WEBVTT - Way to Go, Ohio 0:00:15.356 --> 0:00:21.996 Pushkin Hello, Hello, Revision's History listeners. I'm excited to announce 0:00:21.996 --> 0:00:24.916 that this season I'm offering a bunch of perks from 0:00:24.956 --> 0:00:29.316 my most loyal listeners, the ones who subscribe to pushkin 0:00:29.356 --> 0:00:32.876 Plus for those who just can't get enough. We're giving 0:00:32.916 --> 0:00:37.476 every episode to our subscribers one week early. Plus. We've 0:00:37.516 --> 0:00:42.676 created many episodes released weekly, and I'm calling them tangents. 0:00:43.156 --> 0:00:48.316 And of course you'll never hear any ads. Subscribe to 0:00:48.356 --> 0:00:52.036 Pushkin Plus on the Revisionist History Show page in Apple 0:00:52.076 --> 0:00:58.676 Podcasts or at pushkint f M. Deep into the preparation 0:00:58.956 --> 0:01:03.076 of Season seven of Revision's History, one bitterly cold day, 0:01:03.596 --> 0:01:07.236 I sent my producers Leman Gesteu and Elewise Linton on 0:01:07.436 --> 0:01:14.436 special assignment. Fly to Detroit. Rent a car, go north 0:01:14.556 --> 0:01:17.476 on I ninety four for a stretch, then turn right 0:01:17.556 --> 0:01:20.716 off the freeway on the Fredmore Highway and drive all 0:01:20.756 --> 0:01:22.876 the way to the banks of the Saint Clair River, 0:01:23.236 --> 0:01:28.036 where they will come upon a factory. This is a 0:01:28.116 --> 0:01:30.996 dumb question. Is it like high security? 0:01:31.196 --> 0:01:34.476 Oh? No, well it's not high security, but we did 0:01:34.556 --> 0:01:36.916 have to really put on a lot of gear to 0:01:36.916 --> 0:01:39.836 get in there for food safety reasons. 0:01:40.036 --> 0:01:45.836 You're wearing like hard hats, reflective jackets. Were you wearing 0:01:45.876 --> 0:01:47.596 like industrial footwear? 0:01:48.956 --> 0:01:51.076 Not footwear? But we had to wear gloves, We around 0:01:51.116 --> 0:01:55.036 gloves caps for our hair. That didn't really work for 0:01:55.076 --> 0:01:59.476 either of us. 0:02:01.316 --> 0:02:04.236 I wanted to understand an experiment, one of the most 0:02:04.236 --> 0:02:08.236 important experiments of our modern era, one that's been all 0:02:08.276 --> 0:02:13.276 but forgotten, and crucially for my own selfish purposes, I 0:02:13.356 --> 0:02:15.956 wanted them to take a taste test. 0:02:19.316 --> 0:02:22.116 So we had a couple of paper plates in front 0:02:22.116 --> 0:02:25.076 of us and then a spoon, and then we would 0:02:25.196 --> 0:02:27.516 spoon a little bit of it into our hands and 0:02:27.556 --> 0:02:30.636 then taste it from there. I will say that I 0:02:30.676 --> 0:02:34.596 took way too much. It was overwhelming, for sure. 0:02:35.436 --> 0:02:43.196 Guess I'll put too little. Okay this one first? 0:02:44.676 --> 0:02:47.796 Oh I was strong? 0:02:47.916 --> 0:02:51.876 Yeah, yeah right. You weren't blinded, they just but you 0:02:51.876 --> 0:02:53.756 didn't know which was which. So you have two little 0:02:53.796 --> 0:02:59.116 plates in front of you. Could they tell the difference? Yes, 0:02:59.956 --> 0:03:03.196 the insiders at the factory know the difference. The rest 0:03:03.236 --> 0:03:08.596 of us not so much. My name is Malcolm Blackwell. 0:03:08.676 --> 0:03:11.796 You listen Think Too Revision's History, my podcast about things 0:03:11.876 --> 0:03:16.836 overlooked and misunderstood. This is part two of our investigation 0:03:16.916 --> 0:03:21.396 of magic wand experiments impossible experiments that could only be 0:03:21.436 --> 0:03:27.716 done if we waived a magic wand. In this episode, 0:03:27.836 --> 0:03:31.236 you'll hear my magic wand by way of a journey 0:03:31.276 --> 0:03:33.916 from the banks of the Saint Clair River to the 0:03:34.036 --> 0:03:40.356 tallest mountains in Europe, on to India and then Ohio. 0:03:46.716 --> 0:03:52.436 This episode is going to require a fair amount of digression. Patience, grasshopper. 