You Bet Your Life: From Blood Transfusions to Mass Vaccination, the Long and Risky History of Medical Innovation (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781541604926)

From one of America's top physicians, a "riveting," "fascinating," and "timely" (Nature) history of risk in medicine 

Every medical decision--whether to have chemotherapy, an X-ray, or surgery--is a risk, no matter which way you choose. In You Bet Your Life, physician Paul A. Offit argues that, from the first blood transfusions four hundred years ago to the hunt for a COVID-19 vaccine, risk has been essential to the discovery of new treatments. More importantly, understanding the risks is crucial to whether, as a society or as individuals, we accept them. 
  
Told in Offit's vigorous and rigorous style, You Bet Your Life is an entertaining history of medicine. But it also lays bare the tortured relationships between intellectual breakthroughs, political realities, and human foibles. As we have learned from the COVID pandemic--the debates over lockdowns, masks, and vaccines--it's all too easy to get everything wrong. Updated with a new introduction, You Bet Your Life is an essential read for getting the future a bit more right. 

Author: Paul A. Offit
ISBN-10: 154160492X
ISBN-13: 9781541604926
Publisher: Basic Books
Language: English
Published: 05/14/2024
Pages: 272
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.54lbs
Size: 8.07h x 5.52w x 0.75d