Michael Palmer, M.D.’s book Fatal, while quite entertaining, is well-researched, giving the reader shivers as it explores and dramatizes the important issues surrounding the effects of toxic waste and the dangers surrounding childhood immunizations. According to Barbara Loe Fisher, “it is up to us to tell everyone we know how important it is to read this first-time ever fictionalized expose on the dangers inherent to the mass vaccination system… and we need to do what we can to educate as many people as we can about vaccine risks while the book is still available.” She further adds that Dr. Palmer, who has a son with Asperger’s Syndrome, is very aware that as vaccination rates have climbed, there has been an alarming increase in the incidence of a number of so-called immune-mediated diseases and conditions such as asthma, allergies, juvenile diabetes, and autism.

In Fatal Dr. Palmer features Dr. Michael Rutledge of Belinda, West Virginia, who has returned home following the death of his wife, Ginny, from a rare form of cancer. He is convinced that her death is the result of the local mining company illegally dumping toxic waste into the ground water only adding fuel to his vendetta against the company that he feels is also responsible for the death of his father. As an internist and emergency specialist Dr. Rutledge’s suspicions increase as he notices a recurrence of people being admitted with horrifying Elephant-Man-like symptoms accompanied by a gradual descent into paranoia.

Meanwhile, two women, unknown to each other, are compelled to travel to Belinda and into Matt’s life. The first is Nikki Solari, a
Boston pathologist who comes to attend the funeral of her roommate, Kathy Wilson, who died of the same debilitating disease that Matt had seen in some miners that he had treated in the emergency room. The second is D.C. consumer advocate, Ellen Kroft who in another plot line, is drawn to Belinda in search of an unwelcome visitor, from Belinda, that threatened her granddaughter’s life if Ellen didn’t vote for approval of the new Omnivax vaccine. These three strangers - Rutledge, Solari and Kroft - each hold a piece to a gigantic puzzle that must be solved quickly to prevent injury to untold others while they combat evil on all sides that could cost them their lives. Thankfully, for Matt and the others he has befriended a band of not so backwards mountain men who repeatedly risk their lives to come to his aid as he seeks to uncover the mystery of the Belinda mine. Many other very interesting characters are introduced in this gripping tale of greed, murder and medical mystery that will revive the for and against arguments about vaccination.

As is the case with most of Mr. Palmer’s novels, Fatal has a moral message and in this work, he presents valid arguments against marketing medication without sufficient double blind testing. This being said his research is validated with Sandy Mintz, an Alaska vaccine safety and informed consent advocate, stating that, “we need to recognize this book’s profound potential to impact the public’s blind assumptions about vaccine safety and do what we can to promote it.”

Fatal is a believable and frightening story that will implore you to consider the possible dangers of both toxic waste and childhood immunizations, made even more compelling in the in light of the potential of mandatory mass vaccination for smallpox. What is especially impressive about this work, however, is that, in spite of having a strong agenda, the author never wanes from telling an exciting tale.

[tags]Fatal, Michael Palmer, dangers of childhood immunizations, childhood immunizations, vaccines, toxic waste, mystery, murder, big money, pharmaceutical companies, small pox vaccine[/tags]