1 00:00:15,356 --> 00:00:23,276 Speaker 1: Pushkin. In early summer of nineteen ninety nine, there was 2 00:00:23,316 --> 00:00:28,396 Speaker 1: a strange incident in Belgium. 3 00:00:28,636 --> 00:00:32,196 Speaker 2: Products had been taken back from the market when it happened, 4 00:00:32,916 --> 00:00:35,516 Speaker 2: but obviously it was already a bit too late. 5 00:00:36,476 --> 00:00:39,236 Speaker 1: It began at a secondary school in a little town 6 00:00:39,316 --> 00:00:43,876 Speaker 1: called Bornum, just outside Antwerp. A group of students got sick, 7 00:00:44,636 --> 00:00:49,996 Speaker 1: abdominal distress, headaches, nausea, trembling, dizziness. Dozens of kids in 8 00:00:49,996 --> 00:00:52,356 Speaker 1: the first wave all ended up in the. 9 00:00:52,356 --> 00:00:55,756 Speaker 2: Hospital and the only commonality was that they had been 10 00:00:55,796 --> 00:00:59,876 Speaker 2: eating together, but each had eaten their own sandwiches, so 11 00:00:59,956 --> 00:01:04,836 Speaker 2: there was no possibility of a food born problem. 12 00:01:05,156 --> 00:01:09,076 Speaker 1: That's Benoit Memory. He's a medical toxicologist at the University 13 00:01:09,276 --> 00:01:12,156 Speaker 1: of Lovin. He was part of the group that investigated 14 00:01:12,196 --> 00:01:13,756 Speaker 1: the outbreak among the students. 15 00:01:14,156 --> 00:01:16,036 Speaker 2: The only thing that they had in common is that 16 00:01:16,076 --> 00:01:20,116 Speaker 2: they had drunk coca cola from bottles from a crate 17 00:01:21,076 --> 00:01:25,716 Speaker 2: and allegedly there was a strange odor in the coke. 18 00:01:26,116 --> 00:01:31,236 Speaker 2: And then the school teachers went in the different classrooms 19 00:01:31,756 --> 00:01:37,796 Speaker 2: asking is anybody feeling unwell and drunk coca cola, which 20 00:01:38,716 --> 00:01:42,476 Speaker 2: of course made sense at the time, but that led 21 00:01:42,476 --> 00:01:46,196 Speaker 2: a few more children to report sick to be taken 22 00:01:46,236 --> 00:01:46,876 Speaker 2: to hospital. 23 00:01:48,196 --> 00:01:51,476 Speaker 1: The story went national. The evening news was a montage 24 00:01:51,476 --> 00:01:55,196 Speaker 1: of ambulances and worried parents. The next day, four more 25 00:01:55,236 --> 00:01:56,636 Speaker 1: schools reported outbreaks. 26 00:01:57,196 --> 00:02:00,796 Speaker 2: I mean, it was really a state of panic. 27 00:02:05,676 --> 00:02:08,836 Speaker 1: Every single Coca Cola product in Belgium was pulled from 28 00:02:08,836 --> 00:02:12,916 Speaker 1: the shep and destroyed, thirty million cans and bottles, the 29 00:02:12,996 --> 00:02:16,796 Speaker 1: largest recall in Coca Cola history. The company was in crisis, 30 00:02:17,076 --> 00:02:21,316 Speaker 1: the stock price plummeted. I was transfixed by the Belgium 31 00:02:21,316 --> 00:02:24,676 Speaker 1: coke crisis, not because I had any special interest in 32 00:02:24,716 --> 00:02:28,996 Speaker 1: Coca Cola or Belgium, but because the whole affair reminded 33 00:02:29,036 --> 00:02:32,836 Speaker 1: me of another panic, something I'd lived through years before 34 00:02:33,116 --> 00:02:40,716 Speaker 1: that left me baffled and frustrated. My name is Malcolm Gladwell. 35 00:02:41,076 --> 00:02:45,196 Speaker 1: You're listening to Revisionist History, my podcast about things forgotten 36 00:02:45,236 --> 00:02:51,316 Speaker 1: and misunderstood. The next two episodes are about a panic 37 00:02:51,356 --> 00:02:54,756 Speaker 1: that swept the United States a quarter century ago, an 38 00:02:54,756 --> 00:03:00,156 Speaker 1: outbreak of insanity. I was in the middle of it, 39 00:03:00,636 --> 00:03:03,236 Speaker 1: covered it as a young reporter for the Washington Post, 40 00:03:03,636 --> 00:03:06,196 Speaker 1: but it took the Belgian coke crisis a few years 41 00:03:06,276 --> 00:03:10,636 Speaker 1: later for me to understand why it happened because you 42 00:03:10,676 --> 00:03:17,756 Speaker 1: know what poisoned all those Belgians. Nothing. The best explanation 43 00:03:17,836 --> 00:03:20,036 Speaker 1: Coca Cola could come up with was that some of 44 00:03:20,076 --> 00:03:23,316 Speaker 1: the carbon dioxide at their local bottling plant had been 45 00:03:23,396 --> 00:03:27,796 Speaker 1: contaminated with sulfur compounds enough to cause a slight odor, 46 00:03:28,036 --> 00:03:31,716 Speaker 1: but trace amounts orders of magnitude below what is necessary 47 00:03:31,716 --> 00:03:32,516 Speaker 1: to cause illness. 48 00:03:33,036 --> 00:03:36,916 Speaker 2: No major toxins detected, nothing that would suggest true poisoning, 49 00:03:37,396 --> 00:03:41,436 Speaker 2: and so epidemiologically it made no sense that there was 50 00:03:42,196 --> 00:03:45,036 Speaker 2: poisoning by a single, the same agent. 51 00:03:45,636 --> 00:03:48,836 Speaker 1: After looking into it, Memory and his colleagues concluded that 52 00:03:48,876 --> 00:03:51,476 Speaker 1: the crisis was an example of what's known as a 53 00:03:51,996 --> 00:03:58,316 Speaker 1: mass sociogenic illness, what used to be called mass hysteria. 54 00:04:01,876 --> 00:04:06,596 Speaker 1: People had real symptoms. They were nauseated and vomiting and dizzy, 55 00:04:06,956 --> 00:04:08,916 Speaker 1: and the initial batch of coke served at the school 56 00:04:08,916 --> 00:04:12,636 Speaker 1: in Jornum was a bit off, But the coke didn't 57 00:04:12,676 --> 00:04:17,156 Speaker 1: poison them. There was no actual connection between their sickness 58 00:04:17,556 --> 00:04:22,036 Speaker 1: and the thing they thought made them sick. Memory says 59 00:04:22,076 --> 00:04:26,036 Speaker 1: that he saw another sociogenic outbreak firsthand in Soviet Georgia 60 00:04:26,196 --> 00:04:29,716 Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty nine. Soviet troops had sprayed a group 61 00:04:29,756 --> 00:04:34,676 Speaker 1: of protesters with chemical agents, a terrible incident. The strange thing, though, 62 00:04:34,916 --> 00:04:37,356 Speaker 1: was that the children of the protesters had the same 63 00:04:37,596 --> 00:04:41,556 Speaker 1: symptoms as their parents, even though they weren't the ones 64 00:04:41,556 --> 00:04:45,636 Speaker 1: who were sprayed. In the medical literature, there are countless 65 00:04:45,676 --> 00:04:49,396 Speaker 1: cases like this, a group of people linked by some 66 00:04:49,556 --> 00:04:52,836 Speaker 1: shared anxiety come to believe they had been exposed to 67 00:04:52,916 --> 00:04:57,516 Speaker 1: something malevolent. And the scary thing is that when you're 68 00:04:57,556 --> 00:05:00,596 Speaker 1: in the middle of a sociogenic outbreak, when you're vomiting 69 00:05:00,596 --> 00:05:02,796 Speaker 1: and running a fever after drinking your can of coke, 70 00:05:03,116 --> 00:05:06,316 Speaker 1: you have no idea, none that the cause of your 71 00:05:06,356 --> 00:05:08,476 Speaker 1: illness is all in your imagination. 