WEBVTT - Higher Animals with Michael Specter 0:00:15.356 --> 0:00:22.676 Pushkin. I got my first real job in journalism at 0:00:22.676 --> 0:00:25.956 the Washington Post. It was the nineteen eighties. I was 0:00:25.956 --> 0:00:30.716 twenty three. I had never written a newspaper story before. 0:00:31.076 --> 0:00:33.596 I had no idea what I was doing. All round 0:00:33.596 --> 0:00:37.556 me people were shouting into telephones, banging out stories on deadline. 0:00:37.796 --> 0:00:41.916 I sat there, mute, terrified, convinced that I would be 0:00:41.996 --> 0:00:47.276 found out and fired. And then I was rescued by 0:00:47.276 --> 0:00:52.316 this crazy, opinionated, insanely productive, brilliant genius of a reporter who, 0:00:52.396 --> 0:00:55.756 if memory serves, used to cruise the newsroom every passover 0:00:56.196 --> 0:01:00.796 handing out matza. His name was Michael Spector. I was 0:01:00.876 --> 0:01:03.996 rescued by Michael Specter. He fed me stories, he wrote 0:01:04.036 --> 0:01:06.596 my leaves, he shared his byline. He taught me how 0:01:06.596 --> 0:01:09.916 to handle critics, which I had never forgotten. Somebody would 0:01:09.916 --> 0:01:12.396 call him up to register one complaint or another, and 0:01:12.436 --> 0:01:15.236 Michael would interrupt them and say, you seem to have 0:01:15.276 --> 0:01:18.996 forgotten one thing. I don't work for you, sage advice 0:01:19.356 --> 0:01:22.956 that has guided my career ever since I was the 0:01:22.996 --> 0:01:27.116 tadpole trying to stay afloat. Michael was my big, friendly 0:01:27.436 --> 0:01:35.676 guardian frog. Now why am I going on and on 0:01:35.676 --> 0:01:38.436 about Michael, because when I look out from my office 0:01:38.436 --> 0:01:42.596 here at Pushkin, whose office do I see Michael Spector, 0:01:43.396 --> 0:01:50.516 Tadpole and Frog still together? Michael, thank you for joining 0:01:50.556 --> 0:01:50.996 me today. 0:01:51.396 --> 0:01:52.996 Thank you now. I'm happy to be here. 0:01:53.796 --> 0:01:56.396 Michael Spector, friend of the show, New Yorker, science writer, 0:01:56.636 --> 0:02:00.396 mit professor, seer of the Future, total Ham. 0:02:00.956 --> 0:02:04.236 Now, normally when I do these things, normally I have 0:02:04.396 --> 0:02:06.916 like champagne in the green room and where is that? 0:02:07.076 --> 0:02:09.596 Well, you'll have to talk to Malcolm about that. Okay, 0:02:10.396 --> 0:02:13.676 Welcome to Revision is History, my podcast about things overlooked 0:02:13.876 --> 0:02:18.036 and misunderstood. I'm Malcolm Glaubwe. Today in the show, an 0:02:18.036 --> 0:02:21.236 old friend gives me the inside scoop on the future 0:02:21.716 --> 0:02:30.596 of life on Earth. For Michael, the real significance of 0:02:30.636 --> 0:02:34.356 the last few years was not COVID nineteen. It's the 0:02:34.556 --> 0:02:40.596 mRNA vaccines because the synthetic biology technology behind those vaccines 0:02:40.916 --> 0:02:44.556 is going to change everything about our world. It's a 0:02:44.636 --> 0:02:48.356 revolution on the scale of the first computers. And Michael 0:02:48.356 --> 0:02:52.956 has written an audiobook about that revolution, Higher Animals, Vaccines, 0:02:53.356 --> 0:02:58.116 Synthetic biology, and the Future of life, and it is amazing. 0:02:58.836 --> 0:03:01.156 So I asked Michael to sit down for a chat 0:03:01.316 --> 0:03:03.676 about some of the big ideas in the audiobook and 0:03:03.716 --> 0:03:04.596 to play some of it. 0:03:04.636 --> 0:03:04.916 For me. 0:03:06.076 --> 0:03:08.036 One of the things that struck me is I was 0:03:08.076 --> 0:03:11.636 reading your book, was you make this very compelling and 0:03:11.676 --> 0:03:16.156 convincing argument. This is a revolution on the order of 0:03:16.436 --> 0:03:20.076 electricity being invented. It's that kind of level revolution. People 0:03:20.356 --> 0:03:22.836 refer to Twitter as being a revolution. Twitter is like, 0:03:23.236 --> 0:03:26.116 if