via Dandolo 68Rome, ItalyJul y 19, 1955

C. HENRY KEMPE, M. D.UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA HOSPITAL

THIRD AND PARNASSUS AVENUES

SAN FRANCISCO 22,CALIFORNIAMONTROSE 4-.3600

Dr. Albert Sabin, DirectorChildrens HospitalResearch FoundationCi.ncincia.ti , Ohio

Dear Dr. Sabin:

When I read of your testim ony at the Senate Hearings in the Rome DailyAm erican last week, I felt like sending you a nice long telegram ofcongratulations. Two things intervened: one, I could not find thetelegram off ice that under stood what I had in mind, and (2) when Ifinally got it down on paper it wo uld have cost $15.00. Knowing mystraits on sabbatical, I thought you would understand if I wrote youa lette r instead.

Basically, of course, I feel that scientific opiruons on any matte r shouldnot be put to a vote as such. As I wrote to Dr. Shaw in San Fra nciscojust now, if nine experts vote that 1 pllus one equals thre e, and one expertvotes that one plus one equals two, the majority has not thereby carri-edits point. What is called for, therefore, in all such matters of diverseopinion is a sta tement 0 f belief on the part 0 f each of us and just that.I see no merit in countin g up hands because the number of hands pre sentat a particular me eting do not equate End er s , Sab in, and Hammond.

As Dr. Stokes will probably have told you, on Wednesday prec eding theSaturday meeting of the Na tional Foundation and the Pub lic Health Servicewith the Aca demy of Pediatrics, a meetin g was held in Quebec by theAcademy's expert Committee on Immunization which Dr. Aims McGuinnessnow heads and which Dr. Edwar d Shaw 0 f San Franc isco will take ove rsome tim e this fall. Present were, in a dditio n to the 9 or llIDmem bers ofthe Committee, Dr. Stokes and Dr. St eigma n, as well as all the membersof the previous comm ittee which we nt out of office a yea r ago. This entiregroup of almost 20 people concurred th at all vaccination should be stoppedfor the present. Dr. Bost and D r , Christopher so n of t he Academy andDr. McGuinness wer e instructed to send a newsletter to Academy membersthe following M on day to that effect. I do not yet k now if such a new slette rwent out, but I do know that on Saturday at th e National Fou nd ation meetingthe Academ y was stated as agreeing t ha t vacc ination should continue. T heexa ct wording in the Ne w Yor k Times, I belie vel was that the exp ertsof the Academy, as represented by its Pres ident and Secretary and Chairmanof t he Committee on 1m muniz a tion agr ee d that va cc ination s ho uld conti nue.

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I have just written to Dr. Shaw and Dr. Stokes to ask them what reallyhappened to change the min d and in validate the Quebec decis ion of theAcademy. I firmly beli eve the Aca de my has failed miserably in it sobligation to its membe rship in supplying basic scientif ic information wh illwas readily availa ble through members of the Comm ittee in all these fields.Rather, they fe It that if they stayed out 0 f it altogether thi ngs w ill clarify.Well, things of cour se bec arne incr ea singly complex. In add ition tothe immense confusion of virologists ther e is a much greater confusionamong pediatricians, as you well know. With this in mind, I would liketo ask you this:

The journal of the Academy:: ttpediatri cs' has a column in by Dr. PaulHarper called "The Ped ia t r icia.n and the Pub ltc ", A t the Que bec mee tingDr. Janeway and I discu ss ed that this column would be ideally suitablefor im mediate publication to Am er ican pediatricians of such scientificand nons cient.ific data as anyone would care to make available to themember ship. Dr. Harper, I under stand, would welcome such acomm unication address ed to him. I have toyed on the way over herewith the idea of doing th is myself but I decided not to do so for onlyoen reason- -I sim ply do not know enough, since all my knowledge issecond hand and comes from talking to people like Dr. Enders, Rob bins,Weller, Koprowski, Smadel, etc. etc. While I have considerable expe rience,unfortuna tel y, with inoculatio n polio, sin ce w e have had six ca ses of ourown a s well as two contact cases in San Fra ncisco , it is likely that Iwould not do aver y good job.

On the other hand, you have now publicly acknowledged you r stand on thismatter, which has been consistent throughout the Exp ert Commit teemeetings and is now before the public at large--medical and otherwise.

dr , Koprowski has ju st sent me a copy of the Foundation's reply to yourtestimony. Leaving all this aside, would it not be possible for you towrite a communication to Dr. Harper's column dealin g with the scientificaspects of formaldehyde -inacti vated vaccine and covering such points as:(1) the straight line inactivation vs , the gradual extin ction curve(2) problems of disbursing virus particles(3) formaldehyde inoculatio n(4) problems of adequate aliquots and quantit y of a liq uots in safety testing(5) kinds of safety tests employe d and relative sensitivity(6) comparison of safety tests employe in the field tr ial in recent monthsas well as the newest safety tests employed.(7) the experience of Sweden and Denmark in regard to vacc inations int hespring season.

Some members of the official family of the A cademy council h ave toldme that though such information is not of interest of Aca demy membersindividual members by the score have told that they would greatly desireto have such information which is now available to them only indirec tlythrough the public press.

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I hope you will do this, but if you will not or cannot, perhaps you willinduce Dr. Stokes to do so. Per sonally, I feel that in line with yourpaper s at the AMA me eting and your testiznony before the Senate Cornrn itt eethis would be a desirable step fr orn your point of view, because it wouldgive you an imrne di.a.te syzn pathetic audience arn ong the people who knowyou best in Ame r ic an pediatrics who, at the sarn e tim e , are very desirousof having such inforznation fr orn a source other than the Foundation pressreleases.

Please accept zny sincere congratulations for such a siznple thing asspeaking your rnirid freely, which appears to have become a lostvirtue in the field of virology in recent years.

Very good regards,

C. Henry Kempe , M. D.July 19, 1955San Francisco