The Blaisdell Blog

At a time when we are relying on governmental succor, it may be useful to remember a time when such aid was missing and yet, people persevered, disease was conquered and life was made better.   This is not a story of black and white.   It is a story of the tremendous gray area in which reality resides.   On April 26, 1954 the Salk polio vaccine field trials began.   It was the first time a “double blind” trial was used for a drug.   The now standard double blind study (where neither the patient nor the doctor know who is getting the real medicine as opposed to a placebo) involved almost 2 million children.   It began at Franklin Sherman Elementary School, an integrated school in McLean, Virginia.   The expanded study involved children from the United States, Canada and Finland.             I think the trials conducted in an integrated school reflect the largesse and truly humanitarian thinking of Dr. Jonas Salk himself.   The son of immigrant-Russian Ashkenazi Jews, Salk knew

  Since President Trump has decided that injecting sunlight into the human body can kill COVID-19, I am, as a public service, republishing my blog on the danger of same.   Enjoy.      It seems there is a “celebrity” named Josh Brolin who has seriously sunburned his nether regions.   He did so inadvertently (not to mention unthinkingly) while taking part in a practice called perineum sunning.   Now there are several things here that need explaining, and one that escapes explanation entirely.        First, there is the question of Mr. Brolin, himself.   When I first heard of this incident Brolin was simply described as a celebrity.   This loosely defined word, which can refer to well-known talent, fame, media association or simple luck, covers a wide swath.   My husband is sure that Brolin is an actor; I’m betting on an athlete.   In any event the unfolding story convinces me that while this man’s bank account may be in seven digits, his I.Q. is certainly in two.   Celebrity may

Nature can be a vindictive mother.   She is relentless, unforgiving and she knows how to win.   If you are smart, you do not mess with a woman like that.   Best to treat her like a lady, make her smile when you can and keep your distance.               Earth Day is a good time to reacquaint ourselves with our Earth Mother.   This April 22 nd will be the 50 th anniversary of Earth Day, the largest secular holiday in the world.     Unfortunately, it seems that right now Mother is royally irritated with us and we have no one but ourselves to blame.     From ancient times humanity has been visited by some remarkably grim viruses. We can find evidence of pandemics going back as far as 5000 years.   AIDS and many of the hemorrhagic fevers like Marburg and Ebola, started in the jungles of Africa.   Respiratory diseases like Avian flu, H1N1, SARS and the Hong Kong flu pandemic of 2009 seem to originate in Asia.   Syphilis was a disease of the New World, brought back to Europe by Colu

A little over one hundred years ago, on April 15 th , the RMS Titanic, an “unsinkable” ship went to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, taking 1500 people to their deaths.    The ship was built to be the final word in luxury and modern opulence.   Yet she made her real money in transporting hundreds of immigrants in steerage class.   Catering to the wealthy, the Titanic sought to muscle through on style and hubris instead of substance and careful planning.   It didn’t work.   Four days into the crossing and 600 miles south of Newfoundland, the Titanic hit an iceberg, flooding five of its sixteen “watertight” compartments.   The supposedly unsinkable ship went down in two and a half hours.   Most of those who perished did not drown but died of hypothermia in the freezing water.   A few miles from the Titanic, and in a good position to save most, if not all, of the passengers, was the S. S. California.   This ship had sent the Titanic its first warning of icebergs and shut down its e