72 00:05:11,676 --> 00:05:14,716 Speaker 3: So she spoke, I mean her native tongue was German, 73 00:05:15,236 --> 00:05:18,756 Speaker 3: and then she spoke Hebrew, and she learned English, and 74 00:05:18,796 --> 00:05:21,396 Speaker 3: she learned French, and she learned Latin. 75 00:05:21,956 --> 00:05:22,476 Speaker 4: This is mom. 76 00:05:22,556 --> 00:05:27,396 Speaker 3: Yeah, maybe she knew Aramic very well. 77 00:05:27,516 --> 00:05:31,516 Speaker 5: Yes, she spoke with a private teacher rush in a 78 00:05:31,596 --> 00:05:34,156 Speaker 5: high school conversational Latin. 79 00:05:34,756 --> 00:05:36,756 Speaker 4: They's spoke Latin with each other. 80 00:05:37,556 --> 00:05:40,916 Speaker 1: I'm at the house of Ada Hamish, just outside of Baltimore, 81 00:05:41,156 --> 00:05:45,876 Speaker 1: on her porch. She's a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins. 82 00:05:45,876 --> 00:05:49,356 Speaker 1: Next to her is her sister, Tamar, professor of medicine 83 00:05:49,596 --> 00:05:53,036 Speaker 1: at Yale University, and next to Tamorrow their father, Paul, 84 00:05:53,396 --> 00:05:58,476 Speaker 1: retired professor of medicine at Georgetown University. Atta and Tamar 85 00:05:58,716 --> 00:06:02,276 Speaker 1: are talking about their mother, Marguite, also a professor of 86 00:06:02,316 --> 00:06:05,716 Speaker 1: medicine at Georgetown University until she died of cancer in 87 00:06:05,716 --> 00:06:06,756 Speaker 1: twenty eleven. 88 00:06:07,516 --> 00:06:08,356 Speaker 4: And then when Jack. 89 00:06:08,196 --> 00:06:10,076 Speaker 3: Cancer, she's like, oh, yeah, it's a little inconvenient, but 90 00:06:10,116 --> 00:06:12,676 Speaker 3: it's gonna be fine, just the way she did her 91 00:06:12,716 --> 00:06:15,436 Speaker 3: whole life, and she was very, very positive. She had 92 00:06:15,476 --> 00:06:18,836 Speaker 3: this amazing ability to make whoever she was talking to 93 00:06:19,116 --> 00:06:21,236 Speaker 3: think that they were the single most important person in 94 00:06:21,276 --> 00:06:23,076 Speaker 3: the room with the most interesting story. 95 00:06:23,716 --> 00:06:27,316 Speaker 1: Margite Hamish was born in Germany, then raised in Bucharest 96 00:06:27,396 --> 00:06:30,116 Speaker 1: after her family fled the Nazis in nineteen thirty six. 97 00:06:30,756 --> 00:06:33,676 Speaker 1: She met her husband Paul in Israel after the war. 98 00:06:34,556 --> 00:06:37,836 Speaker 1: She was the star. He was the protector, He was 99 00:06:37,876 --> 00:06:38,316 Speaker 1: the cook. 100 00:06:38,716 --> 00:06:40,436 Speaker 3: He was the come out of school and make sure 101 00:06:40,436 --> 00:06:42,956 Speaker 3: you don't have vaningitis when you can't move your neck. 102 00:06:43,476 --> 00:06:45,956 Speaker 3: He came to the place, he came to the games. 103 00:06:45,956 --> 00:06:49,276 Speaker 4: He cheered us on. He took a backseat to her. 104 00:06:49,636 --> 00:06:50,436 Speaker 4: He always did. 105 00:06:51,116 --> 00:06:53,596 Speaker 1: For sixty years. They were a team. 106 00:06:53,836 --> 00:06:55,236 Speaker 4: They would have breakfast and bed together. 107 00:06:55,276 --> 00:06:56,956 Speaker 3: They would drive to work together, they would work in 108 00:06:56,956 --> 00:06:58,676 Speaker 3: the same office, they would drive home together, they would 109 00:06:58,716 --> 00:07:01,036 Speaker 3: make dinner together, they would go and do whatever they 110 00:07:01,036 --> 00:07:01,876 Speaker 3: were doing for the evening. 111 00:07:01,756 --> 00:07:03,436 Speaker 4: Together, and they would go in the same bed. And 112 00:07:03,476 --> 00:07:05,156 Speaker 4: my mother would say, I just don't see enough of 113 00:07:05,156 --> 00:07:09,716 Speaker 4: your father all the time. 114 00:07:09,756 --> 00:07:14,796 Speaker 6: I just don't see enough. Which, yeah, and that's what 115 00:07:14,836 --> 00:07:16,476 Speaker 6: you would say, like, I don't know where it is. 116 00:07:16,476 --> 00:07:18,756 Speaker 6: I'm like, I think you went to the bathroom, mom, No, 117 00:07:18,836 --> 00:07:19,796 Speaker 6: I mean they were crazy. 118 00:07:19,836 --> 00:07:22,476 Speaker 4: I mean yeah, even when they were in their sixties. 119 00:07:22,556 --> 00:07:25,116 Speaker 3: You know, they always read the paper on a Sunday morning, 120 00:07:25,116 --> 00:07:30,116 Speaker 3: and we had a big yeah, And so they would 121 00:07:30,116 --> 00:07:33,556 Speaker 3: read the paper and they would chase each other around 122 00:07:33,636 --> 00:07:36,196 Speaker 3: like I mean, like kids in love. I mean like 123 00:07:36,236 --> 00:07:38,556 Speaker 3: I'm like, okay, guys, like you're sixty five, we've had enough, 124 00:07:39,036 --> 00:07:39,716 Speaker 3: come on all right. 125 00:07:39,996 --> 00:07:42,436 Speaker 4: Yeah, It's it was bizarre. It was very bizarre. 126 00:07:45,996 --> 00:07:50,396 Speaker 1: Marguite Hamish discovered an enzyme critical for newborn digestion, became 127 00:07:50,436 --> 00:07:53,396 Speaker 1: an expert on human milk and nutrition, lectured all over 128 00:07:53,436 --> 00:07:56,956 Speaker 1: the world, ran a major laboratory at Georgetown funded by 129 00:07:57,036 --> 00:08:00,516 Speaker 1: millions in research grants from the National Institutes of Health. 130 00:08:01,316 --> 00:08:04,396 Speaker 1: An intellectual, elegant and cultured. 