HIST 249 Lecture Notes - Lecture 23: Maryland Route 3, Mass Production, Pension
~~ Medicine in the 20th Century - Part 2
• Reading:
• Textbook:
• Deborah Brunton, “Access to Health Care, 1880-1930” - 364-394
• Course pack:
• W.F. Bynum: “The Rise of Science in Medicine” - 215-221: “Paying the Doctor”
• Second half of the 20th century
• Public image of modern medicine
• Doctors of image
• Medicine's "Golden Age"
• Romanticized
• Medical profession is respected
• MDs make plenty of money
• Doctors with prestige
• Profession is self-regulated
• One of the features of professionalization
• Medicine was making advances during this time, new discoveries
• Public is grateful for advances, and accepts medicine’s claim of beneficence
• Doctors seen as invaluable?
• This gratitude told the doctors what to do, and patients listened to the doctors
& advice
• MDs told the public what to do and they did it
• High-watermark: vaccine for polio (1955)
• Jonas Salk vs Albert Sabin
• Golden age
• Mid 20th century century medicine
• Politics involved
• Viral disease
• Tends to strike children
• Childhood diseases gets a lot of attention
• Swimming pools were closed due to the fear of this spreading…
• Side effects - may lead to paralysis
• Marketable because of Roosevelt
• Franklin D. Roosevelt
• Had polio
• Interest in polio lead to research in polio
• Jonas Stalk vs. Albert Sabin
• Stalk
• Developed a vaccine for polio
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
2
• Given by injection
• Killed viruses
• What kind of immunization? - passive immunization (when you transfer
antibodies)
• Give antibodies to your patient to make them immune
• Opposite of active --> this one is most common
• Success
• Sadin:
• Oral vaccine
• Life virus
• Changed it through culturing it
• Get an infection of polio but in a different form
• Sometimes had a few symptoms - fever
• Certain risk of transferring the disease through this
• Much less scary injection
• Easy to give, gradually replaced injection
• Better long-term immunity (more complete)
• After this polio was almost extinct - was quite a success
• Best thing for these - double-blind studies
• Surgeries can't really be blind (placebo surgery)
• Smallpox eradication 1977
• Elimination of smallpox
• Huge success of vaccinations
• Due to the WHO program - 1958
• Helped convince governments to spend $$ on medical research
• Mobilize $$ from the government
• Sputnik 1, 1957
• Another thing that helped
• $$ into universities
• Fear that the Russians were getting ahead of the West - this happened during the
cold war
• This led to an interest in science, engineering & medicine
• Anxiety
• Late 20th Century Insecurities
• How will the demand for medicine be met?
• Problem: money
• Demand for medicine was growing & growing
• How can this demand be met? How can people have access to all of this?
• Came down to insurance & access to medicine
• Where Health Insurance comes in…
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
~~ medicine in the 20th century - part 2: reading, textbook, deborah brunton, access to health care, 1880-1930 - 364-394, course pack, w. f. & advice: mds told the public what to do and they did it, high-watermark: vaccine for polio (1955) Interest in polio lead to research in polio. Passive immunization (when you transfer antibodies: give antibodies to your patient to make them immune, opposite of active --> this one is most common, success, sadin: How can people have access to all of this: came down to insurance & access to medicine, where health insurance comes in . Insurance: medical assistance to the poor, protecting the public. 3: question: was this won by the profession or given by the state, varied from case to case, varying relationship with the state, state & medical profession often in alliance/worked together. In return for the doctors salary - anyone has access to this.
