How far would you go to help wipe out one of the world’s deadliest infections? Sam Pietsh went all the way: allowing himself to be infected with the swine flu vaccine in the name of medical research. What follows is Pietsh’s account of the dangerous strain as told to Raad Alawan.

In 1974, I was studying for my master’s degree in public health from the University of Michigan, a research and teaching institute perhaps most famous for being the site of research and development of polio vaccine.

Testing was being done on a swine flu vaccine at that time. The research had reached the stage at which “human subject” trials were needed in order to judge the effectiveness of the vaccine. This was an “attenuated virus” vaccine, meaning that it was made from weakened, but still living, influenza strains of the type expected to be involved in the next disease outbreak. The theory was that causing a mild form of the disease would stimulate the immune system of a healthy person to overwhelm the invading virus, thereby creating a lasting resistance to the genetic code of that strain were it to be encountered again.

That was the theory. In order to test it, the school put up a notice offering to pay approved volunteers to allow administration of the vaccine and to permit monitoring of its effects. I believe the remuneration was $75, which, to a grad student in those days, would buy food for half a month. Count me in!

A physician who was supervising the program gave volunteers a health screening. While my health and vitality have, of course, faded somewhat in the intervening 35 years, when I was 22 I was in great condition, and certainly did not fear catching a bit of a cold, or whatever it was they warned us about before having us sign the paperwork.

One of the features of this vaccine was that it was capable of being administered orally. Sugar cubes were inoculated with the virus, and each volunteer ate a couple of the cubes under the supervision of the lab’s staff. The agreement was that we would show up at appointed times over the next two weeks for blood draws and evaluation. We got half of the money at the beginning, and were promised the other half at the conclusion of the trial.

Nothing happened for the first few days. I assumed that I wouldn’t have any reaction, just as if I’d had a shot for chicken pox or polio. I went back for my first blood draw feeling fine. I don’t remember the doctor’s name, but I thought it was curious that he smoked, didn’t say much, and eyed me cautiously when I told him I felt no symptoms

Then the sky fell in. This was not the gradual onset of a cold, with the scratchy throat, the slight loss of energy … am I sick? Maybe not … Oh no. This was what getting run over by a bus might feel like, or even look like. One day I was ok. The next I couldn’t get out of bed, or breathe, or even talk. I was single and lived alone that summer, which is lucky for everyone else who knew me. The fever was so intense that I sweated until I was dehydrated. The body ache and intestinal pain made me want to call an ambulance, except that I knew there was no way I could use the telephone, or remember my name or address.

I may have been semi-conscious for a day or two. Certainly I didn’t eat or drink anything for the first couple of days. The effort to get out of bed was so taxing that I thought I was having a nightmare. Bizarre, disjointed thoughts ran through my head, and I couldn’t tell if I were awake or dreaming. Imagine being mugged while suffering from a horrible case of sea-sickness. This was much worse.

After several days, the hallucinatory period ended, and I started to feel like I should try to stand up, or drink some tea, or at least go outside. My next follow-up appointment at the lab was at hand. I lived 2 blocks from the school, so it only took about 3 hours for me to drag myself to the lab. The smoking doctor was there waiting for me, with his brushcut hair and lab coat. Again, he avoided small talk and eye contact, although I could see him assessing me the way a scientist would look at a lab rat that had been given neurotoxin.

The doctor asked me how I had been feeling, which tipped me off that something was crazy about this experiment. As I sat there, I was still sicker than I had ever been, although this was nothing compared to the last few days. He could see that I was half-dead. How HAD I been doing!? I think he knew. I think he very well knew.

Over the next few days, I fought off what by then felt like a very bad cold. My band played at fraternity parties and the like on weekends, and the timing of this was such that the first weekend, I wasn’t sick yet, and by the next weekend I was merely semi-comatose. I don’t recommend to anyone that they try to play the saxophone without being able to breathe or swallow, but that’s what I remember doing. Another $25 or $30 for that gig, probably. Couldn’t pass that up….

I didn’t lose much weight, because in those days I was 5′11″ and about 145 pounds. With the passing years, one of those measurements has shrunk a bit, and the other is WAY up. I did lose a good bit of blood, however. The taciturn doctor with the Marlboro stuck to his lip took lots of tubes of blood, and kept stealing glances at me when he thought I was looking away. Was he amazed that I had survived? One funny footnote: when he was done with the last blood draw on the final day (I felt OK by then), he paid me the balance of the volunteer fee IN CASH from a roll in his pocket! I never told my parents about any of this.

As far as the results, I wasn’t privy to that information. I can tell you with a high degree of certainty that the vaccine I took in that dosage was never given to another human being, other than perhaps as an enhanced interrogation tool in wartime. In any event, as I understand it, there never was an epidemic of swine flu in the ’70s, at least not like the one they anticipated, and that vaccine wouldn’t work against the current H1N1 variant that is going around.

I suspect that the experiment was shelved. The volunteers weren’t introduced to one another, so I don’t know how others fared. I wouldn’t do that again even for twice $75. Influenza remains a potent killer, claiming about 35,000 lives in the United States each year. Most of the victims are the very young and very old, or those with weakened immune systems. Because the virus mutates and adapts so quickly, no single vaccine can prevent all forms. There are a few drugs available to help with the symptoms, but they don’t prevent the disease. The best advice is: don’t catch influenza. Stay away from people who have it. And never, NEVER, volunteer to be given a lethal disease by a doctor who chain smokes and pays cash!