131 00:08:05,516 --> 00:08:06,036 Speaker 4: Even when she. 132 00:08:06,036 --> 00:08:08,116 Speaker 3: Had three children and a full time job and everything else, 133 00:08:08,156 --> 00:08:10,956 Speaker 3: they went out at least three times a week to 134 00:08:11,196 --> 00:08:14,876 Speaker 3: a play or a concert or performance every week. 135 00:08:14,996 --> 00:08:16,956 Speaker 4: One weekend day was in museum. The other weekend day 136 00:08:16,996 --> 00:08:17,796 Speaker 4: was cooking for the week. 137 00:08:18,716 --> 00:08:21,236 Speaker 3: On Saturday afternoon, the offer was on and if you 138 00:08:21,316 --> 00:08:23,716 Speaker 3: made a sound, you were dead, So you took a nap. 139 00:08:23,756 --> 00:08:25,836 Speaker 4: From two to five Live from Lincoln suck Hit. 140 00:08:31,276 --> 00:08:34,716 Speaker 1: In the late nineteen eighties, Marguerite Homash had a small 141 00:08:34,756 --> 00:08:38,476 Speaker 1: problem in her lab, nothing major. A disagreement with one 142 00:08:38,516 --> 00:08:42,356 Speaker 1: of her researchers. The researcher quit, Then she changed her 143 00:08:42,396 --> 00:08:46,996 Speaker 1: mind wanted her job back. The Homishes rehired her. The 144 00:08:47,036 --> 00:08:50,796 Speaker 1: second time around, the researcher grew even more disgruntled. She 145 00:08:50,956 --> 00:08:55,236 Speaker 1: ended up making a series of accusations. Georgetown launched an investigation. 146 00:08:55,716 --> 00:08:58,996 Speaker 1: Hamish was cleared, but the researcher then appealed her case 147 00:08:59,236 --> 00:09:02,756 Speaker 1: to the National Institutes of Health, the institution that funded 148 00:09:02,796 --> 00:09:06,996 Speaker 1: Hamish's research. Because the NAH gives out billions of dollars 149 00:09:06,996 --> 00:09:09,956 Speaker 1: in research grants, they have a mechanism to ensure their 150 00:09:09,956 --> 00:09:13,396 Speaker 1: money is used appropriately. In those days, it was an 151 00:09:13,436 --> 00:09:17,956 Speaker 1: investigative unit called the OSI, the Office of Scientific Integrity. 152 00:09:18,636 --> 00:09:22,076 Speaker 1: When universities could not resolve disputes on their own, the 153 00:09:22,116 --> 00:09:25,356 Speaker 1: OSI would step in and take the case. That's what 154 00:09:25,476 --> 00:09:30,276 Speaker 1: happened with Humish. The OSI investigated and wrote a report. 155 00:09:30,836 --> 00:09:33,916 Speaker 3: Several people asked me what is this all about? And 156 00:09:33,956 --> 00:09:36,796 Speaker 3: the truth is that I really didn't know what it 157 00:09:36,836 --> 00:09:39,156 Speaker 3: was all about, in the sense that you know, there 158 00:09:39,196 --> 00:09:40,956 Speaker 3: was a lot of ranting and rating going on. 159 00:09:44,036 --> 00:09:46,716 Speaker 1: Now, let me ask you this, when was the last 160 00:09:46,716 --> 00:09:51,156 Speaker 1: time you heard about an internal laboratory dispute between medical 161 00:09:51,196 --> 00:09:56,436 Speaker 1: researchers working in some esoteric corner of human physiology. Unless 162 00:09:56,436 --> 00:10:00,556 Speaker 1: you're a scientist, I'm going to guess never. People in 163 00:10:00,676 --> 00:10:04,996 Speaker 1: academic laboratories work long hours in close quarters. The pay 164 00:10:05,076 --> 00:10:08,196 Speaker 1: is low. You can spend years on an experiment with 165 00:10:08,316 --> 00:10:11,116 Speaker 1: little to show for. You might see the person next 166 00:10:11,116 --> 00:10:13,276 Speaker 1: to you get a job, or publish a paper, or 167 00:10:13,316 --> 00:10:17,276 Speaker 1: win an award that you think you deserved. Competition for 168 00:10:17,356 --> 00:10:22,396 Speaker 1: funding is intense. Labs are stressful places, so what That's 169 00:10:22,396 --> 00:10:27,036 Speaker 1: why scientists publish their results to work out disagreements among themselves. 170 00:10:27,716 --> 00:10:33,196 Speaker 1: Fights rarely go public except during a brief period in 171 00:10:33,276 --> 00:10:39,356 Speaker 1: the early nineteen nineties, the window of insanity, when everything 172 00:10:39,716 --> 00:10:44,116 Speaker 1: went public. Back then, I was on a team of 173 00:10:44,156 --> 00:10:47,716 Speaker 1: science writers at the Washington Post. We call ourselves the Pod. 174 00:10:48,476 --> 00:10:51,356 Speaker 1: We wrote about medicine and physics and psychology and covered 175 00:10:51,396 --> 00:10:55,156 Speaker 1: the health bureaucracy, the NIH, the Food and Drug Administration, 176 00:10:55,356 --> 00:10:58,796 Speaker 1: the CDC and what were we obsessed with? Not just 177 00:10:58,956 --> 00:11:03,236 Speaker 1: us but our counterparts at other newspapers as well. Science fraud. 178 00:11:05,796 --> 00:11:10,276 Speaker 1: There was the Baltimore case, an insanely complicated allegation against 179 00:11:10,276 --> 00:11:14,596 Speaker 1: the Nobel Prize winner David Baltimore. The Gallow Case, an 180 00:11:14,716 --> 00:11:18,116 Speaker 1: unbelievable tale of the AIDS virus and a lab theft. 181 00:11:18,996 --> 00:11:23,516 Speaker 1: The Cleveland Clinic case It never ended, leaks, lawsuits, page 182 00:11:23,516 --> 00:11:27,716 Speaker 1: one stories, big headlines. A science writer at the Chicago Tribune, 183 00:11:27,916 --> 00:11:32,036 Speaker 1: a reporter named John Krudsen, wrote eighty thousand words on 184 00:11:32,076 --> 00:11:36,596 Speaker 1: the Gallow case. Eighty thousand words for a newspaper. I 185 00:11:36,676 --> 00:11:40,156 Speaker 1: have written books that aren't eighty thousand words. There was 186 00:11:40,196 --> 00:11:43,756 Speaker 1: a nine hour Congressional hearing entirely devoted to a scientific 187 00:11:43,756 --> 00:11:48,756 Speaker 1: paper entitled Altered Repertoire of Indogenous Immunoglobular Gene expression in 188 00:11:48,836 --> 00:11:54,196 Speaker 1: transgenic mice containing a rearranged MEW heavy chain gene. Nine 189 00:11:54,236 --> 00:11:58,516 Speaker 1: hours during which congressmen attempted to sound intelligent on the 190 00:11:58,556 --> 00:12:04,356 Speaker 1: subject of transgenic MEW products. Then in the middle of 191 00:12:04,396 --> 00:12:08,516 Speaker 1: all of this, Marguite Hamish. I never met her, but 192 00:12:08,636 --> 00:12:11,636 Speaker 1: for some reason, out of all the cases that bubbled 193 00:12:11,716 --> 00:12:15,236 Speaker 1: up in the great science Panic, hers was always the 194 00:12:15,276 --> 00:12:19,276 Speaker 1: case that affected me the deepest. It made me angry 195 00:12:19,636 --> 00:12:21,556 Speaker 1: in ways that will take the better part of this 196 00:12:21,676 --> 00:12:26,796 Speaker 1: episode and the next to explain. Why did Marguerite Hamish 197 00:12:26,916 --> 00:12:29,716 Speaker 1: choose to spend her life in a laboratory out of 198 00:12:29,796 --> 00:12:32,676 Speaker 1: all the things she could have done. It's not hard 199 00:12:32,716 --> 00:12:36,196 Speaker 1: to imagine she was a refugee from Nazi Germany. 