0:03:54.716 --> 0:03:58.316 We begin our story over a century ago, a time 0:03:58.356 --> 0:04:00.476 when you could go many places in the world and 0:04:00.556 --> 0:04:05.956 find some portion of the local population severely disfigured. If 0:04:05.996 --> 0:04:09.596 I'm walking around a remote village in the Swiss Alps 0:04:10.236 --> 0:04:14.716 in eighteen hundred, what do I see? 0:04:14.996 --> 0:04:17.236 High up in the Swiss Alps in the mid eighteen hundreds, 0:04:17.236 --> 0:04:22.476 you probably probably about half the population would have a 0:04:22.516 --> 0:04:23.236 visible goiter. 0:04:23.796 --> 0:04:28.036 I'm talking with Michael Zimmermann, University of Zurich about goiters, 0:04:28.516 --> 0:04:30.996 a swelling on the neck right in front of the larynx. 0:04:31.676 --> 0:04:33.836 Describe these goiters. How large could they be? 0:04:35.196 --> 0:04:37.076 Well, I mean, in a child, it's about the size 0:04:37.076 --> 0:04:40.996 of maybe a lemon. But the older women, particularly the 0:04:41.036 --> 0:04:45.156 ones who'd had repeated pregnancies, you know, and would have large, 0:04:45.316 --> 0:04:49.396 multinadular goiters. They can be the size of a volleyball. 0:04:49.516 --> 0:04:53.036 I mean they can volleyball, yeah, sure, they can compress 0:04:53.076 --> 0:04:56.356 the trachea make it difficult to breathe or swallow. They 0:04:56.396 --> 0:04:57.476 can really be massive. 0:04:58.556 --> 0:05:01.476 Some portion of the population with goiters had a related 0:05:01.516 --> 0:05:05.036 condition what used to be called cretinism. 0:05:05.156 --> 0:05:08.476 So in children, for example, they don't grow normally, so 0:05:08.516 --> 0:05:13.756 they're very short, they have characteristic facial features, they have 0:05:13.916 --> 0:05:18.516 very dry skin, very dry hair, They move very slowly, 0:05:19.716 --> 0:05:23.236 their temperature regulation is very poor, they become cold very easily. 0:05:23.516 --> 0:05:28.356 And then classically it's associated with cognitive impairment and also 0:05:28.476 --> 0:05:31.716 def mutism. 0:05:30.796 --> 0:05:35.036 And it's not reversible, it's not. For the longest time, 0:05:35.276 --> 0:05:38.556 no one knew the explanation for cretinism or for goiters. 0:05:39.236 --> 0:05:41.876 It would be one thing if they appeared everywhere, then 0:05:41.916 --> 0:05:44.476 you could say this is just what human beings look like. 0:05:44.956 --> 0:05:49.156 But this wasn't everywhere. It was confined to very specific 0:05:49.196 --> 0:05:50.156 regions of the world. 0:05:50.716 --> 0:05:53.756 I mean, it was famous back in the eighteen hundreds 0:05:53.796 --> 0:05:56.676 for British and American tourists to go up in the 0:05:56.676 --> 0:05:59.636 Swiss Alps not only to see the beautiful alpine scenery, 0:05:59.636 --> 0:06:04.236 but also to see goiter and cretinism. I mean Mark 0:06:04.236 --> 0:06:08.916 twain very famous quote, I've seen the two things I 0:06:08.916 --> 0:06:12.116 want to see in Switzerland, Mount blank and the guiter, 0:06:12.396 --> 0:06:13.356 and now I'm going home. 0:06:14.596 --> 0:06:17.516 It wasn't until the nineteenth century that scientists started to 0:06:17.516 --> 0:06:21.036 figure out what might be the culprit iodine, or rather 0:06:21.356 --> 0:06:27.276 a lack of iodine in the diet. Iodine is a 0:06:27.316 --> 0:06:30.316 trace alment found largely in sea water. There's a lot 0:06:30.356 --> 0:06:32.916 of iodine in seaweed and in the livers of fish 0:06:33.036 --> 0:06:36.036 like cod. If you live in a coastal area, you'll 0:06:36.076 --> 0:06:38.876 get iodine in your diet naturally because the wind and 0:06:38.916 --> 0:06:41.756 rain blowing off the ocean will deposit iodine in the 0:06:41.796 --> 0:06:44.836 soil and water. If a cown near the coast drinks 0:06:44.876 --> 0:06:48.156 water with iodine in it, then that iodine gets into 0:06:48.236 --> 0:06:51.716 your milk and meat. But go inland and iodine gets 0:06:51.756 --> 0:06:55.476 harder to find in nature. Fresh water flushes iodine out 0:06:55.476 --> 0:06:57.876 of the