To ask about the greatest invention in human history, I think there is no more invention than the invention of the vaccine.
In the long history of human evolution, we are constantly fighting against various viruses and bacteria, and vaccines have eliminated smallpox, controlled tuberculosis, tetanus, and saved countless lives.
But in the history of medicine, the development of vaccines is also full of challenges to ethics and human rights, and there is a history of extreme cruelty and writing in blood.
To develop a hepatitis B vaccine, the American doctor used the lives of 800 children
As we all know, hepatitis B (HBV) is caused by the hepatitis B virus, which is a DNA virus that belongs to the hepatophilic DNA virus family.
According to the current clinical data, this virus is only susceptible to humans and orangutans, and can induce viral hepatitis B after infection, causing irreversible damage to the liver, and even developing cirrhosis and liver cancer.
In the 1950s, the medical community had already discovered the hepatitis B virus, so it began to try to study the hepatitis B vaccine.
And at that time, the famous American medical scientist Sal. Krugman, known as the "father of the hepatitis B vaccine," was just a surgeon at New York University at the time.
Under the medical and medical conditions at that time, it was difficult to cultivate pathogens artificially, so he began to be mad, let people infected with viruses and then conduct human experiments, so as to carry out experimental vaccine research and development.
(Sal Krugman)
In 1956, the disabled children admitted to Willowbrook State University Hospital in the United States became the subject of their experiments, most of these children are children with mental disorders.
So the doctor and his research team selected 29 children with disabilities aged 2-11, and the team divided the children into two groups, one group of children taking drugs to prevent hepatitis B, and the other group of children in a control group, who were exposed to the hepatitis B virus and did not have any protective measures.
After the experiment officially began, only 1 of the first children to participate in the experiment was not infected with the hepatitis B virus.
Subsequent evidence showed that 29 children were injected with inactivated viral serum, which did not all kill the hepatitis B virus.
Soon, after a few months, the infected child who took the globulin survived, but there were serious sequelae, and the child without medication died quickly.
This ephemeral success stimulated Krugman, who began to become irrational.
In order to artificially infect children with hepatitis and to expand the number of experiments, the hospital began to develop a cruel rule that if parents want to send disabled children here for life and treatment, they must agree to participate in the experiment.
You know, at that time, many parents were tempted by the "sugar-coated shells" in the hospital, as long as they could enter the hospital, they could exchange for a place to enter Willowbrook State University, and they could also reduce the high hospitalization fee, get the best medical opportunities, and avoid the trouble of caring for disabled children.
As a result, this attracts a lot of poor parents to sign the agreement.
(Willowbrook State University Hospital)
In those children who are not infected, inactivated serum injections are tested to test whether immunity is produced and how effective the immunity is.
Krugman injected them with serum from hepatitis B patients who were completely inactivated by heating, and the results showed that 59% of the subjects were fully vaccinated.
In this way, after a series of 16 years of living experiments, Krugman and his team finally succeeded in developing a hepatitis B vaccine.
Since then, Krugman has also been known as the "father of hepatitis B vaccine", and the method of preparing vaccines for vulnerable people's serum has gradually improved since then, and has begun to move towards commercial production.
Until 1981, the first serum hepatitis B vaccine approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was successfully marketed in the United States, which also meant that tens of millions of people were no longer threatened by the hepatitis B virus.
The hepatitis B vaccine began to benefit humanity, and Krugman also received countless flowers and applause, but it was praised by the medical community and buried the lives of at least 800 innocent children.
It wasn't until 1972 that an administrator at the hospital, finally forced by moral condemnation and pressure, revealed this criminal history to the media.
Throughout history, Krugman's contribution was indeed the most crucial step in the human race against the hepatitis B virus, but the premature discovery of the vaccine was so cruel and dehumanizing.
We can't help but wonder: Is this kind of experiment worth it? Do medical advances really need to be driven by such unethical experiments?
Did such a cruel medical experiment come to mind again----
How is this different from the nature of the heinous 731 Unit?