200 00:12:36,876 --> 00:12:39,996 Speaker 3: There were times when I remember vividly I interrupted my 201 00:12:40,076 --> 00:12:42,596 Speaker 3: mother because I don't know, I was in sixth grade 202 00:12:42,636 --> 00:12:45,556 Speaker 3: and a boy dumped me or something. I said, Nikki 203 00:12:45,636 --> 00:12:47,476 Speaker 3: dumped me, And she looked at me and she said, 204 00:12:47,516 --> 00:12:50,276 Speaker 3: you know, at your age, I was, you know, in 205 00:12:50,316 --> 00:12:53,516 Speaker 3: an air age shelter, you know, wondering what I was. 206 00:12:53,476 --> 00:12:54,396 Speaker 5: Going to eat. 207 00:12:55,076 --> 00:12:59,716 Speaker 1: A laboratory offered order and certainty and safety. After all, 208 00:12:59,836 --> 00:13:04,796 Speaker 1: she'd been through what happens outside the laboratory doesn't matter, 209 00:13:05,956 --> 00:13:09,436 Speaker 1: and then out of the blue, the outside world does matter. 210 00:13:10,276 --> 00:13:14,116 Speaker 1: A routine disagreement with someone in her lab turned into 211 00:13:14,156 --> 00:13:18,716 Speaker 1: a national story. Marguerite Hamish has been forced to defend 212 00:13:18,756 --> 00:13:23,676 Speaker 1: herself against charges of falsifying data, plagiarism, and mismanaging research 213 00:13:23,716 --> 00:13:28,476 Speaker 1: in her laboratory. Washington Post, January twenty second, nineteen ninety one, 214 00:13:28,956 --> 00:13:31,236 Speaker 1: written by one of my colleagues. I'm not going to 215 00:13:31,276 --> 00:13:33,716 Speaker 1: say who, because I think that any of us back 216 00:13:33,756 --> 00:13:36,476 Speaker 1: then could have written it. It was what we did. 217 00:13:39,036 --> 00:13:41,556 Speaker 3: I remember vividly when the paper came out and one 218 00:13:41,596 --> 00:13:44,836 Speaker 3: of my friends said, have you seen this paper? Have 219 00:13:44,916 --> 00:13:47,596 Speaker 3: you seen this article? And I said what article? And 220 00:13:47,636 --> 00:13:50,836 Speaker 3: they're like, did your mom commit scientific frod. I'm like, no, 221 00:13:50,916 --> 00:13:52,436 Speaker 3: what are you talking about? And I read it and 222 00:13:52,436 --> 00:13:53,516 Speaker 3: I was like, gosh. 223 00:13:53,236 --> 00:13:53,916 Speaker 4: This is bad. 224 00:13:55,556 --> 00:14:00,036 Speaker 1: It was bad. The Homishes didn't want to talk at first. 225 00:14:00,636 --> 00:14:02,276 Speaker 1: They told me they didn't want to dig up all 226 00:14:02,316 --> 00:14:02,996 Speaker 1: those memories. 227 00:14:04,796 --> 00:14:08,516 Speaker 5: I was ready to get her. Fifty seven years it's 228 00:14:08,556 --> 00:14:12,556 Speaker 5: a long time, and I was. I was her protector. 229 00:14:13,356 --> 00:14:18,156 Speaker 3: They had was beyond my relationship, and he couldn't protect 230 00:14:18,156 --> 00:14:18,556 Speaker 3: it from us. 231 00:14:18,596 --> 00:14:19,596 Speaker 4: It was really bad, and that. 232 00:14:19,716 --> 00:14:22,676 Speaker 5: I couldn't protect her in this particular. 233 00:14:22,156 --> 00:14:28,676 Speaker 1: Case, Paul Hamish could not protect my geete anymore. She 234 00:14:28,796 --> 00:14:31,476 Speaker 1: had been swept up in a panic. 235 00:14:53,236 --> 00:14:56,076 Speaker 7: Would you knowingly allow yourself to be treated by a 236 00:14:56,156 --> 00:14:59,276 Speaker 7: doctor with AIDS. It's been just over a year since 237 00:14:59,356 --> 00:15:03,036 Speaker 7: Denis David Acer died of age in Florida, and he 238 00:15:03,156 --> 00:15:06,756 Speaker 7: left five of his former patients with the disease of AIDS. 239 00:15:07,316 --> 00:15:11,316 Speaker 1: The Oprah Winfrey Show, September nineteen ninety one. Oprah's guest 240 00:15:11,676 --> 00:15:15,116 Speaker 1: is twenty three year old Kimberly Bergalis, one of five 241 00:15:15,196 --> 00:15:17,116 Speaker 1: patients infected by doctor Acer. 242 00:15:17,836 --> 00:15:22,476 Speaker 7: Has there been any clarification, Kimberly on how you contracted 243 00:15:22,476 --> 00:15:26,956 Speaker 7: the disease? Was there a cut or was the doctor cut? 244 00:15:27,076 --> 00:15:29,836 Speaker 7: Or was it transmitted through the instrument? Or what? Have 245 00:15:30,236 --> 00:15:31,396 Speaker 7: you been clarified on. 246 00:15:31,396 --> 00:15:31,996 Speaker 2: That as yet? 247 00:15:32,756 --> 00:15:33,676 Speaker 8: No, we haven't. 248 00:15:34,036 --> 00:15:37,516 Speaker 7: You don't, And I suppose at this point it doesn't 249 00:15:37,796 --> 00:15:38,916 Speaker 7: really matter that much. 250 00:15:39,116 --> 00:15:39,836 Speaker 2: It mattered. 251 00:15:41,356 --> 00:15:44,276 Speaker 1: The AIDS epidemic was then at its height, there was 252 00:15:44,276 --> 00:15:47,436 Speaker 1: no effective treatment. The epidemic had started with the gay 253 00:15:47,436 --> 00:15:50,596 Speaker 1: community and IVY drug users and people who had received 254 00:15:50,676 --> 00:15:55,836 Speaker 1: contaminated blood transfusions. But Kimberly Bergalis wasn't gay, or a 255 00:15:55,916 --> 00:15:58,476 Speaker 1: drug user, or someone who had gone through a major 256 00:15:58,516 --> 00:16:01,996 Speaker 1: medical procedure. She was just a college student in Florida, 257 00:16:02,516 --> 00:16:05,396 Speaker 1: a virgin from a religious family, who had done nothing 258 00:16:05,396 --> 00:16:08,036 Speaker 1: more than go see the dentist. If you would have 259 00:16:08,116 --> 00:16:11,436 Speaker 1: chart public fear of a HIV over time, That summer 260 00:16:11,476 --> 00:16:15,476 