SEMMELWEIS SOLUTIONS | 2002-01-05
Doctor Semmelweis was one of many martyrs to science who found that what sounds good is far more important to primitive "experts" than the truth is.
Puerperal Disease, or "childbed fever," killed hundreds of millions of women and children over the weary millennia. All the Medical Intellectuals said puerperal fever came from Imbalanced Humors or (Yes, it was popular centuries ago) from Deep Seated Psychosomatic Causes.
In 1848, a young doctor named Semmelweis found that childbed fever could be stopped if the Great Medical Experts would simply wash their hands before delivering babies. It was the least salable explanation imaginable. It was too simple, too obvious. So, for a generation, millions of women and babies died in agony because the Medical Authorities were unanimously against Semmelweis.
The same thing happened with vaccination.
The same thing happened with the bacterial theory of disease. Millions died while Medical Authority and Intellectuals fought for the Humor Theory of Disease, for which there was no evidence except the fact that Authority supported it.
Like political leftism, the Humor Theory of Disease never worked, but university "intellectuals" in primitive medicine unanimously supported it.
One after another, each one of these common sense Semmelweis Solutions had to be sold over the screams of the Authorities and Intellectuals while millions died.
Medicine only began to be a science when it discredited all the old Intellectuals. A field of study can only be a science when it decides that if you have a cure that WORKS on one side and all the Intellectuals and Authorities on the other, Authority means nothing.
Semmelweis saved a few thousands lives personally. He has saved hundreds of millions since, and he is saving them right now.
But, in his lifetime, this forgotten hero of humanity watched millions die while he wore himself out trying to point out the simple reality that would save them.
Because he loved humanity too much for his own good, Semmelweis died in a madhouse.