The Miracle of Modern Medical Research

Marian L. TupyHumanity has suffered from deadly diseases for millennia without fully knowing what they were, how they were transmitted, or how they could be cured. Smallpox, which killed between 300 million and 500 million people in the 20th century alone, originated in either India or Egypt at least 3,000 years ago. But it was not until the late 18th century that the English physician Edward Jenner vaccinated his first patient against the disease. It took another two centuries before smallpox was finally eradicated in 1980. Similar stories can be told about other killer diseases. The fate of humanity, our ancestors thought, fluctuated under the arbitrary influence of higher powers, and there was nothing that anyone could do about it.Contrast that glacial pace of progress, and the fatalistic acceptance of disease and death, with our response time to the COVID-19 pandemic. On December 31, 2019, a cluster of “pneumonia” cases was first reported in Wuhan, China. On January 7, 2020, Chinese scientists identified the novel coronavirus responsible for the outbreak. And by January 12, they had sequenced its genetic code and made the data publicly available. That enabled the rest of the world to devise di agnostic tests for the disease. For example, after South Korea identified its first COVID-19 infection on January 20, biotech companies rushed to produce test kits. The kits were available at 50 locations around the country by February 7.By mid ‐​April, thousands o...

Source: Cato-at-liberty - December 4, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Marian L. Tupy Source Type: blogs