soil. Worst off are places that used to 0:06:57.956 --> 0:07:01.076 be covered with glaciers, because when the glaciers were treated, 0:07:01.236 --> 0:07:04.956 they took topsoil and natural iodine with them. No iodine 0:07:05.036 --> 0:07:08.916 in the soil, no iodine in plants, no iodine in plants, 0:07:09.196 --> 0:07:12.236 not enough iodone in the people eating those plants, and 0:07:12.316 --> 0:07:15.636 when people don't get enough iodone in their diets, their 0:07:15.676 --> 0:07:19.476 thyroid glands have to work overtime to compensate, so the 0:07:19.516 --> 0:07:26.396 thyroid becomes huge, like an oversized heart. Think about the 0:07:26.436 --> 0:07:30.556 Swiss Alps, an inland mountain chain with lots of glaciers, 0:07:30.996 --> 0:07:33.716 no idon in the soil, and so people living there 0:07:33.916 --> 0:07:38.436 have historically been afflicted with goiter. Norway also had a 0:07:38.556 --> 0:07:42.676 huge goiter problem, so did mountainous parts of China, Russia, 0:07:43.076 --> 0:07:45.876 and goiter was a problem in the United States, of course, 0:07:46.276 --> 0:07:49.516 because there are plenty of inland areas in America once 0:07:49.556 --> 0:07:59.756 home to glaciers. There's a book published in the nineteen 0:07:59.796 --> 0:08:03.836 twenties called Defects Found in Drafted Men, which is simply 0:08:03.836 --> 0:08:06.796 a compendium of the physicals conducted by the US Army 0:08:07.036 --> 0:08:10.716 on draftees during the First World War. So basically we're 0:08:10.756 --> 0:08:15.756 looking at the entire reasonably healthy male population. Young male 0:08:15.796 --> 0:08:20.036 population of the United States gets examined by a doctor 0:08:20.396 --> 0:08:24.036 and their health condition is noted in this book. Correct, 0:08:24.116 --> 0:08:25.356 it must be a massive book. 0:08:25.556 --> 0:08:26.396 It's a big, thick book. 0:08:26.436 --> 0:08:30.036 Yet that's the economist Jim Firer who published a study 0:08:30.076 --> 0:08:30.916 based on that data. 0:08:31.556 --> 0:08:35.436 This is pre computerized shaded map showing where some diseases 0:08:35.476 --> 0:08:37.796 were common and where some weren't. And this led to 0:08:37.836 --> 0:08:39.916 the discovery of what's known as the Goiter Belt, which 0:08:39.956 --> 0:08:42.156 is the place where goiter was endemic, which is the 0:08:42.236 --> 0:08:44.236 upper Midwest. 0:08:43.636 --> 0:08:46.556 The Goiter Belt. Just to give you a sense of 0:08:46.556 --> 0:08:50.436 the problem, in Houghton County, which is Michigan's upper Peninsula, 0:08:50.876 --> 0:08:53.236 five hundred and thirty eight young men were brought before 0:08:53.236 --> 0:08:57.356 the draft board. A third of those draftees showed quote 0:08:57.556 --> 0:09:02.156 a demonstrable enlargement of the thyroid. In some cases, the 0:09:02.196 --> 0:09:05.076 goiters were so large that men were turned away from 0:09:05.116 --> 0:09:07.556 the army because they couldn't button up the collars of 0:09:07.596 --> 0:09:11.516 their uniforms. Fire Or estimates the lack of iodine in 0:09:11.556 --> 0:09:16.636 places like Houghton County caused significant cognitive impairment as much 0:09:16.756 --> 0:09:20.276 as a standard deviation in IQ, which is a lot. 0:09:20.956 --> 0:09:24.196 A standard deviation can be the difference between being able 0:09:24.196 --> 0:09:27.396 to handle college and not being able to handle college. 0:09:27.756 --> 0:09:30.436 So what's so weird about this? There is literally a 0:09:30.476 --> 0:09:32.316 part of the country where people are not as smart 0:09:32.676 --> 0:09:34.956 in aggregate as other parts. 0:09:36.396 --> 0:09:38.956 Certainly they are not as smart as they could have 0:09:38.996 --> 0:09:41.556 been in the absence of being idine efficient. Yes, I 0:09:41.556 --> 0:09:42.156 think that's right. 0:09:42.956 --> 0:09:45.996 So you have people in various parts of the world 0:09:46.156 --> 0:09:49.236 who don't get enough iodine. What do you do about it? 0:09:49.916 --> 0:09:53.116 Michael Zimmerman says some of the earliest attempts to fix 0:09:53.156 --> 0:09:54.676 the problem were a disaster. 