short.
Forrest Maready is a native of North Carolina and graduate of Wake Forest University, where he studied religion and music.
He spent the early part of his career working in the film, television, and advertising industries as a sound engineer, composer, animator, and editor. He is the author of over a dozen books, many of them stemming from years of medical research.
Be sure to check out all of his books. Available in hard copy and Kindle.