A Short History Of Humans And Germs: Humans Get A Clue | Goats & Soda | NPR

Описание: For most of human history, we had a lot of bad ideas about how we were getting sick: angry gods, misaligned planets, stinky fumes. We also had plenty of bad ideas about how to prevent it, like bloodletting, large holes in the head and drinking arsenic.

Things started changing only about 200 years ago. An English doctor named Edward Jenner decided to take a closer look at a promising folk remedy. (We'll leave the details for the video.) Eventually, he invented vaccination, our first safe and effective way to fight disease. About time!

So what did that do for us? Consider that in 1900, the average person lived only about 30 years. Today, most of us live to seventy. We were so successful in such a short time, the U.S. Surgeon General reportedly exclaimed in 1967 that we had closed the book on infectious disease.

If only! The history of humans and germs turns out to be way more complicated.

• Visit http://npr.org/pandemic for more stories in this series

------------------------------------------------------

Subscribe to NPR on YouTube:    / npr  

Follow NPR elsewhere, too:
• Twitter:   / npr  
• Facebook:   / npr  
• Instagram:   / npr  
• Tumblr:   / npr  
• Snapchat:   / npr  

ABOUT NPR
NPR connects to audiences on the air, on demand, online, and in person. More than 26 million radio listeners tune in to NPR stations each week and more than 36 million unique visitors access NPR.org each month making NPR one of the most trusted sources of news and insights on life and the arts. NPR is also the leading publisher of podcasts, with 36 original shows and an average of 4 million listeners per week. NPR shares compelling stories, audio and photos with millions of social media users on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube and Snapchat; NPR News and NPR One apps, online streaming, podcasts, iTunes radio and connected car dashboards help meet audiences where they are. NPR's live events bring to the stage two-way conversations between NPR hosts and the audience in collaboration with the public radio Member Station community. This robust access to public service journalism makes NPR an indispensable resource in the media landscape.