Monkey business
Years ago, when I took several
courses in research methods and statistics, my professors invariably stressed
that the number of persons (experimental subjects) tested in an experiment
depends on several factors. One such factor is the amount of certainty
the experimenter desires for his findings. On life and death matters, one
would not be satisfied with 10-to-1 odds but perhaps with million-to-one
odds. The more certain the experimenter wants to be about his findings,
the larger his sample size must be.
One of my professors pointed
out that the largest experiment involving human beings called for the participation
of 1,830,000 children. This experiment, which took place in 1954, was the
field test for the Salk anti-polio vaccine. A year later, the results showed
that the vaccine was successful, and the US Department of Health, Education
and Welfare prepared to inoculate about 30 million children.
The Philippines is not about
to inoculate that many children against polio, but it hopes to eliminate
polio from the Philippines altogether by 1995.
President Ramos has called
for a cease-fire for children on April 21 and May 19. If government troops
and insurgents do not do any fighting on these days, health workers will
be able to immunize children in areas that have been isolated by the fighting.
The children are to be vaccinated against polio, measles, pertussis, tuberculosis,
diphtheria and tetanus.
Polio appears to be receiving
special attention. Thursday's newspapers carried photographs of President
and Mrs. Ramos, Health Secretary Juan Flavier, Unicef executive director
James Grant -- and two infants who had been immunized against polio.
Polio has been around for
quite some time. An Egyptian stele dating back to 1500 B.C. shows a young
man with a withered leg -- a symptom of polio.
The vaccine was developed
by Dr. Jonas E. Salk, who was approached in 1948 by the National Foundation
for Infant Paralysis. The foundation was headed by Basil O'Connor, a flamboyant
Wall Street lawyer, who did not limit his activities to raising funds.
Part of the experimental
work consisted of administering the experimental vaccines into monkeys,
then having them ingest the polio virus -- and then observing whether or
not these monkeys developed polio.
When research work on the
vaccine was delayed because there were not enough monkeys to test the vaccine
on, O'Connor launched ``a massive monkey business,'' which imported monkeys
from abroad and facilitated the export clearances of these monkeys from
their countries of origin. O'Connor imported about 17,000 monkeys.
A major source of these
monkeys was -- you guessed it! -- the Philippines.