› added 7 years ago

386

TIL that at the start of the AIDS epidemic, CDC epidemiologists has a plan to combat the disease, but were told by the Regan administration "No, we're not going to fund it, and we want you to look pretty and do as little as you can."

Read more pbs.org

via reddit.com

jN5Ea TIL Greg Graffin (lead vocalist of Bad Religion) has a PhD in Zoology, is an adjunct professor at Cornell, and has received awards from Harvard for his work.
nemE7 TIL Gen. Franz Halder of the High Command warned Hitler of huge Soviet troop concentrations near Stalingrad and certain disaster, but Hitler criticized him for his defeatist mentality. Halder walked out of the meeting and never returned. Five months later, Germany was defeated at Stalingrad.
5Y7jP TIL that before 1530, when “Syphilis” was coined, the Russians had been calling it "Polish disease", the Polish and Germans "French disease" and the Dutch "Spanish disease". The French called it "Italian disease" but the Italians called it "French disease” back at them.
Wko18 TIL that for years a man deliberately infected himself with tape worms to help treat his ulcerative colitis, a common bowel disease. Doctors found that after infection areas of his colon started producing mucos again which is key to healing and IL-22 a molecule that promotes epithelial growth.
Xvkk TIL that Abdul Sattar Edhi founded Edhi foundation which has rescued over 20,000 abandoned infants, rehabilitated over 50,000 orphans and has trained over 40,000 nurses. It also runs the world’s biggest ambulance service.