0:09:55.436 --> 0:09:58.996 The dose of iodine that they were applying in these 0:09:59.036 --> 0:10:03.036 initial studies was extremely high, you know, a thousandfold higher 0:10:03.076 --> 0:10:06.756 than what was needed to eliminate goiter, and iodine, like 0:10:06.796 --> 0:10:11.356 any nutrient, is poison in a high doses. So a 0:10:11.396 --> 0:10:17.076 lot of people developed hyperthyroidism and actually cardiac arrhythmias and 0:10:17.236 --> 0:10:21.836 died from excess iodine ingestion. So it was seen kind 0:10:21.836 --> 0:10:24.556 of as a double edged sword, and people saw it 0:10:24.596 --> 0:10:27.076 as a poison as well as a potential remedy. 0:10:27.716 --> 0:10:30.356 There was an iodine backlash and a lot of confusion, 0:10:31.156 --> 0:10:34.156 like was iodine a treatment for goiter the way aspirin 0:10:34.316 --> 0:10:36.756 is a treatment for headache, something you gave once and 0:10:36.836 --> 0:10:39.556 it solved the problem, or was it a supplement? Was 0:10:39.636 --> 0:10:42.996 iodine something that people with goiter needed on a continuous basis, 0:10:43.476 --> 0:10:45.596 And if so, how much iodine would you need to 0:10:45.636 --> 0:10:48.836 give to people, how often, starting at what age? And 0:10:49.076 --> 0:10:51.156 how would you give it to them? Did it matter? 0:10:51.996 --> 0:10:57.116 What the world needed was a proper experiment, careful, rigorous, controlled? 0:10:58.276 --> 0:11:07.716 And where did salvation finally come from? Akron, Ohio? Surely, 0:11:07.996 --> 0:11:09.756 at least if you were as an old as I am, 0:11:10.116 --> 0:11:13.476 you remember the classic nineteen eighty three hit from Chrissy 0:11:13.556 --> 0:11:17.756 Hind and the Pretenders, My city was gone. 0:11:18.276 --> 0:11:23.316 To Oh, my city was gone. 0:11:24.516 --> 0:11:29.236 What city is she talking about? Not Cleveland, not swinky Columbus, 0:11:29.516 --> 0:11:34.596 not stuffy, well fed Cincinnati, Akron because Chrissy hin grew 0:11:34.676 --> 0:11:39.396 up in Akron, so down and disappeared. South Howard is 0:11:39.436 --> 0:11:42.316 the historic center of old Akron. It got gutted in 0:11:42.316 --> 0:11:47.756 the seventies for an empty urban plaza. 0:11:49.036 --> 0:12:02.436 Reduced to. 0:11:59.116 --> 0:12:01.876 How many cities get dissed at such a high level 0:12:02.356 --> 0:12:07.036 by one of their favorite daughters. My friends were finally 0:12:07.076 --> 0:12:11.076 getting close to revealing my magic wand, very close, and 0:12:11.156 --> 0:12:14.956 let me make one more promise. My magic wand will 0:12:14.956 --> 0:12:30.556 give Akron a shot at redemption. Before we go any further, 0:12:30.996 --> 0:12:34.276 a few words about my magic wand experiment. In the 0:12:34.356 --> 0:12:37.916 last episode, I gave several scientists a chance to waive 0:12:37.916 --> 0:12:41.516 a magic wand to create any experiment they wanted, without 0:12:41.556 --> 0:12:45.396 regard for the laws of nature or ethics. And then 0:12:45.796 --> 0:12:49.076 I pounded my chest and said that my magic wand 0:12:49.236 --> 0:12:53.796 would be the best of all. Why did I say that, Well, 0:12:54.316 --> 0:12:57.236 I'll tell you because all of the other magic wanders 0:12:57.236 --> 0:13:00.316 I spoke to were trying to solve big, weighty questions, 0:13:00.596 --> 0:13:06.956 existential questions, global questions. Me I'm being super practical. Mine 0:13:07.556 --> 0:13:10.676 is news you can use. Is a subtle tweak on 0:13:10.756 --> 0:13:16.476 an experiment that already happened, an experiment conducted early in 0:13:16.476 --> 0:13:21.156 the twentieth century by a brilliant young physician named David Marine. 