Tuesday, October 28, 2014

The Problem with Geniuses

They think they're always right.

Google tells me it is Jonas Salk's 100th birthday.
Salk's work on influenza viruses has been associated with ethical controversy. The Associated Press reported that Salk authored a research paper describing a federally funded study that began in 1942. Salk injected patients in a state insane asylum in Ypsilanti, Michigan, with an experimental influenza vaccine, then exposed them to influenza virus months later to check the vaccine's efficacy. It is questionable at best whether any of these patients could have understood what was being done to them, or why.
Especially after that.  Huh.