Speaker 1: of nineteen ninety one, during Kimberly Bergalis's slow and very 261 00:16:15,476 --> 00:16:20,636 Speaker 1: public death, was the peak. Bergalis's parents took her on 262 00:16:20,676 --> 00:16:23,116 Speaker 1: a train from their home in Florida to Washington, d C. 263 00:16:23,316 --> 00:16:27,796 Speaker 1: To testify before Congress. They wanted mandatory HIV testing for 264 00:16:27,876 --> 00:16:31,716 Speaker 1: all health care providers. An army of reporters from around 265 00:16:31,716 --> 00:16:35,236 Speaker 1: the country climbed on board to document her journey. I 266 00:16:35,356 --> 00:16:40,076 Speaker 1: was one of them. Kimberly Bergalis's Ride of Rage September 267 00:16:40,116 --> 00:16:45,156 Speaker 1: twenty sixth, nineteen ninety one, Washington Post. She was down 268 00:16:45,156 --> 00:16:48,556 Speaker 1: to seventy pounds by that point. When she spoke to reporters, 269 00:16:48,916 --> 00:16:51,756 Speaker 1: her father would carry her in his arms. There was 270 00:16:51,756 --> 00:16:55,516 Speaker 1: a sixty minutes episode about her. A long running controversy 271 00:16:55,636 --> 00:17:00,796 Speaker 1: over whether her dentist deliberately infected her. Interviews Headlines and 272 00:17:00,796 --> 00:17:02,516 Speaker 1: then Oprah twice. 273 00:17:02,996 --> 00:17:05,996 Speaker 7: Now in a recent letter to Florida Health officials. Kimberly 274 00:17:06,156 --> 00:17:10,196 Speaker 7: Bergalis makes it clear who she thinks is responsible for 275 00:17:10,436 --> 00:17:13,996 Speaker 7: her having this disease. In an excerpt, Kimberly states, who 276 00:17:13,996 --> 00:17:16,596 Speaker 7: do I blame? Do I blame myself? I sure don't. 277 00:17:16,996 --> 00:17:20,356 Speaker 7: I never had a blood transfusion. I blamed doctor Acer 278 00:17:20,436 --> 00:17:26,436 Speaker 7: and every single one of you, bastard. She says, I'm dying, guys, goodbye. Really, 279 00:17:26,476 --> 00:17:29,196 Speaker 7: we all just are interested in knowing, first of all, 280 00:17:29,236 --> 00:17:33,276 Speaker 7: how you are feeling, and how are you doing. 281 00:17:35,676 --> 00:17:35,996 Speaker 2: Well. 282 00:17:36,116 --> 00:17:40,476 Speaker 3: I'm walking with assistance right now, mm hmm. 283 00:17:41,236 --> 00:17:43,956 Speaker 5: And I'm eating a lot mm hm. 284 00:17:45,116 --> 00:17:46,996 Speaker 8: I'm still pretty weak h. 285 00:17:48,916 --> 00:17:50,596 Speaker 3: But I feel better. 286 00:17:52,676 --> 00:17:58,116 Speaker 1: A few months later, she was gone. The great anxiety 287 00:17:58,276 --> 00:18:01,156 Speaker 1: of the early Aides epidemic was that science and the 288 00:18:01,196 --> 00:18:06,116 Speaker 1: medical establishment had failed us, they hadn't protected us, and 289 00:18:06,116 --> 00:18:08,236 Speaker 1: the regardless case embodied that fear. 290 00:18:09,116 --> 00:18:12,836 Speaker 8: I had a lot of abuse from your medical establishment. 291 00:18:12,876 --> 00:18:15,076 Speaker 8: I think that's one of the most frustrating things. 292 00:18:15,796 --> 00:18:18,716 Speaker 1: When Kimberly appeared on OPRAH the final time, her mother 293 00:18:18,796 --> 00:18:20,636 Speaker 1: Anna was by her side, you. 294 00:18:20,596 --> 00:18:24,156 Speaker 8: Know, my daughter dying. They realized that she is dying. 295 00:18:24,516 --> 00:18:29,796 Speaker 8: They realized that she is dying because of the medical establishment, 296 00:18:29,876 --> 00:18:34,516 Speaker 8: the civil liberties, the gay activist groups and they're not 297 00:18:34,596 --> 00:18:37,676 Speaker 8: doing anything. You know, I'm not emotional, I'm not hysterical. 298 00:18:37,796 --> 00:18:38,796 Speaker 8: I am enraged. 299 00:18:41,236 --> 00:18:44,276 Speaker 1: Ten years into the AIDS epidemic, people had found their 300 00:18:44,316 --> 00:18:48,756 Speaker 1: culprit the medical establishment. Now, of course, just a few 301 00:18:48,836 --> 00:18:52,036 Speaker 1: years later, the same medical establishment that everyone was blaming 302 00:18:52,036 --> 00:18:54,596 Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety one would figure out how to treat 303 00:18:54,796 --> 00:18:58,676 Speaker 1: HIV and the thing that was so scary, infection by 304 00:18:58,716 --> 00:19:01,396 Speaker 1: a healthcare provider would turn out to be a one off, 305 00:19:01,876 --> 00:19:05,036 Speaker 1: incredibly rare. But no one knew that. In a summer 306 00:19:05,036 --> 00:19:08,916 Speaker 1: of nineteen ninety one. All we had was fear and anger. 307 00:19:09,516 --> 00:19:12,436 Speaker 1: And once you start seeing something dark in the motives 308 00:19:12,436 --> 00:19:16,996 Speaker 1: of people in white coats, it doesn't end. Every disagreement, 309 00:19:17,156 --> 00:19:20,356 Speaker 1: every anomaly, every mole hill becomes a scandal. 310 00:19:22,756 --> 00:19:24,836 Speaker 5: We'll call me designed. 311 00:19:24,836 --> 00:19:30,756 Speaker 7: A hoofe building is through the DeFi behen hindi oxino. 312 00:19:30,916 --> 00:19:34,276 Speaker 1: That's exactly what happened with the Belgian Cochysed area. A 313 00:19:34,316 --> 00:19:38,956 Speaker 1: few months earlier, Belgium had been through a crisis. Chickens 314 00:19:38,956 --> 00:19:42,116 Speaker 1: and farms across the country had fallen ill their feet 315 00:19:42,116 --> 00:19:45,236 Speaker 1: had gotten contaminated with dioxin, one of the most toxic 316 00:19:45,316 --> 00:19:46,356 Speaker 1: of all chemicals. 317 00:19:46,956 --> 00:19:49,436 Speaker 2: No, it was major. It was it was It's probably 318 00:19:49,476 --> 00:19:52,156 Speaker 2: one of the biggest food scares in I would say 319 00:19:52,236 --> 00:19:53,236 Speaker 2: maybe in history. 320 00:19:53,636 --> 00:19:56,996 Speaker 1: Benoit Memory, the toxicologist, was in the middle of it. 321 00:19:57,516 --> 00:20:00,956 Speaker 1: The Belgian government had to recall anything that might possibly 322 00:20:00,996 --> 00:20:05,436 Speaker 1: have been in contact with the contaminated feed, eggs, chicken beef. 323 00:20:06,156 --> 00:20:09,116 Speaker 1: The news was filled with talk about how extraordinarily danger 324 00:20:09,316 --> 00:20:12,876 Speaker 1: just dioxins are, how even trace amounts can cause cancer. 