that's a revolution, you know, they problem we have 0:03:26.196 --> 0:03:29.316 rob there should be like a revolution pyramid and we 0:03:29.396 --> 0:03:32.396 give there's like a level B, level, C, level, D 0:03:32.476 --> 0:03:37.236 level G level. Twitter is like F. Electricity is a 0:03:37.556 --> 0:03:38.916 this is a this. 0:03:38.996 --> 0:03:42.876 Is a R A plus because we're taking a physical science, 0:03:42.956 --> 0:03:47.756 biology and we're turning it into an information science. What 0:03:47.796 --> 0:03:50.036 that means is that if I think of something clever 0:03:50.156 --> 0:03:53.996 to do, like, for instance, create a vaccine against COVID, 0:03:54.716 --> 0:03:56.836 I can put it up on the Internet and people 0:03:56.836 --> 0:03:59.796 all over the world can download it within minutes, which 0:03:59.836 --> 0:04:02.916 is why we had a vaccine, which is what happened 0:04:02.996 --> 0:04:06.316 so rapidly for COVID. It was the first vaccine that 0:04:06.476 --> 0:04:10.436 was ever made in a lab. Loaded, the sequences were 0:04:10.516 --> 0:04:14.596 uploaded to the internet. Scientists all over the world downloaded it, 0:04:15.196 --> 0:04:19.636 put the parts together made the virus and infect itself. Moderna, 0:04:19.756 --> 0:04:22.676 the company that was the first of one of two 0:04:22.876 --> 0:04:27.556 to have an mRNA vaccine. They essentially had that vaccine 0:04:27.596 --> 0:04:32.556 in seven days. Yeah. The fastest vaccine that has ever 0:04:32.596 --> 0:04:36.116 been developed in humanity before was months, and that took 0:04:36.236 --> 0:04:37.396 four years. 0:04:37.796 --> 0:04:39.156 Polly, it took fifty. 0:04:40.116 --> 0:04:43.636 HIV we're pushing fifty now and it's killed tens of 0:04:43.636 --> 0:04:47.636 millions of people, and many very brilliant people have dedicated 0:04:47.676 --> 0:04:49.276 their lives to figuring it out. 0:04:49.556 --> 0:04:53.316 Yeah. Yeah, here's the puzzle I have. If this is 0:04:53.356 --> 0:04:59.036 a level A A plus revolution, and yet it seems 0:04:59.076 --> 0:05:02.156 to be that nobody knows about it. Like, for example, 0:05:02.676 --> 0:05:05.236 not a day passes when you can't hear some lament 0:05:05.316 --> 0:05:08.756 from some Silicon Valley person, which is all about how 0:05:09.196 --> 0:05:12.716 you know the Remember the famous they promised is flying planes, 0:05:12.756 --> 0:05:16.596 and all we got was fourteen characters. Actually we did 0:05:16.636 --> 0:05:19.596 get something way better than flying planes. But for some 0:05:19.676 --> 0:05:22.036 reason you're not paying any attention to it. Why have 0:05:22.116 --> 0:05:23.516 we ignored this revolution? 0:05:23.556 --> 0:05:25.876 Well, a lot of it is expectations, and I have 0:05:25.956 --> 0:05:30.236 to say I'm in disrespect not a lover of Silicon 0:05:30.356 --> 0:05:34.676 Valley's approach because their approach to synthetic biology is often 0:05:35.836 --> 0:05:38.876 there are no billionaires, there's no billion dollar companies. You 0:05:38.956 --> 0:05:42.436 can't quadruple your investment in an hour and a half. 0:05:42.516 --> 0:05:45.556 We don't want that, and the fact is to take 0:05:45.596 --> 0:05:50.396 a little while. But there have been remarkable advances constantly, 0:05:50.956 --> 0:05:53.076 and I go into them in this book and some 0:05:53.236 --> 0:05:56.556 to tell. But I think when I tell people who 0:05:56.556 --> 0:06:01.196 are not scientists that biology has become like information, it's 0:06:01.276 --> 0:06:04.636 just like computers, except instead of bits and bytes, we 0:06:04.756 --> 0:06:09.476 use DNA, letters, ACTNG. They're like, what how do you 0:06:09.516 --> 0:06:12.276 make it? Well, we have DNA printers, we can write DNA, 0:06:12.636 --> 0:06:16.036 we can put them together, we can create DNA, and 0:06:16.076 --> 0:06:19.356 we can rearrange DNA in any way that we want. 0:06:19.556 --> 0:06:22.436 If that's not a revolution, If being able to sort 0:06:22.476 --> 0:06:26.996 of rewrite the basic elements of life isn't a revolution 0:06:27.116 --> 0:06:29.396 on this planet, I just don't know what that word means. 