0:13:23.836 --> 0:13:27.236 David Marine was born in Maryland and studied at Johns 0:13:27.276 --> 0:13:30.356 Hopkins School of Medicine. Then he went to do his 0:13:30.396 --> 0:13:34.276 residency at Lakeside Hospital in Cleveland in nineteen oh five. 0:13:35.796 --> 0:13:40.316 Cleveland on the banks of Lake Erie freshwater. Lake Erie 0:13:40.636 --> 0:13:42.996 one of the Great lakes created by the Laurentide ice 0:13:42.996 --> 0:13:47.356 Sheet twenty thousand years ago. Cleveland built on a landscape 0:13:47.396 --> 0:13:50.476 shaped by glaciers which stripped away the iodine as they 0:13:50.516 --> 0:13:54.076 retreated Goiter Country. 0:13:54.956 --> 0:13:58.876 According to the legend, he was walking to his first 0:13:58.956 --> 0:14:01.116 day of work and noticed that many of the women 0:14:01.356 --> 0:14:03.636 in the neighborhood and all of the dogs had a 0:14:03.676 --> 0:14:04.156 big goiter. 0:14:05.516 --> 0:14:06.476 That's Michael Zimmerman. 0:14:06.556 --> 0:14:06.796 Again. 0:14:07.196 --> 0:14:08.916 He studied David Marine's career. 0:14:09.596 --> 0:14:11.676 So when he was you know, he went to work 0:14:11.716 --> 0:14:14.236 and he was asked like, what would you like to 0:14:14.236 --> 0:14:16.956 work on in terms of your research focus here? He said, well, 0:14:17.196 --> 0:14:19.356 maybe I should work on the thyroid because it seems 0:14:19.356 --> 0:14:20.956 like there's a lot of thyroid disease around. 0:14:22.436 --> 0:14:24.836 In nineteen oh nine, Marine gets called in by a 0:14:24.836 --> 0:14:28.556 local trout hatchery that's convinced their fish are suffering from 0:14:28.596 --> 0:14:32.316 a strange outbreak of cancer. All of the farmed fish 0:14:32.516 --> 0:14:35.556 have a big bulge right near their thyroid. Marine tells 0:14:35.596 --> 0:14:39.596 them that's not cancer. Your problem is you're feeding your 0:14:39.596 --> 0:14:43.196 fish chopped up pigs hearts and livers, and the pigs 0:14:43.196 --> 0:14:46.396 of Ohio, which eat the iodine de fishient feedstocks of 0:14:46.436 --> 0:14:50.676 Ohio have no iodine in them. Marine tells them feed 0:14:50.756 --> 0:14:55.116 the fish chopped up seafish. The hatcheries follow his advice 0:14:55.636 --> 0:15:03.716 and the fish Goiters go away. In Ohio, David Marine 0:15:04.076 --> 0:15:08.916 is doctor Gouter. He spends a decade gathering evidence in 0:15:08.916 --> 0:15:12.676 the laboratory. Then in nineteen seventeen, Marine goes to the 0:15:12.716 --> 0:15:16.556 Cleveland school board and says, I'd like to do an experiment. 0:15:17.276 --> 0:15:20.356 Let me feed some iodine to your school children to 0:15:20.436 --> 0:15:23.076 see if I can get rid of goiter. And Cleveland 0:15:23.156 --> 0:15:26.396 says no. Of course, they say no, I mean, can 0:15:26.436 --> 0:15:30.116 you imagine this scenario. Iodine is at this point still 0:15:30.156 --> 0:15:34.636 considered a poison. The Food and Drug Administration wanted manufacturers 0:15:34.636 --> 0:15:37.916 of iodine to put a skull and crossbones on the package, 0:15:38.436 --> 0:15:41.596 and Marine decides he only wants to dose girls with 0:15:41.676 --> 0:15:45.476 iodine fifth grade enough, which surely must have seemed a 0:15:45.516 --> 0:15:48.836 little shady at the time. Imagine that your twelve year 0:15:48.836 --> 0:15:51.556 old daughter comes home from school one day with a 0:15:51.556 --> 0:15:54.756 note from the teacher asking for your permission to let 0:15:54.836 --> 0:15:59.396 little Janey take part in an experiment involving repeated doses 0:15:59.636 --> 0:16:03.516 of something widely considered a poison. But no worries because 0:16:03.556 --> 0:16:06.316 it'll be done under the supervision of some guy from 0:16:06.356 --> 0:16:08.836 out east who's done a lot of work with trout. 0:16:09.996 --> 0:16:12.756 Let me just read to you from the instructions Marine 0:16:12.756 --> 0:16:16.876 wrote out to teachers. Quote, a few of the pupils, 0:16:16.996 --> 0:16:19.636 after two or three days may get what seems to 0:16:19.636 --> 0:16:23.036 be a slight cold in the head with nasal discharge, 0:16:23.116 --> 0:16:26.796 and possibly more rarely, the appearance of pimples or a 0:16:26.836 --> 0:16:32.596 slight rash on the body. It is nothing serious. End quote. 