325 00:20:13,756 --> 00:20:17,596 Speaker 2: Every day on television you you could see animals that 326 00:20:17,636 --> 00:20:22,076 Speaker 2: were being slaughtered and dumped into mass graves. 327 00:20:21,676 --> 00:20:24,676 Speaker 7: And of a hane specific acid second ant. 328 00:20:24,756 --> 00:20:27,196 Speaker 3: And so. 329 00:20:29,556 --> 00:20:32,676 Speaker 1: Then a few weeks later, a batch of coke smells 330 00:20:32,676 --> 00:20:36,476 Speaker 1: a little funny and the panic starts, a panic born 331 00:20:36,676 --> 00:20:40,276 Speaker 1: entirely in the imagination of terrified children and their parents 332 00:20:40,276 --> 00:20:41,396 Speaker 1: and teachers. 333 00:20:41,636 --> 00:20:47,316 Speaker 2: School children being poisoned by coca cola, which is again 334 00:20:47,556 --> 00:20:51,716 Speaker 2: one of the biggest symbols of our modern food. And 335 00:20:51,756 --> 00:20:54,716 Speaker 2: so that was really the sort of sherry on on 336 00:20:54,796 --> 00:20:55,836 Speaker 2: that rotten cake. 337 00:20:56,996 --> 00:21:01,876 Speaker 1: Epidemics of fear repeat themselves. You start with dioxin, you 338 00:21:02,036 --> 00:21:05,476 Speaker 1: end up with coca cola, You start with kimberly bergalis, 339 00:21:06,076 --> 00:21:09,676 Speaker 1: you end up with margite Hamish. First time is tragedy. 340 00:21:10,156 --> 00:21:14,956 Speaker 1: The second time is farce. On March twenty second, nineteen 341 00:21:14,996 --> 00:21:18,996 Speaker 1: ninety one, the Washington Post published its second article on 342 00:21:19,036 --> 00:21:22,396 Speaker 1: the Homish case. It began the way all the science 343 00:21:22,436 --> 00:21:27,756 Speaker 1: fraud stories of that era began, with a call to authority. Quote. 344 00:21:27,796 --> 00:21:31,556 Speaker 1: The National Institutes of Health has concluded that a top 345 00:21:31,636 --> 00:21:38,036 Speaker 1: scientist at Georgetown University Medical Center committed scientific misconduct by 346 00:21:38,076 --> 00:21:42,556 Speaker 1: knowingly submitting false information in applying for two federal research 347 00:21:42,636 --> 00:21:46,996 Speaker 1: grants end quote. This is now two months after the 348 00:21:47,036 --> 00:21:49,876 Speaker 1: first big piece on the Homish case in the Washington Post. 349 00:21:50,516 --> 00:21:55,196 Speaker 1: The Office of Scientific Integrity has finished its investigation and 350 00:21:55,276 --> 00:22:01,796 Speaker 1: found her guilty. Maybe because this was a story written 351 00:22:01,836 --> 00:22:04,516 Speaker 1: by someone else, and maybe because I could see it 352 00:22:04,556 --> 00:22:08,236 Speaker 1: with fresh eyes, But I remember reading the piece and 353 00:22:08,276 --> 00:22:13,516 Speaker 1: reading it again and wondering, what is this. Something's wrong. 354 00:22:14,636 --> 00:22:19,396 Speaker 1: This was the point I became a skeptic first thing. 355 00:22:20,396 --> 00:22:22,556 Speaker 1: So it sounds like there was some kind of formal 356 00:22:22,636 --> 00:22:28,796 Speaker 1: hearing which ruled against Marguerite Hamish. Right. Actually, No, here's 357 00:22:28,796 --> 00:22:31,396 Speaker 1: the way things worked at the Office of Scientific Integrity. 358 00:22:31,836 --> 00:22:35,236 Speaker 1: They would interview both parties to a disagreement, write up 359 00:22:35,276 --> 00:22:37,956 Speaker 1: their findings, and then just lead them to the press. 360 00:22:38,556 --> 00:22:41,476 Speaker 1: Someone in the office would slip his or her favorite 361 00:22:41,516 --> 00:22:46,396 Speaker 1: reporter a package of documents stamped something like confidential or 362 00:22:46,436 --> 00:22:50,556 Speaker 1: for internal use only, or simply draft, put inside plain 363 00:22:50,756 --> 00:22:55,316 Speaker 1: brown envelopes. I got them. We all got them. Now, 364 00:22:55,396 --> 00:22:58,236 Speaker 1: if you scroll down to the second to last paragraph 365 00:22:58,276 --> 00:23:02,236 Speaker 1: in the Washington Post piece, you'll come to this Hamish, 366 00:23:02,596 --> 00:23:05,476 Speaker 1: who is chief of the Division of Developmental Biology and 367 00:23:05,596 --> 00:23:10,836 Speaker 1: Nutrition in Georgetown's Pediatrics department, have an opportunity to review 368 00:23:10,916 --> 00:23:15,996 Speaker 1: the report and submit a written rebuttal. End quote, will 369 00:23:16,116 --> 00:23:20,396 Speaker 1: have an opportunity she hadn't seen it, and also submit 370 00:23:20,556 --> 00:23:24,876 Speaker 1: a written rebuttal. The OSI had concluded Marguite Hamish was 371 00:23:24,916 --> 00:23:29,036 Speaker 1: a fraud without showing her the evidence or letting her respond. 372 00:23:31,036 --> 00:23:34,076 Speaker 1: I remember once, not long before this, doing another story 373 00:23:34,116 --> 00:23:36,956 Speaker 1: on a science fraud case. I called the attorney for 374 00:23:37,036 --> 00:23:40,596 Speaker 1: the accused, and he said, well, I can't comment because 375 00:23:40,636 --> 00:23:42,916 Speaker 1: I have no idea what my client is accused of. 376 00:23:43,836 --> 00:23:46,636 Speaker 1: I took my leaked OSI report out of its plain 377 00:23:46,796 --> 00:23:51,716 Speaker 1: brown wrapper, photocopied it, and sent it over to him. 378 00:23:51,796 --> 00:23:55,076 Speaker 1: No part of that transaction had seemed weird to me 379 00:23:55,116 --> 00:23:59,996 Speaker 1: at the time. Now, the most important question of all, 380 00:24:00,596 --> 00:24:04,316 Speaker 1: what was it that Marguite Hamish did what was her 381 00:24:04,676 --> 00:24:07,876 Speaker 1: alleged fraud. I have been going on and on about 382 00:24:07,916 --> 00:24:10,076 Speaker 1: this case for a good half power now, and I 383 00:24:10,116 --> 00:24:13,716 Speaker 1: haven't told you you know why, because we didn't know. 384 00:24:14,436 --> 00:24:16,716 Speaker 1: You won't find a good explanation in the Washington Post 385 00:24:16,756 --> 00:24:19,996 Speaker 1: story of March twenty second, nineteen ninety one, just vague 386 00:24:20,076 --> 00:24:24,796 Speaker 1: mentions of an experiment involving rabbits. Well, let me tell 387 00:24:24,836 --> 00:24:28,676 Speaker 1: