My mother was born in 1915, amazingly giving birth to me in her mid-forties. She lost a few childhood friends and relatives to diseases before vaccines were developed. She had her tonsils removed with ether as the anaesthesia; she had a deep foot wound treated before there were antibiotics. One interesting story she told me was her little brother developing an ear infection. A family doctor recommended a mastoid operation, but said the boy could lose his hearing in that ear. When my grandmother hesitated, the doctor said trials were being done with a new medication at a nearby research hospital. I think it was Emory University. My grandmother took her son, my mother’s brother, to that facility and they gave him a treatment that cleared up his ear infection. The treatment was penicillin, which was discovered in 1928 by Alexander Fleming at Saint Mary’s Hospital in London. At that time, U.S. citizens had the good sense to trust scientists and physicians more than politicians and charlatans.

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