0:16:32.756 --> 0:16:35.436 So little Janney's going to come back home with a 0:16:35.476 --> 0:16:38.956 head cold and covered in pimples and a rash after 0:16:38.996 --> 0:16:42.836 being fed generous doses of a mysterious liquid. I mean, 0:16:42.916 --> 0:16:46.556 what would you say? You would say no thanks? Cleveland 0:16:46.596 --> 0:16:51.076 says no thanks. But doctor Goiter has come too far 0:16:51.156 --> 0:16:54.316 to give up, so he drives forty miles south to 0:16:54.476 --> 0:16:58.676 Akron and proposes the same idea to the Akron School board. 0:16:59.316 --> 0:17:04.276 An Akron doesn't say no. Akron says yes. And it 0:17:04.356 --> 0:17:08.036 is in Akron that we get the first definitive proof 0:17:08.436 --> 0:17:11.876 that if you give iodine to people, go to vanishes. 0:17:12.596 --> 0:17:14.796 How quickly did he see that improvement? 0:17:15.396 --> 0:17:17.676 You saw it in a matter of weeks? 0:17:18.196 --> 0:17:22.716 Wow? So Akron is this weirdly open minded place in Cleveland? 0:17:22.796 --> 0:17:25.276 Is this weirdly closed minded place when it comes to 0:17:25.396 --> 0:17:27.916 one of the most significant scientific findings of the twentieth century. 0:17:28.756 --> 0:17:31.316 I think what happened is he went over to Akron 0:17:31.356 --> 0:17:34.476 because the president of the Akron School District was also 0:17:34.516 --> 0:17:40.356 an alum of Johns Hopkins and said, what do you 0:17:40.396 --> 0:17:42.556 think shall we do this together? And the guy said, yeao, 0:17:43.076 --> 0:17:43.676 I trust you. 0:17:45.236 --> 0:17:49.956 The Akron iodine experiment changes the world. It's up there 0:17:49.996 --> 0:17:53.356 on the list of greatest public health breakthroughs in history. 0:17:54.996 --> 0:17:57.596 But that was more than a century ago when I 0:17:57.636 --> 0:18:00.396 said I'd give Akron another shot at redemption. I was 0:18:00.436 --> 0:18:04.196 talking about now. This whole thing started one day when 0:18:04.196 --> 0:18:07.716 I was salting my pasta water. A light bulb went 0:18:07.756 --> 0:18:12.396 off inside my head and I realized I too have 0:18:12.476 --> 0:18:19.996 a magic wand first thing I did with my magic 0:18:20.036 --> 0:18:23.436 wand idea I call up Sema Sigayer, who runs a 0:18:23.516 --> 0:18:27.876 data analytics nonprofit called Cerco Ventures, lots of very smart 0:18:27.876 --> 0:18:30.956 people using data to solve public health problems. 0:18:31.756 --> 0:18:35.756 What do we not know about vaccine hesitancy? I think 0:18:35.996 --> 0:18:40.876 one interesting thing that we do not know is whether 0:18:41.196 --> 0:18:44.636 an injection actually matters. So I looked at a number 0:18:44.676 --> 0:18:48.276 of studies, and none of them actually explored whether the 0:18:48.396 --> 0:18:51.076 form of the vaccine matters. 0:18:51.716 --> 0:18:54.596 What she means by form is that there are plenty 0:18:54.636 --> 0:18:58.116 of ways to deliver a vaccine. One is by needle 0:18:58.196 --> 0:19:00.636 in a doctor's office, but you can give yourself a 0:19:00.636 --> 0:19:03.716 flu shot through an inhaler, and the same thing is 0:19:03.716 --> 0:19:07.156 being developed for a COVID vaccine. If we'd had the 0:19:07.276 --> 0:19:10.396 choice from day one of the pende to go needle 0:19:10.596 --> 0:19:14.116 or inhaler, which would have made the most sense. We 0:19:14.196 --> 0:19:17.196 don't know. Does the person who doesn't want to get 0:19:17.276 --> 0:19:21.356 vaccinated object to the concept of the vaccination or just 0:19:21.436 --> 0:19:24.836 the form. Segaire said that her firm once did research 0:19:24.836 --> 0:19:27.716 in India looking at why people were skeptical about certain 0:19:27.796 --> 0:19:28.996 kinds of medical treatments. 