How the World's Deadliest Virus Was Defeated
#LouisPasteur #July6 #OnThisDay
Today is July 6! Back in the 1880s, getting bitten by a rabid dog was an absolute death sentence—rabies had a 100% fatality rate. When a 9-year-old boy named Joseph Meister was brutally bitten 14 times by a mad dog, his desperate mother brought him to the famous French scientist, Louis Pasteur. Pasteur had secretly been developing a rabies vaccine using infected rabbit spinal cords, but he had only ever tested it on dogs! To make matters worse, Pasteur was a chemist, not a licensed doctor. If he injected the boy and the boy died, Pasteur could be arrested for murder! But knowing the child would die anyway, Pasteur took the massive risk. Over 10 days, the boy received 13 injections. Miraculously, Joseph Meister never developed rabies and fully recovered! Louis Pasteur's massive gamble worked, officially launching the modern era of vaccines and saving millions of lives!
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