0:06:29.596 --> 0:06:33.796 Yeah. Yeah, when you were doing this book, what was 0:06:33.836 --> 0:06:36.836 the coolest, weirdest, most fun moment? 0:06:37.956 --> 0:06:42.596 Well, I mean, for me, in chapter four, I interviewed 0:06:42.636 --> 0:06:47.116 a blackfooted ferret. Well that's a defensive ferret, chatter way, 0:06:48.036 --> 0:06:52.036 And I do mean, well, when you interviewed the ferret, Yeah, 0:06:52.076 --> 0:06:55.356 it's very rare that I get to interview an endangered 0:06:55.556 --> 0:06:58.596 animal of any kind. It happens to me the most 0:06:58.716 --> 0:07:02.676 endangered species in America. And it's endangered because for a 0:07:02.716 --> 0:07:05.836 lot of reasons, but one of them, the significant one, 0:07:05.956 --> 0:07:09.396 is it gets the plague, the black plague, get the 0:07:09.436 --> 0:07:11.436 black well, they get a thing called silvadic plague. 0:07:11.436 --> 0:07:15.516 But it's thought life for a ferret without being susceptible too. 0:07:15.676 --> 0:07:19.876 It's hard, It's really hard. And the thing is, there's 0:07:19.916 --> 0:07:22.596 a vaccine for the plague and it works on ferrits. 0:07:22.676 --> 0:07:26.996 You can't run around Wyoming, Utah, all the Western States 0:07:27.076 --> 0:07:29.436 vaccinating every ferret. It's just crazy. 0:07:29.476 --> 0:07:31.596 Why because they're vaccine skeptics. 0:07:31.116 --> 0:07:33.716 Or because you just can't catch them all. 0:07:34.196 --> 0:07:35.756 They're in the wrong part of the country. 0:07:36.276 --> 0:07:41.036 Live free or die of maybe, I'm sure. What you 0:07:41.116 --> 0:07:45.396 can do is you can take that vaccine and you 0:07:45.516 --> 0:07:50.996 can splice it into the DNA of a ferret so 0:07:51.036 --> 0:07:55.716 that it passes on the antibodies to its progeny. So 0:07:55.956 --> 0:08:00.476 basically it is a heritable vaccine and you're born vaccinated 0:08:00.796 --> 0:08:03.156 against the plague. And that's so. 0:08:03.356 --> 0:08:06.396 Are we going to do that with us with non ferrets? 0:08:07.076 --> 0:08:10.196 I mean, yeah, we will eventually do that, but I'm 0:08:10.196 --> 0:08:13.196 not sure we'll do it with vaccines. I think when 0:08:13.236 --> 0:08:15.356 it comes to changing our DNA, I think the first 0:08:15.356 --> 0:08:17.756 thing we have to say is is there a really 0:08:17.876 --> 0:08:21.236 compelling reason to do that? And if you have a vaccine, 0:08:21.436 --> 0:08:23.436 if you have something you can like shoot in your 0:08:23.516 --> 0:08:26.236 arm or swallow, that'll take care of a disease. I'm 0:08:26.276 --> 0:08:29.796 not so sure that rewriting the basic fundamental code of 0:08:29.876 --> 0:08:33.036 humanity is the way to go. Yeah, but there will 0:08:33.076 --> 0:08:37.436 be diseases that people want to eliminate, and we will 0:08:37.436 --> 0:08:39.516 be able to eliminate them in that way, and it 0:08:39.556 --> 0:08:43.436 will start a kind of interesting slippery slope of how 0:08:43.436 --> 0:08:44.556 do we decide what to do? 0:08:44.916 --> 0:08:49.316 Yeah? Wait, so interview in the ferret that was high 0:08:49.316 --> 0:08:53.796 on the list. Yeah, the vaccine skeptic ferret. What's the 0:08:53.876 --> 0:08:54.316 number two? 0:08:55.516 --> 0:08:57.876 Well, this is a personal highlight for me because I've 0:08:57.876 --> 0:09:01.716 spent so many years writing about things like genetically modified 0:09:01.756 --> 0:09:05.636 products and having people scream about how dangerous they are 0:09:05.876 --> 0:09:10.356 and which they are not. And a company called Ginkgo 0:09:10.476 --> 0:09:14.596 Bioworks went public in late twenty twenty one, and I 0:09:14.676 --> 0:09:18.996 went to the day on the New York Stock Exchange 0:09:19.036 --> 0:09:23.996 when they were announcing their offering, and the whole floor 0:09:23.996 --> 0:09:29.356 of the New York Stock Exchange was chanting DNA, d A, 0:09:29.716 --> 0:09:34.036 and there were huge pictures all around. I love GMOs, 0:09:34.036 --> 0:09:36.196 And it was like I died and went to some weird, 0:09:36.276 --> 0:09:37.556 perverted heavens. 