0:19:29.516 --> 0:19:31.156 And so while this is in India, and I'm not 0:19:31.516 --> 0:19:33.116 suggesting that this may be true in the US, but 0:19:33.116 --> 0:19:36.396 it's some really interesting results in that in India, for example, 0:19:36.436 --> 0:19:38.956 anything in the form of a powder is least value 0:19:38.956 --> 0:19:43.396 from a medicinal perspective, whereas a pill is of higher value, 0:19:43.516 --> 0:19:47.196 an injection even higher value, and an ivy even higher value. 0:19:47.596 --> 0:19:52.396 Are Westerners like Indians? Do we have an implied hierarchy 0:19:52.596 --> 0:19:55.156 when it comes to the form of medicine takes. We 0:19:55.236 --> 0:19:55.676 don't know. 0:19:56.636 --> 0:19:59.876 So it could be that for some people of vaccine 0:19:59.876 --> 0:20:01.996 in the form of an inhaler may not be as 0:20:02.916 --> 0:20:07.156 as valuable or perhaps as robust as an injection. 0:20:07.316 --> 0:20:11.036 For example, it's perception like I don't want to use 0:20:11.076 --> 0:20:13.596 it because I can't imagine that inhaling a vaccine is 0:20:13.596 --> 0:20:17.476 going to work. That's the thinking, and I can actually 0:20:17.476 --> 0:20:20.516 sort of understand that that intuitively, there will be a 0:20:20.516 --> 0:20:24.036 lot of people, particularly enthusiasts, who will be like, no, no, 0:20:23.916 --> 0:20:26.036 give me the real I want a little bit of pain. 0:20:26.076 --> 0:20:28.876 I want the real deal. Who knows where it's going 0:20:28.916 --> 0:20:29.836 if I'm just sniffing it. 0:20:31.156 --> 0:20:33.356 I mean, I'll be very honest, that's how I feel personally, 0:20:33.436 --> 0:20:36.916 despite being a scientist and knowing that Inhaler's work, I'll 0:20:36.956 --> 0:20:39.716 be like, I'd rather get an injection because my mental 0:20:39.756 --> 0:20:42.996 model of vaccinations are injections, right, That's how vaccines have 0:20:43.036 --> 0:20:46.156 always been given. So this is what we know. We 0:20:46.236 --> 0:20:49.156 know that twenty four percent of Americans are fearful of needles. 0:20:49.356 --> 0:20:57.356 That's astonishingly high numbers. Emma, it is. Yeah, so are 0:20:57.396 --> 0:21:01.156 the hardcore vaccine skeptics, the people jumping up and down 0:21:01.196 --> 0:21:04.676 and saying COVID doesn't exist, really just scared of needles, 0:21:05.436 --> 0:21:10.796 like really scared of needles and don't want to admit it. Maybe. 0:21:11.036 --> 0:21:14.036 I mean, we see world class athletes giving up millions 0:21:14.036 --> 0:21:16.876 of dollars in income because they refuse to get vaccinated. 0:21:19.116 --> 0:21:22.556 How on earth would a macho, testosterone driven manly man 0:21:22.716 --> 0:21:25.476 at the top of their sport admit that they just 0:21:25.596 --> 0:21:29.236 don't like the needle, even if they're given a lollipop afterwards, 0:21:29.676 --> 0:21:32.036 and even if the doctor distracts them with a puppet 0:21:32.076 --> 0:21:35.716 and says, look at the puppet. Is this what it's 0:21:35.756 --> 0:21:38.916 really all about? We don't know. We don't know anything. 0:21:39.556 --> 0:21:42.436 And when you're faced with this many, I don't knows 0:21:42.916 --> 0:21:55.956 what do you do? An experiment? That's what When David 0:21:55.996 --> 0:22:00.076 Marine did his experiment on the schoolgirls of Akron, he 0:22:00.156 --> 0:22:04.316 made them drink a little iodine suspended in solution. But 0:22:04.436 --> 0:22:07.756 that obviously isn't practical if your goal is to give 0:22:07.796 --> 0:22:12.316 iodine to everyone in Acron on a continuous basis. Besides, 0:22:12.636 --> 0:22:15.396 there were lots of idine skeptics around. Were they going 0:22:15.476 --> 0:22:19.036 to drink iodine straight up, day in day out? Probably not. 0:22:19.796 --> 0:22:22.996 He needed a better solution. Why does everyone settle on 0:22:23.156 --> 0:22:26.356 salt as the appropriate agent for delivering iodine to the population. 