The movie wasn’t afraid to show failure as scientists struggled to race to find an antidote to a global epidemic—a refreshingly honest depiction of science in real life.
Paul A. Offit, MD, is a professor of pediatrics and Director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. His most recent book is Pandora’s Lab: Seven Stories of Science Gone Wrong.
A 6-year-old boy in the state and a clever legal argument in 1979 combined to make Mississippi the nation’s leader in childhood vaccines.
Edward Jenner figured out the connection between smallpox and humans from a milkmaid’s blistered hands. But it turns out cows aren’t actually the key to smallpox immunity.
The unique bacterial DNA of CpG oligonucleotides will reinforce the hepatitis B vaccine and could drop liver cancer rates.
Cytokine storms killed him in 1999, effectively halting gene therapy. But without his death, immunotherapy wouldn’t exist as we know it today.
For older adults, who are often the most vulnerable to severe and occasionally fatal infections, this kind of immune-boosting strategy will be a godsend.