you the final accusation against marguite Hamish. At the end 388 00:24:28,756 --> 00:24:32,796 Speaker 1: of a twenty thousand word NIH grant application, in a 389 00:24:32,836 --> 00:24:36,156 Speaker 1: section that was completely peripheral to the subject of her 390 00:24:36,196 --> 00:24:42,156 Speaker 1: grant request, Marguite Hamish wrote the following sentence, last, but 391 00:24:42,276 --> 00:24:45,356 Speaker 1: not least, we are presently using the newborn rabbit as 392 00:24:45,396 --> 00:24:53,516 Speaker 1: an animal model for total parential nutrition. After scrutinizing every 393 00:24:53,556 --> 00:24:57,356 Speaker 1: word of her grand application, the OSI said that's wrong 394 00:24:58,036 --> 00:25:01,356 Speaker 1: because at the time Marguite Hamish wrote the grant, she 395 00:25:01,436 --> 00:25:04,476 Speaker 1: didn't actually have the animal model up and running. She 396 00:25:04,676 --> 00:25:09,156 Speaker 1: wasn't presently using newborn rabbits. Their understanding of the the 397 00:25:09,196 --> 00:25:13,156 Speaker 1: word presently was it stands as a synonym for currently. 398 00:25:15,916 --> 00:25:20,396 Speaker 1: Hamish's defense was she had designed the rabbit experiments. She 399 00:25:20,516 --> 00:25:23,556 Speaker 1: had received the money to conduct those experiments, she had 400 00:25:23,556 --> 00:25:27,556 Speaker 1: obtained the special surgical equipment to run the rabbit experiments, 401 00:25:27,756 --> 00:25:30,996 Speaker 1: and she had begun collecting the necessary preliminary data on 402 00:25:31,076 --> 00:25:34,516 Speaker 1: the rabbits prior to the experiment. She was going to 403 00:25:34,516 --> 00:25:40,076 Speaker 1: do the rabbit experiments presently. She was using presently as 404 00:25:40,116 --> 00:25:43,036 Speaker 1: a synonym for shortly, which is the way that it 405 00:25:43,076 --> 00:25:46,516 Speaker 1: is often used in British English. The doctor will be 406 00:25:46,596 --> 00:25:54,916 Speaker 1: with you presently. That's it. Her crime was not writing 407 00:25:54,956 --> 00:25:58,676 Speaker 1: the more conventional we will shortly be using the newborn 408 00:25:58,756 --> 00:26:02,836 Speaker 1: rabbit as an animal model, or maybe shifting the word 409 00:26:03,036 --> 00:26:05,676 Speaker 1: presently to the end of the sentence, which is the 410 00:26:05,676 --> 00:26:08,156 Speaker 1: one place where in American English we will accept the 411 00:26:08,156 --> 00:26:12,156 Speaker 1: British definition of presently, we will be using the newborn 412 00:26:12,196 --> 00:26:15,836 Speaker 1: rabbit as an animal model for total parential nutrition. Presently. 413 00:26:16,316 --> 00:26:19,076 Speaker 1: But I don't know. She was born in Germany, she 414 00:26:19,276 --> 00:26:26,076 Speaker 1: was educated in Israel. English is her seventh language. Okay, 415 00:26:26,556 --> 00:26:30,756 Speaker 1: now you might say this is ridiculous. Still, ridiculous cases 416 00:26:30,796 --> 00:26:35,196 Speaker 1: sometimes happen, so what. But after Hamish it dawned on 417 00:26:35,276 --> 00:26:38,396 Speaker 1: me that they were all like this, all the science 418 00:26:38,436 --> 00:26:41,796 Speaker 1: fraud cases that we had become obsessed with like the 419 00:26:41,836 --> 00:26:45,516 Speaker 1: case of Meko Popovic, a virologist at the NIH, the 420 00:26:45,596 --> 00:26:48,036 Speaker 1: scientists who figured out how to grow the AIDS virus 421 00:26:48,076 --> 00:26:52,996 Speaker 1: in the laboratory, without which nothing, no subsequent research on 422 00:26:53,156 --> 00:26:57,036 Speaker 1: HIV would have been possible. Here he is as a 423 00:26:57,076 --> 00:27:00,676 Speaker 1: bit character in the film adaptation of and the band. 424 00:27:00,476 --> 00:27:03,996 Speaker 5: Played on Yes, Yes, Who's Calling. 425 00:27:05,076 --> 00:27:08,116 Speaker 1: At a time when people knew nothing about HIV except 426 00:27:08,116 --> 00:27:10,796 Speaker 1: that it was the most as virus anyone had ever seen, 427 00:27:11,236 --> 00:27:14,956 Speaker 1: Papovic slaved away in the laboratory hours on end, working 428 00:27:14,996 --> 00:27:18,516 Speaker 1: with samples of HIV infected blood with his hands. 429 00:27:19,036 --> 00:27:19,396 Speaker 4: Anything. 430 00:27:21,316 --> 00:27:24,596 Speaker 5: How can I how can I isolate the virus? 431 00:27:24,676 --> 00:27:26,316 Speaker 4: If I just can't keep the settles alive. 432 00:27:28,196 --> 00:27:33,516 Speaker 1: Popovic was also accused of fraud. Why because in a 433 00:27:33,596 --> 00:27:36,396 Speaker 1: chart in the paper where he first described growing the 434 00:27:36,436 --> 00:27:40,436 Speaker 1: AIDS virus, Papovic eight times used the initials n D 435 00:27:41,236 --> 00:27:44,036 Speaker 1: in the place of a number. The charts legend said 436 00:27:44,476 --> 00:27:49,516 Speaker 1: ND meant not done. The OSI said, wait, you did 437 00:27:49,556 --> 00:27:55,436 Speaker 1: do those experiments. That's fraud, except Popovic's english is bad. 438 00:27:56,356 --> 00:27:58,996 Speaker 1: Somebody helped him write the paper, and that person put 439 00:27:59,036 --> 00:28:03,156 Speaker 1: in the footnote about ND meaning not done. What Popovic 440 00:28:03,276 --> 00:28:07,796 Speaker 1: actually meant by ND was not determinable, meaning the results 441 00:28:07,796 --> 00:28:11,636 Speaker 1: were inconclusive. So why did Popovic miss the error in 442 00:28:11,716 --> 00:28:15,596 Speaker 1: the not done footnote. Maybe because the article in question 443 00:28:15,716 --> 00:28:19,156 Speaker 1: was published in nineteen eighty four, when AIDS was in 444 00:28:19,236 --> 00:28:23,076 Speaker 1: its first terrifying stages, and maybe he was in just 445 00:28:23,276 --> 00:28:25,396 Speaker 1: a little bit of a hurry to publish the most 446 00:28:25,396 --> 00:28:33,436 Speaker 1: important advance to that point against the epidemic. The battle 447 00:28:33,476 --> 00:28:38,716 Speaker 1: over n D went on for years. The OSI conducted 448 00:28:38,716 --> 00:28:43,636 Speaker 1: more than seven thousand hours of interviews and deliberations. Papovic 449 00:28:43,716 --> 00:28:47,276 Speaker 1: sued lost ran through his