0:22:26.756 --> 0:22:30.556 Yeap, Well, salt is you know, in a way, it's 0:22:30.596 --> 0:22:34.396 a very good food fortification vehicle, period. I mean, it's 0:22:35.076 --> 0:22:38.996 consumed by everybody in the population, Michael Zeruman. Again, it's 0:22:39.036 --> 0:22:42.996 consumed in moderation. I mean, we eat too much salt, 0:22:42.996 --> 0:22:45.196 but no one can eat like twenty or thirty grams 0:22:45.196 --> 0:22:49.596 of salt in a day. Right. It's a good vehicle 0:22:49.636 --> 0:22:53.996 for idine because idine is such a trace essential element 0:22:54.036 --> 0:22:57.196 where we just need micrograms per day. You can easily 0:22:57.276 --> 0:22:59.236 add it into a few grams of salt, so it 0:22:59.356 --> 0:23:03.036 just disappears in there. And it's very stable. So if 0:23:03.076 --> 0:23:07.796 added to reasonable quality salt, it's stable as well. And 0:23:07.836 --> 0:23:10.276 it's very cheap. Right, So most places salt is a 0:23:10.356 --> 0:23:13.676 very cheap commodity and even the poor can afford it. 0:23:14.556 --> 0:23:18.116 Marine has a colleague, David Cowie, who starts writing letters 0:23:18.116 --> 0:23:20.756 to the big salt companies of the Midwest pitching the 0:23:20.836 --> 0:23:21.636 iodine idea. 0:23:22.276 --> 0:23:25.516 I'm desirous of getting in communication with the proper person 0:23:25.556 --> 0:23:27.636 in your company, with whom to take up the question 0:23:27.796 --> 0:23:31.876 of the iodization of all salt used as food in Michigan. 0:23:32.556 --> 0:23:35.836 He writes to Morton Salt in Chicago, owned by mister Morton. 0:23:36.156 --> 0:23:39.076 He writes to Diamond Crystal Salt in Saint Clair, just 0:23:39.196 --> 0:23:40.356 up the river from Detroit. 0:23:41.156 --> 0:23:43.996 Before carrying our work any further, we are anxious to 0:23:44.076 --> 0:23:48.156 counsel with the salt manufacturers and distributors in Michigan, Acquaint 0:23:48.196 --> 0:23:50.916 them with our plan, give them all the information we have, 0:23:51.196 --> 0:23:54.236 and get their ideas on the question, particularly as to 0:23:54.276 --> 0:23:56.756 whether there would be any objection from their viewpoint. 0:23:57.836 --> 0:24:01.236 It works, and soon enough every salt company in the 0:24:01.356 --> 0:24:04.436 country has agreed to add a dash of iodine to 0:24:04.476 --> 0:24:07.556 their salt. And that's why there's no goiter to speak 0:24:07.596 --> 0:24:10.716 of in Cleveland or Akron or anywhere else in the 0:24:10.756 --> 0:24:13.756 goater belt. Why the IQs of the people in the 0:24:13.836 --> 0:24:17.436 upper Peninsula of Michigan are no longer a standard deviation 0:24:17.556 --> 0:24:20.076 lower than everyone Else's why the salt you buy in 0:24:20.156 --> 0:24:25.116 the supermarket today has a label on the bottom iodized salt. 0:24:25.916 --> 0:24:29.276 That's why I sent my producers Leonelois to Michigan on 0:24:29.356 --> 0:24:32.756 a cold winter's day, to the Saint Clair facility of 0:24:32.796 --> 0:24:36.316 the Diamond Crystal Salt Company, the company that said yes 0:24:36.356 --> 0:24:40.996 to David Cowie and David Marine a century ago. A big, rugged, ancient, 0:24:41.396 --> 0:24:47.556 iconic factory, shimmering in white dust, salt salt everywhere, a 0:24:47.636 --> 0:24:48.796 temple of salt. 0:24:50.996 --> 0:24:53.876 So it looks Idad looks very similar to salts. 0:24:55.156 --> 0:24:58.716 It looks almost identical to salt. 0:24:58.956 --> 0:25:02.036 Leoneloiz saw the sacks of iodine waiting to be added 0:25:02.076 --> 0:25:04.556 to mountains of salt. And then they went to a 0:25:04.556 --> 0:25:09.996 small conference room to answer the crucial question. Is salt 0:25:10.276 --> 0:25:13.396 the kind of miraculous substance where you can sneak all 0:25:13.476 --> 0:25:15.716 kinds of stuff into it and no one will be 0:25:15.756 --> 0:25:18.916 the wiser? Wait, so you where did the taste test 0:25:18.956 --> 0:25:22.916 take place? You're in what what kind of room? 0:25:22.956 --> 0:25:24.396 Just a general like meeting room. 0:25:24.396 --> 0:25:24.876 In the back. 0:25:25.316 --> 0:25:29.556 We had lunch altogether. We had burgers and fries, and 0:25:29.596 --> 0:25:31.916