Infected by Science, by Sydney Halpern
Bioethicist Sydney Halpern was researching her book, Dangerous Medicine, on a U.S. government program to inject hepatitis viruses into human subjects, a project to learn about the disease’s transmission and develop treatments. She discovered records from an Army camp where World War II conscientious objectors voluntarily submitted to hepatitis injections and cartoons drawn by one of those volunteers, some of them for the camp newsletter.
The cartoons by that young man, David H. Miller, became inspiration for Halpern’s “graphic narrative,” Infected by Science. Working with illustrator Trggve Fast, Halpern gives a plausible account of that wartime project, admittedly fictionalized in spots (like a Hollywood movie “based on a true story”).
Combating the illness’ spread among GIs was the reason for the hepatitis experiment, but the use of human guinea pigs was more problematic than scientists had planned. Many participants developed cancer as a long-term outcome. Even this was better than a project occurring at the same time, the Mengele-like “Tuskegee Experiment” in which Black men were injected with syphilis and given no treatment. Infected by Science will spread Halpern’s research beyond academia to the general, graphic-reading public.
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