Review – A Paralyzing Fear

Suffering, dying children and medical experiments on live monkeys? I must just have had too much joy in my life when I sat down to watch this documentary about Polio in America. On the other hand, at least it was a reasonably well-assembled piece of work, a good example of what university filmmakers can accomplish with a little time and effort. I was especially impressed by the use of interviews and family pictures, particularly of the woman who to this day still lives in an iron lung. The only part that bugged me – other than the suffering, of course – was the odd, repeated emphasis on the lack of government oversight as a boon to Salk's vaccine development. I think I understand what they were trying to say, but after awhile it developed the flavor of drug company anti-regulation propaganda. Mildly amusing