I'm usually hesitant to condemn pre-modern medicine even at its craziest, with how few tools doctors had to get any signal out of the massive amount of noise...this has caused me to update in the direction of "even the better, more scientifically-minded doctors were a bit wacky."
And yeah, the amount of coercion involved in the eradication campaign is definitely discomforting in a "this deeply violates some of my core values while also being a triumph of some of my other core values" way.
Your mention of Henderson as "one of the greatest heroes of the 20th century" made me think of something that occurred to me a few days ago, which is that if you look at the great modern heroes, the ones who've saved the most people, each of them was fighting one specific Horseman of the Apocalypse. People like Henderson and Fleming fought Pestilence, Petrov and Arkhipov fought war, and Borlaug fought Famine.
The leak killed a woman who worked in a room near the lab. Bedson killed himself three weeks after she was infected. She was still alive when he cut his throat, but her condition was horrific.
Bedson wrote in his suicide note: "I am sorry to have misplaced the trust which so many of my friends and colleagues have placed in me and my work."
Really curious how much of this is true and how much April Fools!
I scrolled down to the end to try to find out, because I didn't want to contaminate my brain with clever and interesting facts that turned out to be an April Fools' joke!
But you never told us.
And no link to that classic EA tearjerker story? You know the one I mean. I thought it'd be in here somewhere!
> It was the Devil who had smitten Job with boils; this affliction was obviously smallpox and therefore the Devil had been the first to give the disease deliberately, that is, to inoculate. Alternative diagnoses were ignored, as was the later use of the same trick by Moses.
Whoa... Later use by Moses? Later than Job? I didn't know he was a time traveler.
"A statue of Jenner was put up in Trafalgar Square. After four years, the anti-vaxxers got it removed to an obscure part of Kensington Garden. Now there's just an empty plinth in Trafalgar Square."
Those are unconnected facts, surely? I mean, a) they moved the Jenner statue and b) there is indeed an empty plinth in Trafalgar Square, but it's not like they built the statue on that plinth and left it there after they moved the statue. The above is a bit like "Spike In Murder Rate After Release of Controversial Video Game".
Fascinating stuff.
I'm usually hesitant to condemn pre-modern medicine even at its craziest, with how few tools doctors had to get any signal out of the massive amount of noise...this has caused me to update in the direction of "even the better, more scientifically-minded doctors were a bit wacky."
And yeah, the amount of coercion involved in the eradication campaign is definitely discomforting in a "this deeply violates some of my core values while also being a triumph of some of my other core values" way.
Mandatory link to the classic EA tearjerker story, since this post made me think of it:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/jk7A3NMdbxp65kcJJ/500-million-but-not-a-single-one-more
This probably qualifies as pathetic, but I quite literally cried the first time I read that.
I did too - it is a tearjerker all right. Anyone who doesn’t cry at that has no soul.
Your mention of Henderson as "one of the greatest heroes of the 20th century" made me think of something that occurred to me a few days ago, which is that if you look at the great modern heroes, the ones who've saved the most people, each of them was fighting one specific Horseman of the Apocalypse. People like Henderson and Fleming fought Pestilence, Petrov and Arkhipov fought war, and Borlaug fought Famine.
Who, then, will fight the Pale Horse?
Why not you!
> The last smallpox deaths were from a lab leak in 1978 [...]
I'm confused by this part; the quoted passage doesn't describe anyone dying of smallpox, and it's not explained why Bedson committed suicide?
The leak killed a woman who worked in a room near the lab. Bedson killed himself three weeks after she was infected. She was still alive when he cut his throat, but her condition was horrific.
Bedson wrote in his suicide note: "I am sorry to have misplaced the trust which so many of my friends and colleagues have placed in me and my work."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_smallpox_outbreak_in_the_United_Kingdom
Really curious how much of this is true and how much April Fools!
I scrolled down to the end to try to find out, because I didn't want to contaminate my brain with clever and interesting facts that turned out to be an April Fools' joke!
But you never told us.
And no link to that classic EA tearjerker story? You know the one I mean. I thought it'd be in here somewhere!
All these facts are true facts! I forgot that April 1 was April Fool's.
It's not over yet!
Well happy April Fools then!
I guess the April Fools joke was that there wasn't one!
> It was the Devil who had smitten Job with boils; this affliction was obviously smallpox and therefore the Devil had been the first to give the disease deliberately, that is, to inoculate. Alternative diagnoses were ignored, as was the later use of the same trick by Moses.
Whoa... Later use by Moses? Later than Job? I didn't know he was a time traveler.
Job's older than Moses, I think, if you go off when the books were written.
Wow this blew my mind! Really?
Big if true.
Though I'm not sure that use of "later" works in context.
Yeah, I think it's the oldest book in the Bible. But of course, you're right, even then it's a weird use of "later"
To paraphrase Alice in Wonderland, if it's the oldest, it ought to be the first book!
"A statue of Jenner was put up in Trafalgar Square. After four years, the anti-vaxxers got it removed to an obscure part of Kensington Garden. Now there's just an empty plinth in Trafalgar Square."
Those are unconnected facts, surely? I mean, a) they moved the Jenner statue and b) there is indeed an empty plinth in Trafalgar Square, but it's not like they built the statue on that plinth and left it there after they moved the statue. The above is a bit like "Spike In Murder Rate After Release of Controversial Video Game".
Actually, the plinth (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_plinth) isn't empty. It was for a long time, but mostly not since 2005. (The book was published in 2010.)
But yes, whether it's empty or not, I believe the Jenner statue was never on that plinth.
You're right, and I actually knew that, just mangled it above! It's now basically the Temporary Display Plinth, isn't it?
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