In the mid-1800s, a doctor discovered a simple way to stop mothers from dying after childbirth. His solution—washing hands—worked immediately and dramatically. Instead of praise, he was mocked, ...

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Imagine a hospital where one maternity ward's mothers died at five times the rate of another, and the difference was whether doctors carried the smell of corpses on their hands. In 1847 Vienna, Ignaz ...

Science, which in an ideal world would be immune to prejudices, egos, jealousies, and politics, has fallen victim to these forces for hundreds of years, according to this enlightening history from ...

Hungarian physician Ignaz Semmelweis couldn’t stand his colleagues’ filth; their putrid, bloody apparel and hands he reasoned, were the source of the puerperal fever, the deadly infection plaguing ...

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., despite lacking medical training and promoting anti-vaccine views, has drastically reduced the Health and Human Services workforce. The author expresses concern over the ...

Florida's decision to remove fluoride from water supplies is based on misinterpretations of scientific facts and prioritizes individual choice over established public health benefits. Public health ...

Modern medicine makes it possible for fertile couples to avoid pregnancies and for many infertile people to achieve them. So, for the first time in history, it should be possible for most people to ...

The Semmelweis reflex is a phenomenon in which novel evidence or ideas are rejected outright because they contradict established norms or beliefs. This reflexive dismissal can be particularly ...