Collecting Ideas Together

by Paula Johanson

Most people think of science writing as writing about doing science or being a scientist. But some science writing is writing about how people think about science. This can be entertaining when you're reading a book by Stephen Jay Gould or Oliver Sacks. Learning how a scientist thinks about the process of discovering and teaching facts is informative and fun for those of us who are not career scientists!

There are other books about how people think about science -- people who are not scientists. It's less fun to read what some people think, but it is informative. It's important to be informed, not only about objective facts that have been carefully discovered and proved, but also about the kinds of opinions and actions people have based on these facts.

I was the editor for two of this kind of science book, for a series called Analyzing the Issues.

One book was called Critical Perspectives on the Opioid Epidemic. You can click here for a link to this book. The use of painkilling drugs has become an epidemic, with an increasing number of prescriptions being written as well as illegal use of street drugs. It's hard to know from news reports just how dangerous opioids can be or who is using them. For this book, I collected articles and book chapters that were written by doctors and health experts and court cases, as well as personal viewpoints of people affected in their ordinary lives. The idea was to make a book that would help families and older teens or students think critically about opioid use and abuse.

The second book was Critical Perspectives on Vaccinations. You can click here for a link to this book.

Vaccinations have been an issue in recent years, particularly in North America, where a few parents have decided not to vaccinate their children. According to health experts, this has led to an increase in potentially deadly diseases and an overall decrease in herd immunity. This text provides evidence from doctors and experts, along with scientific data, court cases, and viewpoints of everyday people, to help readers think carefully about this important issue.

For this book I was able to identify a major issue for parents: not knowing how to compare risks. They haven't learned the science of how to compare the major risk of their child catching measles with the tiny risk that their child is one of very few who should not be vaccinated. Luckily, it's not rocket science! Comparing risk is something we all can do. It's possible to choose good health care with confidence, with your doctor's help.

Through writing these books, I've come to understand better that some people don't have access to science. That's part of the reason why we contributors at Sci/Why are writing this blog: to show that information and ideas are not just for experts. Everyone can learn, and form opinions.

Epidemics, Smallpox, and William Osler

By Gillian O'Reilly

These days, our minds are on epidemics (the rapid spread of disease to a large number of people in a given population within a short period of time) and pandemics (disease epidemics that have spread across large regions or worldwide).
 
One of my current projects is a book about the brilliant Canadian diagnostician and medical
educator Dr. William (Willie) Osler. Born in 1849 when people still thought diseases were
caused by bad air, Osler lived through the huge changes brought about by the discovery of
germs. There are several stories of his encounters with smallpox during his career.

Photo of William Osler from 1881 used with permission

of the Osler Library for the History of Medicine

In the nineteenth century, smallpox was a terrifying disease, often fatal. Survivors were left with bad scarring or blindness. Symptoms were fever, a rash, and characteristic pustules all over the body. Once diagnosed, smallpox patients had to be quickly isolated from other patients in a separate ward or hospital.
 
Vaccinations, successfully tested in 1796, had replaced variolation (an earlier form of inoculation used in Asia and Africa for centuries). Over the nineteenth century, widespread vaccination, sometimes mandated by law, had reduced the number of infections and deaths, but there were still regular outbreaks where vaccination rates were low.

In the spring of 1872 after his final year of medical school, Willie worked briefly at a hospital in Hamilton, Ontario. There he encountered a rare case of smallpox and drove the dying patient to mayor’s home to force the authorities to provide proper isolated accommodation for the man.
 

Quarantine poster image used with permission 

of the Osler Library for the History of Medicine

 
Montreal was one part of Canada where vaccination rates were low. Willie was teaching at McGill University during the smallpox epidemic of 1875-1876 and he took time to work in Montreal’s smallpox hospital, earning $600. Although he had been vaccinated (like all his siblings), he caught a mild case of the disease.
 
In those days, medical students learned mostly from lectures, rarely seeing patients or working in a lab. One of Willie’s innovations as a teacher was to make sure that his students had microscopes, so they could see and understand the diseases they were studying. The $600 he earned went to pay for microscopes.
 
Willie was one of the founders of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore. When it opened in the fall of 1893, he at last had the medical school he wanted – a place where learning, hospital work and research were intertwined and where students could learn by doing. Willie led a weekly general clinic at the hospital, where he and students would see patients. 

By then, some diseases had become rare enough that many doctors and students had trouble diagnosing them. One resident proudly displayed what he thought was an interesting case of chicken pox to Osler and 30 or 40 students and doctors. When he threw back the sheet, a horrified Willie exclaimed, “My God, Futcher, don’t you know smallpox when you see it?” The patient was quickly isolated, the ward quarantined for six weeks and the students and staff hurriedly vaccinated.

In 1980, smallpox became the only human disease to be declared eradicated, thanks to a worldwide vaccination program in the 20th century.

More on William Osler and the history of medicine can be found at The Osler Library of the History of Medicine at McGill  https://www.mcgill.ca/library/branches/osler

The Osler Library Instagram page at https://www.instagram.com/oslerlibrary/  has a good drawing of emergency smallpox vaccinations being performed on American-bound trains from Montreal.