savings, got chased out of 450 00:28:47,396 --> 00:28:51,276 Speaker 1: Nih over a dispute over the correct interpretation of two 451 00:28:51,396 --> 00:28:57,356 Speaker 1: initials n D. Presently it was like the Spanish Inquisition, 452 00:28:57,556 --> 00:29:04,156 Speaker 1: staffed by a mob of angry copy editors in the 453 00:29:04,156 --> 00:29:06,396 Speaker 1: face of a panic. It is the job of those 454 00:29:06,476 --> 00:29:11,636 Speaker 1: who know better to stand and say, like Benoit Memory did, wait, 455 00:29:11,796 --> 00:29:15,156 Speaker 1: it isn't the coke. The coke is harmless. This is 456 00:29:15,236 --> 00:29:19,316 Speaker 1: misplaced anxiety. It is the job of those who know 457 00:29:19,476 --> 00:29:23,436 Speaker 1: better to deliver the difficult truth. But those of us 458 00:29:23,476 --> 00:29:26,476 Speaker 1: who were science writers in that era didn't do that. 459 00:29:27,476 --> 00:29:30,916 Speaker 1: We lapped up the leaks from the OSI. We wrote 460 00:29:30,956 --> 00:29:35,196 Speaker 1: our sensational stories, and we tore apart the lives of 461 00:29:35,276 --> 00:29:41,116 Speaker 1: innocent people. No one remembers Marguite Homish today. She's a 462 00:29:41,156 --> 00:29:45,476 Speaker 1: footnote one scientist lang Gone who worked away quietly in 463 00:29:45,516 --> 00:29:47,396 Speaker 1: a lab on a problem that most of us have 464 00:29:47,436 --> 00:29:48,036 Speaker 1: never heard of. 465 00:29:49,396 --> 00:29:51,956 Speaker 3: First of all, the amount of material that this case 466 00:29:52,036 --> 00:29:56,196 Speaker 3: generated was no less than three hundred pounds of paper. Okay, 467 00:29:56,276 --> 00:29:59,316 Speaker 3: I mean, I would say, in their house, right in 468 00:29:59,356 --> 00:30:01,556 Speaker 3: their house. So and you didn't see the part that 469 00:30:01,636 --> 00:30:03,556 Speaker 3: was downstairs that you told me it was an entire 470 00:30:03,596 --> 00:30:05,956 Speaker 3: foucon entire firec And then up in the cellar there 471 00:30:05,996 --> 00:30:07,956 Speaker 3: were boxes and boxes full of binders. 472 00:30:09,116 --> 00:30:12,636 Speaker 1: Eat Hamish shouldn't be a footnote. Her case should be 473 00:30:12,636 --> 00:30:16,076 Speaker 1: a warning. This is what happens when we let our 474 00:30:16,116 --> 00:30:17,476 Speaker 1: fears consume us. 475 00:30:18,036 --> 00:30:21,116 Speaker 3: But I opened a binder, and I mean her annotations 476 00:30:21,156 --> 00:30:26,636 Speaker 3: were she annotated every every binder had her handwriting in it. 477 00:30:26,676 --> 00:30:29,036 Speaker 4: This isn't true. I didn't say that, you know. I 478 00:30:29,036 --> 00:30:30,396 Speaker 4: think this is misinterpreted. 479 00:30:30,756 --> 00:30:35,556 Speaker 3: Tiny mom handwriting everywhere, yellow pages, legal pages, stuck in 480 00:30:35,836 --> 00:30:37,276 Speaker 3: I disagree with this. 481 00:30:37,276 --> 00:30:39,756 Speaker 4: This isn't right. Every binder she annotated. 482 00:30:39,996 --> 00:30:44,436 Speaker 3: Every mom Mom annotated every binder of everything with this case. 483 00:30:44,516 --> 00:30:46,436 Speaker 4: So think about what she could have been doing at 484 00:30:46,476 --> 00:30:46,996 Speaker 4: that time. 485 00:30:51,236 --> 00:30:54,996 Speaker 1: Then one day it stopped. How that happened is the 486 00:30:55,036 --> 00:30:58,396 Speaker 1: subject of the next episode. How all the cases that 487 00:30:58,476 --> 00:31:01,716 Speaker 1: obsessed us just went away and the fever passed. 488 00:31:04,236 --> 00:31:05,036 Speaker 4: It aged her. 489 00:31:05,116 --> 00:31:06,556 Speaker 3: I think a lot. I mean when I think of 490 00:31:06,596 --> 00:31:10,716 Speaker 3: my mother and how she aged, she was a woman 491 00:31:10,756 --> 00:31:14,196 Speaker 3: who likes true. In her late forties early fifties was 492 00:31:14,236 --> 00:31:17,436 Speaker 3: still very beautiful, but by the time she had sixties, 493 00:31:17,476 --> 00:31:20,116 Speaker 3: she looked every bit of sixty, and that decade was 494 00:31:20,356 --> 00:31:21,396 Speaker 3: probably hard for her. 495 00:31:21,556 --> 00:31:25,916 Speaker 5: She was always g four with me, and I didn't 496 00:31:25,956 --> 00:31:30,956 Speaker 5: know that she's suffering, and to what extent she's suffering 497 00:31:31,076 --> 00:31:32,596 Speaker 5: for this whole saying, I don't think. 498 00:31:32,636 --> 00:31:35,476 Speaker 3: Well, I tell you I talked to Mom a lot 499 00:31:35,516 --> 00:31:39,676 Speaker 3: about it, and what she said was, I pretend it's 500 00:31:39,716 --> 00:31:42,596 Speaker 3: not happening until unless I have to speak with the lawyer, 501 00:31:42,956 --> 00:31:45,116 Speaker 3: and then I get a migraine, and then the next time. Five. 502 00:31:47,996 --> 00:31:50,836 Speaker 1: One last question, And because I don't want to keep 503 00:31:50,836 --> 00:31:56,156 Speaker 1: you guys from ever did anyone from ANAH ever apologize? 504 00:31:57,396 --> 00:31:59,196 Speaker 5: No? No, about who? 505 00:31:59,556 --> 00:32:01,276 Speaker 4: Yeah, no, I don't think anyone ever apologized. 506 00:32:04,556 --> 00:32:11,836 Speaker 1: The insanity passes, then everyone pretends it ever happened, except 507 00:32:11,876 --> 00:32:16,476 Speaker 1: for those who don't have the luxury of pretending I 508 00:32:16,596 --> 00:32:29,076 Speaker 1: was angry about it. Then I'm angry about it still. 509 00:32:29,316 --> 00:32:33,156 Speaker 1: Revisionist History is a panoply production. The lead producer is 510 00:32:33,236 --> 00:32:37,236 Speaker 1: Mei LaBelle with Jacob Smith and Camille Baptista. Our editor 511 00:32:37,356 --> 00:32:41,436 Speaker 1: is Julia Barton. Flonon Williams is our engineer. Fact checking 512 00:32:41,476 --> 00:32:45,956 Speaker 1: by Beth Johnson. Original music by Luis Giera. Special thanks 513 00:32:45,996 --> 00:32:50,516 Speaker 1: to Andy Bauers and Jacob Weisberg. I'm Malcolm Gadwell. 514 00:32:56,076 --> 00:33:00,236 Speaker 5: Even when she was dying, I took having wheelchair to 515 00:33:00,356 --> 00:33:03,356 Speaker 5: the Kennedy Center is as much as I called. 516 00:33:03,756 --> 00:33:04,916 Speaker 4: She needed to see art.