“We were told in one lecture that it was possible to immunize against diphtheria and tetanus by the use of chemically treated toxins, or toxoids. And the following lecture, we were told that for immunization against a virus disease, you have to experience the infection, and that you could not induce immunity with the so-called "killed" or inactivated, chemically treated virus preparation. Well, somehow, that struck me. What struck me was that both statements couldn't be true. And I asked why this was so, and the answer that was given was in a sense, 'Because.'”

— Jonas Salk

There was no satisfactory answer.
Academy of Achievement interview (1991)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Jonas Salk 47

Inventor of polio vaccine 1914–1995

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“Aids is Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. I don't believe it's a sensible thing to ask: 'Does a virus cause a syndrome?' It can't. A virus will cause a disease. The syndrome is a group of diseases as a result of immune deficiency. As a result of immune deficiency you suffer various diseases.”

Thabo Mbeki (1942) South African politician, President of South Africa

Source: August 2000, addressing South African Parliament http://www.mg.co.za/articledirect.aspx?articleid=173678&area=%2farchives%2farchives__online_edition%2f http://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/jun/12/aids.chrismcgreal.

“There are three stages of truth. First is that it can't be true, and that's what they said. You couldn't immunize against polio with a killed-virus vaccine. Second phase: they say, "Well, if it's true, it's not very important. And the third stage is, 'Well, we've known it all along."”

Jonas Salk (1914–1995) Inventor of polio vaccine

Academy of Achievement interview (1991)

“If humans are to colonize another planet, we better have a powerful immune system to protect us from deadly new pathogens. H.G. Wells’ novel The War of the Worlds reminds us that the invading Martians overpowered humans but were killed by earthly pathogens to which they had no immunity.”

Newton Lee American computer scientist

The Transhumanism Handbook, 2019

“Why do you treat me as they do, as though I were exactly what I want to be. Why do we treat people that way?”

William Gaddis book The Recognitions

Source: The Recognitions

“People with the same education as my own, speaking the same words that I do, loving the same books, the same music, the same paintings, are by no means immune from the danger of turning into monsters and doing things we would not have thought possible among the people of our own day, apart from a few pathological exceptions. If they are not immune, Why should I be so confident of my own immunity?”

Max Frisch (1911–1991) Swiss playwright and novelist

Sketchbook 1946-1949

“White blood cells and other cells of ours actively seek out and kill foreign microbes. The specific antibodies that we gradually build up against a particular microbe infecting us make us less likely to get reinfected once we become cured. As we all know from experience, there are some illnesses, such as flu and the common cold, to which our resistance is only temporary; we can eventually contract the illness again. Against other illnesses, though—including measles, mumps, rubella, pertussis, and the now defeated smallpox — our antibodies stimulated by one infection confer lifelong immunity. That's the principle of vaccination: to stimulate our antibody production without our having to go through the actual experience of the disease, by inoculating us with a dead or weakened strain of microbe.”

Jared Diamond book Guns, Germs, and Steel

Source: Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (1997), p. 200

“I'm filled with awe, as I always am, as I watch her transform from a woman who calls me to kill a spider to a woman immune to fear.”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

Source: Catching Fire

“If we look at the highly specialized action of our immune system, we will appreciate into what a brilliant tool evolution has shaped us. Each of us has millions of cells that recognize and destroy foreign antigens. I mean, of course, a healthy, well-functioning immune system, because unfortunately – sometimes it fails.”

Włodzimierz Ptak (1928–2019) immunologist

Mazurek, Maria (7 July 2017): Cudowna armia, która broni naszego ciała http://plus.gazetakrakowska.pl/magazyn/a/cudowna-armia-ktora-broni-naszego-ciala,12271571. Gazeta Krakowska (in Polish), pp. 18–19.

“We need 70% entire population to get herd immunity. Not just adult population. Virus doesn’t check your Adhaar card. It maybe more than 70% even as the vaccines we’ve used have lower overall efficacy than mRNA vaccines. Define the problem properly to solve it.”

Chetan Bhagat (1974) Indian author, born 1974

Source: — Chetan Bhagat (@chetan_bhagat) 2021 at Twitter https://twitter.com/chetan_bhagat/status/1416715762748645376

“In calling for the dismantling of Soviet stocks of chemical weapons, what action will the Minister take towards countries such as Iraq which have used chemical weapons in the recent past? Will he ensure that the maximum possible sanctions are taken against them to show our abhorrence of all chemical weapons wherever they are and by whomsoever they are used?”

Jeremy Corbyn (1949) British Labour Party politician

Question http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1989/mar/07/chemical-weapons in the House of Commons (7 March 1989).
1980s

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Jonas Salk 47

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