0:09:37.276 --> 0:09:39.996 Because only found your people on Wall Street. Wait, if 0:09:40.036 --> 0:09:44.316 you're a company that's doing work on genetic modification and 0:09:44.356 --> 0:09:47.596 you want to avoid the kind of bad publicity and 0:09:48.276 --> 0:09:55.516 nut jobs that have plagued your field, don't call yourself Dinko, bioworks, whatever, Ginko, Ginko, 0:09:55.956 --> 0:10:00.276 it's worse. Call yourself acme. You know, better products inc 0:10:00.396 --> 0:10:00.876 or something. 0:10:01.276 --> 0:10:04.916 Ginko is a three thousand year old Chinese tree. It's 0:10:04.956 --> 0:10:08.156 the both. But you're I mean, you're right. Look, Synthetic 0:10:08.156 --> 0:10:11.316 biology is not an ideal name for a discipline in 0:10:11.356 --> 0:10:14.476 which we make things with biology because it scares the 0:10:14.516 --> 0:10:17.396 crap out of a lot of people. But it's hard 0:10:17.476 --> 0:10:22.356 to undo a name that exists and replace it. And 0:10:22.436 --> 0:10:24.316 so that's where we are, and so I think the 0:10:24.356 --> 0:10:26.356 thing we need to do, Like if you go to Ginko, 0:10:26.356 --> 0:10:28.636 their motto is we want to grow biology. We don't 0:10:28.636 --> 0:10:30.716 want to make it. We don't want factories we don't 0:10:30.756 --> 0:10:33.796 want chemicals. We're just going to grow stuff in a vat. 0:10:34.076 --> 0:10:36.476 We're going to grow nitrogen in a vat. We're going 0:10:36.556 --> 0:10:40.796 to grow dyes so that you that are completely benign, 0:10:40.836 --> 0:10:43.196 so that you don't have to use these horrible chemicals 0:10:43.236 --> 0:10:46.756 to make blue jeens. And they're doing that, and it's 0:10:46.876 --> 0:10:47.956 really kind of interesting. 0:10:48.156 --> 0:10:53.716 Wait, Michael, in a book that began with smallpox moved 0:10:53.756 --> 0:10:56.996 on to some of the most serious existential questions. 0:10:57.236 --> 0:10:58.316 Yeah, we get the blue jens. 0:10:58.476 --> 0:11:01.196 You end up getting to someone who solved the blue 0:11:01.236 --> 0:11:02.396 jen dye problem. 0:11:03.276 --> 0:11:07.756 It's all of a piece. It's an environmental problem that 0:11:07.916 --> 0:11:10.996 is a result of us having to rely on chemicals. 0:11:11.116 --> 0:11:14.796 And what they're saying is we don't need to build 0:11:14.836 --> 0:11:17.676 with chemistry. We can build with biology, and we can 0:11:17.676 --> 0:11:21.356 do all sorts of stuff. We can do medicines, we 0:11:21.396 --> 0:11:26.076 can do environmental remediation. If there's something like I mean, 0:11:26.396 --> 0:11:29.876 it would bottle your mind to know how much blue 0:11:30.036 --> 0:11:32.836 dye is made and how ruinous it is for the environment. 0:11:33.276 --> 0:11:36.836 So if you could get rid of those millions of 0:11:36.916 --> 0:11:39.956 tons of year and just grow it into that in 0:11:39.996 --> 0:11:44.396 a way that isn't chemically derived, you know, I taught 0:11:44.476 --> 0:11:47.516 bioengineering for a while at Stanford, and those students were 0:11:47.516 --> 0:11:50.316 more engineers than they were biologists, and they were trying 0:11:50.356 --> 0:11:54.276 to figure out how to apply engineering to cells. And 0:11:55.316 --> 0:11:58.516 in a lab now you'll have people who know a 0:11:58.516 --> 0:12:01.876 lot about biology, but they might know more about systems 0:12:01.956 --> 0:12:07.516 biology and computers and engineering. And you can't really do 0:12:07.636 --> 0:12:11.316 biology anymore unless you have those people ready to call. 0:12:12.236 --> 0:12:14.596 This reminds me of the son of a friend of 0:12:14.636 --> 0:12:18.676 mine is one of those brainy Stanford engineering types, and 0:12:18.836 --> 0:12:21.476 he does computer science and he works at some startup, 0:12:21.636 --> 0:12:24.076 you know, but if you talk to him, it's really interesting. 