‘Contrary to the era’s prevailing scientific opinion, Salk believed his vaccine, composed of ‘killed’ polio virus, could immunize without risk of infecting the patient. Salk administered the vaccine to volunteers who had not had polio, including himself, his lab scientist, his wife
and their children.’
ACCURSED Faustus, wretch, what hast thou done?”
At least 800 people were given fake vaccines in Uganda last month in a scam involving “unscrupulous” doctors and health workers who targeted people looking to pay for immunization, including corporate employees asked to pay between $25-$120 (20-100 euros) for a fake shot. [https://ph.yahoo.com/news/going-hurt-top-10-covid-053019513.html] And explain the “deficiencies involving some 67,323,186,570 pesos and 57 centavos worth of public funds and intended for national efforts of combatting the unprecedented scale of the Covid19 crisis.”
In contrast, we pray with Saint Pantaleon (one of the 14 Holy Helpers, a patron of the medical profession and of victims of torture, invoked against tuberculosis and other lung diseases), Samson Xenodochius “the Hospitable” (revered as “Father of the Poor”) and Saint Francis of Nagasaki a.k.a. Saint Caius Francis (one of the 25 Catholics crucified for their Faith on February 5, 1597 during a bloody persecution of Christians in Japan) as well as Saints Cosmas and Damian (“Twin doctors who never charged a fee!”) who are physician-saints cited in the canon of the Mass. [https://www.fiamc.org/faith-prayer/saints/physician-saints-of-the-catholic-church/]
“Accursed Faustus, wretch, what hast thou done?”
Medical Case (U.S.A. vs. Karl Brandt, et al.) prosecuted in 1946-47 against 23 doctors and administrators accused of organizing and participating in war crimes and crimes against humanity such as the more than 12 series of medical experiments concerning the effects of and treatments for high altitude conditions, freezing, malaria, poison gas, sulfanilamide, bone, muscle, and nerve regeneration, bone transplantation, saltwater consumption, epidemic jaundice, sterilization, typhus, poisons, and incendiary bombs conducted on concentration camp inmates. [https://nuremberg.law.harvard.edu/nmt_1_intro]
In contrast, we salute Jacques Lucien Monod (co-winner of the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Honorary Colonel of the Reserve-Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur military c. 1945). [https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1965/monod/biographical/] He was an active participant in the French resistance during World War II and wrote the best-selling Le Hasard et la Nécessité (‘Chance and Necessity’): “Where then shall we find the source of truth and the moral inspiration for a really scientific socialist humanism? Only, we suggest, in the sources of science itself, in the ethic upon which knowledge is founded, and which by free choice makes knowledge the supreme value — the measure and guarantee for all other values. An ethic which bases moral responsibility upon the very freedom of that axiomatic choice.” [https://www.ijm.fr/en/19/biography.htm]
“Accursed Faustus, wretch, what hast thou done?”
“The 20 physicians in the dock range from leaders of German scientific medicine, with excellent international reputations, down to the dregs of the German medical profession. All of them have in common a callous lack of consideration and human regard for, and an unprincipled willingness to abuse their power over the poor, unfortunate, defenseless creatures who had been deprived of their rights by a ruthless and criminal government. All of them violated the Hippocratic commandments which they had solemnly sworn to uphold and abide by, including the fundamental principles never to do harm – ‘primum non nocere’.” [Opening Statement in the Doctors Trial by Brig. General Telford Taylor (December 9, 1946) https://famous-trials.com/nuremberg/1912-doctoropen]
In contrast, we praise Sir Alexander Fleming (co-winner of the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, served from 1900 to 1914 as a private in the London Scottish Regiment) who warned: “It is not difficult to make microbes resistant to penicillin in the laboratory by exposing them to concentrations not sufficient to kill them, and the same thing has occasionally happened in the body. The time may come when penicillin can be bought by anyone in the shops. Then there is the danger that the ignorant man may easily underdose himself and by exposing his microbes to non-lethal quantities of the drug make them resistant.” [https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1945/fleming/biographical/]
“Accursed Faustus, wretch, what hast thou done?”
“He is said to have stood on pregnant women’s stomachs until the fetuses were expelled; he is even said to have dissected a one-year-old while the child was still alive.” [Gerald L. Posner and John Ware. Mengele: The Complete Story. NY: Cooper Square Press, 2000]
In contrast: “Contrary to the era’s prevailing scientific opinion, Salk believed his vaccine, composed of ‘killed’ polio virus, could immunize without risk of infecting the patient. Salk administered the vaccine to volunteers who had not had polio, including himself, his lab scientist, his wife and their children. All developed anti-polio antibodies and experienced no negative reactions to the vaccine. In 1954, national testing began on one million children, ages six to nine, who became known as the Polio Pioneers. On April 12, 1955, the results were announced: the vaccine was safe and effective. In the two years before the vaccine was widely available, the average number of polio cases in the U.S. was more than 45,000.
By 1962, that number had dropped to 910. Hailed as a miracle worker, Salk never patented the vaccine or earned any money from his discovery, preferring it be distributed as widely as possible.” [https://www.salk.edu/about/history-of-salk/jonas-salk/]
“Accursed Faustus, wretch, what hast thou done?”
“Perhaps the most notorious of these experiments were carried out under General Ishii Shiro, a Japanese Army surgeon, who, by the late 1930’s had built a large installation in China with germ breeding facilities, testing grounds, prisons to hold the human test subjects, facilities to make germ weapons, and a crematorium for the final disposal of the human test victims. General Ishii’s main factory operated under the code name Unit 731.”
[Statements On Introduced Bills And Joint Resolutions By Mrs. Feinstein: Japanese Imperial Army Disclosure Act of 1999. Congressional Record: November 10, 1999 (Senate) Page S14533-S14571; https://fas.org/sgp/news/1999/11/feinstein.html]
“Lickspittle! Bureaucrat!” — Amourski [Doctor Zhivago, 1965]
And in Afghanistan: “Female physicians and nurses have been subjected to beatings by armed Taliban guards who enforce ‘morals.’” [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9130961/]