0:12:24.396 --> 0:12:28.276 So he's whatever he is twenty two. It's clear he 0:12:28.396 --> 0:12:31.116 talks about things going on in the world of science 0:12:31.556 --> 0:12:35.956 in exactly the way he talks about computer code. It's 0:12:35.996 --> 0:12:38.756 all the same, it is. It's really interesting. It's like, 0:12:39.396 --> 0:12:43.676 you know, I grew up like you, writing about these 0:12:43.836 --> 0:12:46.196 disciplines as if they were each in a kind of 0:12:46.236 --> 0:12:50.036 fortified castle on a different hill in southern Italy, right, 0:12:50.076 --> 0:12:52.156 and you had to throw on the hill and you know, 0:12:52.556 --> 0:12:54.916 jump get over the drawbridge in order to understand what 0:12:54.996 --> 0:12:57.676 was going on the discipline. Now it's like those walls 0:12:57.676 --> 0:12:59.996 are down, those walls are and sort of what your 0:13:00.676 --> 0:13:04.436 book is about that if the walls come down, it's 0:13:05.236 --> 0:13:07.956 it's exciting, but it's also kind of terrifying. 0:13:09.116 --> 0:13:11.196 We hope I make that point clearly in the book. 0:13:11.236 --> 0:13:13.316 I mean, I think this is a really exciting time, 0:13:13.596 --> 0:13:16.516 and I don't think it's hyped to say we're going 0:13:16.556 --> 0:13:20.756 to create a lot of solutions to terrible problems. I 0:13:20.796 --> 0:13:22.956 also don't think it's hyped to say that you know 0:13:23.236 --> 0:13:26.676 it used to be. It is like moving from a 0:13:26.756 --> 0:13:29.436 giant main frame computer where it used to take up 0:13:29.516 --> 0:13:32.316 four rooms to a computer on our phone that's more 0:13:32.356 --> 0:13:36.196 powerful than what's sent astronauts to the moon. Well, that's 0:13:36.276 --> 0:13:39.156 going to happen. It's beginning to happen with biology. And 0:13:39.396 --> 0:13:41.676 while that is great, it also means there's going to 0:13:41.676 --> 0:13:42.956 be lots of people who are going to be able 0:13:43.036 --> 0:13:46.036 to design things on their phone. And some of those things, 0:13:46.796 --> 0:13:49.916 either on purpose or by accident, are not going to 0:13:49.916 --> 0:13:52.796 be things we want whipping around the universe or made. 0:13:53.356 --> 0:13:57.596 And so we have to really start paying attention to 0:13:57.956 --> 0:14:01.036 how easy it's going to be to make viruses, to 0:14:01.196 --> 0:14:04.756 alter viruses, and that's one of the things with smallpox. 0:14:04.796 --> 0:14:10.036 I mean, it is now possible, very very hard to do, 0:14:10.156 --> 0:14:12.116 and not a lot of people could do it. To 0:14:12.196 --> 0:14:16.676 make smallpox. Uh, scientists in Canada famously made horsebox, which 0:14:16.836 --> 0:14:21.276 was a cousin of smallpox. Once you start being able 0:14:21.356 --> 0:14:23.876 to make those things, you can make them in such 0:14:23.876 --> 0:14:27.556 a way that they evade the current vaccines. We can 0:14:27.596 --> 0:14:30.156 then develop new vaccines, and you're in a really ugly 0:14:30.276 --> 0:14:32.316 arms race. So we need to be careful about that. 0:14:32.436 --> 0:14:35.396 And for once we need to ask a question that 0:14:35.476 --> 0:14:39.636 we never ask, which is are there technologies we shouldn't use? 0:14:40.116 --> 0:14:44.676 Yeah? Yeah, so you've written Higher Animals is essentially a 0:14:44.676 --> 0:14:46.636 book about this revolution. 0:14:47.276 --> 0:14:52.716 Yeah, I mean I started with smallpox, which there's a 0:14:52.796 --> 0:14:56.716 bit in the first chapter about the last great smallpox 0:14:56.756 --> 0:14:59.236 scare in the United States, which is in nineteen forty 0:14:59.276 --> 0:15:02.516 seven in New York. Yeah. I mean a person got 0:15:02.556 --> 0:15:04.596 on a bus and came to the city and he 0:15:04.636 --> 0:15:08.716 could have wiped out the entire population. So, yeah, someone 0:15:08.796 --> 0:15:11.116 came to New York City carrying. 0:15:10.716 --> 0:15:12.516 Small parks in nineteen forty seven. 0:15:12.596 --> 0:15:17.516 In nineteen forty seven. Yeah, and you don't know that 0:15:17.676 --> 0:15:20.636 it's not written on your shoulder. There's no way of 0:15:20.716 --> 0:15:25.316 knowing you're infected. And you can create an incredible epanemen. 0:15:26.116 --> 0:15:30.756 So there was legit. There was a legitimate fear in 0:15:30.796 --> 0:15:35.316 the lifetime of my mom and your mom that New 0:15:35.396 --> 0:15:37.516 York City could have been wiped out by one of 0:15:37.596 --> 0:15:42.236 the most one of the scariest epidemics in human history. 0:15:42.476 --> 0:15:44.196 Incredibly legitimate fear. 0:15:44.716 --> 0:15:48.356 And the chapter we're going to play for you is 0:15:48.436 --> 0:15:50.396 about what happened next. 0:15:50.636 --> 0:15:53.716 And I won't give anything away to accept to say 0:15:53.756 --> 0:15:55.716 that New York City stories. 0:15:55.436 --> 0:16:00.956 Yes, yes, we can, we can. We can confirm that 0:16:01.036 --> 0:16:04.796 the city is vexxillare I just thought of a better 0:16:04.836 --> 0:16:05.636 title for your book. 0:16:06.196 --> 0:16:08.116 Where were you three months ago? Yeah? 0:16:08.196 --> 0:16:09.756 What pandor pox? 0:16:10.556 --> 0:16:11.236 That is good. 0:16:11.876 --> 0:16:17.156 That's good, Michael. This has been wonderful. The book Hire 0:16:17.196 --> 0:16:22.276 Animals is amazing, and I encourage all of you listening 0:16:22.356 --> 0:16:24.196 to stick around and listen to chapter one. 0:16:24.956 --> 0:16:26.836 Thanks Mausman. Great wonderful. 0:16:27.476 --> 0:16:31.516 Okay, there's your cliffhanger, the near destruction of New York City. 0:16:31.756 --> 0:16:34.236 How did they stop it? You'll find out in this 0:16:34.356 --> 0:16:43.356 amazing chapter excerpt right after the break. The year is 0:16:43.396 --> 0:16:47.436 nineteen forty seven. A man named Eugene Lebar has come 0:16:47.476 --> 0:16:50.596 to New York City and died of smallpox, and the 0:16:50.676 --> 0:16:54.836 health commissioner, the amazingly named Israel Weinstein, has to figure 0:16:54.836 --> 0:16:57.796 out how to stop the disease before it wipes out 0:16:57.796 --> 0:17:00.356 the whole city. Oh and a lot of people are 0:17:00.356 --> 0:17:02.676 about to gather in one place for a big parade. 0:17:03.036 --> 0:17:06.476 Let me just say, this is an amazing, gripping story. 0:17:07.036 --> 0:17:09.676 Like you think the Last of Us is good, you 0:17:09.756 --> 0:17:12.596 haven't seen anything yet. Roll tape. 0:17:13.356 --> 0:17:16.916 Many city officials were dismayed to find Israel Weinstein in 0:17:16.996 --> 0:17:19.956 charge of this crisis. He was new on the job 0:17:20.236 --> 0:17:23.196 and had come from the Bureau of Health Education, where 0:17:23.196 --> 0:17:27.596 he'd mainly worked with the press. Also, Weinstein seemed kind 0:17:27.596 --> 0:17:32.996 of strange. He installed a chin up bar at the 0:17:33.036 --> 0:17:35.716 door of his office, and he rarely walked in or 0:17:35.756 --> 0:17:39.476 out without doing a few pull ups. Few members of 0:17:39.516 --> 0:17:42.676 the medical establishment had even met this new commissioner, and 0:17:42.716 --> 0:17:45.156 he was about to face the biggest challenge any American 0:17:45.196 --> 0:17:51.036 health official had seen in decades. James Imperato, who would 0:17:51.076 --> 0:17:54.636 later serve as commissioner himself, knows the kind of challenge 0:17:54.676 --> 0:17:56.036 Weinstein faced. 0:17:57.076 --> 0:18:02.596 He was appointed, and many of the leadership kind of 0:18:02.676 --> 0:18:06.716 treated that somewhat scornfully. I didn't think he had what 0:18:06.796 --> 0:18:07.156 it took. 0:18:10.356 --> 0:18:14.156 Weinstein got the lab results on Good Friday, April fourth. 0:18:14.756 --> 0:18:18.396 That weekend, New Yorkers would pack churches throughout the city 0:18:18.716 --> 0:18:21.156 and gather for the annual Easter Parade. 0:18:21.196 --> 0:18:24.076 Each year, the Easter Parade brings out much finery and 0:18:24.156 --> 0:18:27.596 startling millinery, and some unusual participants. 0:18:28.196 --> 0:18:31.276 If just one person at the parade had been infected, 0:18:31.516 --> 0:18:36.116 even among a vaccinated population, the resulting outbreak could paralyze 0:18:36.156 --> 0:18:40.476 the city. Weinstein had to plan for the worst possible outcome, 0:18:40.916 --> 0:18:42.836 and that meant New York would need to launch the 0:18:42.876 --> 0:18:47.876 most aggressive public health campaign in American history. It simply 0:18:47.916 --> 0:18:51.796 wasn't going to be enough to vaccinate the hospital staff somehow, 0:18:52.276 --> 0:18:54.196 they would have to vaccinate everyone. 0:18:55.036 --> 0:18:57.756 For your own sea and for that of your family's 0:18:57.756 --> 0:19:03.356 and friends. Please don't take a jack be vaccinating too night. 0:19:05.356 --> 0:19:08.796 Doctor Weinstein, the New York City Health Commissioner, knew how 0:19:08.876 --> 0:19:11.396 quick cleovirus can spread in one of the world's most 0:19:11.436 --> 0:19:14.996 densely populated cities, and he needed to stop it before 0:19:15.036 --> 0:19:18.876 it really started. The Easter Parade came only two days 0:19:18.916 --> 0:19:21.796 after the city received the test results, and a million 0:19:21.836 --> 0:19:26.916 people turned out. At that point, fewer than a thousand 0:19:26.956 --> 0:19:33.276 had been vaccinated. There was one ray of hope. If 0:19:33.316 --> 0:19:37.356 a smallpox vaccine is administered soon enough, it can protect 0:19:37.356 --> 0:19:41.156 people even after they've been exposed. So there was a 0:19:41.196 --> 0:19:44.836 clear reason to get one. And just days after the parade, 0:19:45.116 --> 0:19:49.876 news broke that smallpox had infected several other people. The 0:19:49.876 --> 0:19:54.236 epidemiologist James Imprato has studied this period and says New 0:19:54.316 --> 0:19:58.756 Yorker's were practically storming local clinics demanding to be inoculated. 0:20:00.036 --> 0:20:03.236 The department has held him very very high esteem. It 0:20:03.276 --> 0:20:06.956 really was, and it had a large infrastructure of district 0:20:06.996 --> 0:20:12.116 health centers and milk stations which were really well baby. 0:20:11.796 --> 0:20:14.636 Clinics, and they were called milk stations. 0:20:14.756 --> 0:20:16.156 Now they were called milk stations. 0:20:16.276 --> 0:20:18.276 Yeah, I didn't even know that. Yeah. 0:20:18.316 --> 0:20:23.076 They would give free milk out to mothers for their infants, 0:20:23.116 --> 0:20:29.116 and usually in a resource disadvantage areas of sitting. 0:20:30.036 --> 0:20:31.796 Was that one of the key places where people were 0:20:31.876 --> 0:20:33.196 vaccinated in lintin four. 0:20:33.036 --> 0:20:37.436 They vaccinated people everywhere. They even vaccinated them in police stations. 0:20:38.556 --> 0:20:42.276 They used every possible venue that was available, and certainly 0:20:42.316 --> 0:20:46.436 they mustered private practitioners, of which there were many in 0:20:46.476 --> 0:20:47.156 those years. 0:20:47.676 --> 0:20:48.156 They were not. 0:20:48.156 --> 0:20:50.356 Really group practices at that point. 0:20:51.276 --> 0:20:54.516 The mayor received his vaccination in front of the press Corps. 0:20:54.916 --> 0:20:58.356 World War two air marshals went door to door making 0:20:58.396 --> 0:21:01.796 sure people knew where they could get their shots. Members 0:21:01.796 --> 0:21:04.756 of the New York Philharmonic received their shots after a 0:21:04.796 --> 0:21:09.116 concert at the Lyric Theater. Anybody who had been exposed 0:21:09.476 --> 0:21:13.676 was offered a choice get vaccinated or endure twenty one 0:21:13.756 --> 0:21:18.076 days of surveillance by the Health Department. Everybody, it seemed, 0:21:18.596 --> 0:21:25.436 was getting vaccinated. At the time, the Health Department possessed 0:21:25.476 --> 0:21:29.396 two hundred and fifty thousand doses of smallpox vaccine. That 0:21:29.516 --> 0:21:33.276 was not remotely enough to meet the demand. The mayor 0:21:33.356 --> 0:21:35.956 convened an emergency meeting with the heads of the seven 0:21:36.076 --> 0:21:40.676 American pharmaceutical companies that made vaccines. He asked for a 0:21:40.716 --> 0:21:45.236 commitment to provide six million doses. The Army and Navy 0:21:45.356 --> 0:21:50.516 also chipped in. The campaign was dramatic, but somehow the 0:21:50.556 --> 0:21:53.796 city met the demand. Thousands of people stood in line, 0:21:53.836 --> 0:21:57.756 often through the night, to get their shocks. James in 0:21:57.796 --> 0:21:59.956 Prato was a child in New York at the time. 0:22:00.636 --> 0:22:03.716 He remembers those events as if they happened last week. 0:22:04.476 --> 0:22:07.436 Two of my uncles were Cornwell graduates, and they had 0:22:07.476 --> 0:22:11.156 private practices. In one of them vaccine me. I recall 0:22:11.236 --> 0:22:13.396 that very well. He came at me with a huge, 0:22:13.436 --> 0:22:16.156 long needle, which I thought he was going to inject 0:22:16.196 --> 0:22:19.516 in its entirety into my arm, But it was to 0:22:19.596 --> 0:22:23.276 scrape and scrape in the vaccine. So they had they 0:22:23.316 --> 0:22:26.676 had widespread cooperation, and they were and they did not 0:22:26.756 --> 0:22:29.436 have any difficulty getting people to come out to be vaccinated. 0:22:29.916 --> 0:22:30.676 They really didn't. 0:22:34.436 --> 0:22:37.596 Some of that theatrical atmosphere was captured years later in 0:22:37.716 --> 0:22:42.276 a dark melodramatic film called The Killer That Stalked New 0:22:42.356 --> 0:22:47.556 York about a woman who started what else a smallpox outbreak. 0:22:48.036 --> 0:22:50.756 Oh no, she didn't field death out of the end 0:22:50.756 --> 0:22:52.516 of a gun or off the point of a night. 0:22:53.156 --> 0:22:56.796 She delivered at holesing, just by walking through a crowd. 0:22:57.556 --> 0:23:00.116 The tragedy was she didn't know she was dead. Even 0:23:00.276 --> 0:23:02.596 all Sheila knew she had a headache. 0:23:03.436 --> 0:23:08.956 It's pretty standard more stuff, not exactly high art. But 0:23:09.236 --> 0:23:14.996 the best part, the strangest part, is the vaccination montage. 0:23:15.276 --> 0:23:19.516 We have to stop it, get to the people first, 0:23:19.876 --> 0:23:23.276 beat the disease, vaccinate the whole city. 0:23:23.556 --> 0:23:27.476 That's really how it happened. Six million people vaccinated in 0:23:27.516 --> 0:23:29.516 a month, most of them in the course of about 0:23:29.596 --> 0:23:34.436 two weeks. Almost unimaginably, the city was declared free of 0:23:34.476 --> 0:23:37.556 smallpox by the middle of April, just weeks after the 0:23:37.596 --> 0:23:43.276 Easter parade. In all, two people died Lebar and the 0:23:43.316 --> 0:23:47.796 pregnant wife of the many infected. Twelve other New Yorkers 0:23:47.796 --> 0:23:52.716 became ill. Health Commissioner Israel Weinstein had to deal with 0:23:52.756 --> 0:23:55.836 the type of misinformation that has now become so familiar. 0:23:56.316 --> 0:23:59.116 But vaccination was an easy sell to New Yorkers in 0:23:59.196 --> 0:24:02.996 nineteen forty seven. The truth had little competition. 0:24:03.876 --> 0:24:08.396 At no time has any such number been vaccinated and 0:24:08.556 --> 0:24:12.516 such work period and thought noble. 0:24:13.956 --> 0:24:17.316 It's hard to overstate the magnitude of the city's achievement. 0:24:17.836 --> 0:24:22.996 It prevented a potentially disastrous outbreak, and yet almost nobody 0:24:23.036 --> 0:24:28.436 has heard of Israel Weinstein today. Where's his statue, his plaque? 0:24:28.916 --> 0:24:32.476