How Penicillin Won World War II

YouTube ^ | November 25, 2022< | Ryan McBeth

[SunkenCiv]

Penicillin was a crucial factor in the Allied victory of World War II. This medicine helped soldiers get back on the battlefield faster. While Sulfa drugs were helpful, they were not effective against venereal disease, of which 10% of all soldiers eventually contracted.

How Penicillin Won World War II | 27:31
Ryan McBeth | 759K subscribers | 104,427 views | November 25, 2022

[SunkenCiv]

Penicillin and it's effect on WW2 and the world | 3:46
Keller Toral | 2 subscribers | 1,717 views | May 11, 2015

[SunkenCiv]

[SunkenCiv]

• Neanderthal Used Early Version of Penicillin and Aspirin [03/09/2017]

[mass55th]

Been reading “Normandy ‘44: D-Day and the Epic 77-Day Battle for France” by James Holland. He mentions how penicillin gave the Americans the advantage during the war, because Germany had nothing like it.

[SunkenCiv]

I think this angle is found in one of the Navarone movies.

[dfwgator]

[Right Brother]

The Germans were already working with sulfa drugs. Also, Paul Ehrlich, a German physician, noted that certain chemical dyes coloured some bacterial cells but not others. He concluded that, according to this principle, it must be possible to create substances that can kill certain bacteria selectively without harming other cells. In 1909, he discovered that a chemical called arsphenamine was an effective treatment for syphilis. That was years ahead of Fleming stumbling onto Penicillin.

[Karliner]

The bad old days you get gangrene or other infections they might have sulfa and penicillin. If not it’s amputation.

Happened to my mom, 1948. The docs never used penicillin, amputated to knee, thigh, then hip.

[struggle]

Damn, 10% of WWII vets got the clap? Lol, fun times if you can get it.

[DogByte6RER]

Some related War Era PSAs … when the ads failed then the penicillin shots came in for back-up. Anyways … did these classic Glyphs save any GIs from meeting early Graves and perhaps meeting God too?!? Heh …

[alexander_busek]

While Sulfa drugs were helpful, they were not effective against venereal disease, of which 10% of all soldiers eventually contracted.

Written by non-native speakers?

Regards,

[alexander_busek]

You forgot one poster:

Regards,

[FLT-bird]

People don’t realize Penicillin was our 2nd largest outlay after only the Manhatten project during WWII. It was hugely expensive to develop this but obviously, it was worth it.

[Gaffer]

I still remember betting shuffled off to commanders call in 1969 over in the pacific. Slide show of the most horrific examples of various types of VD one could imagine.

[HombreSecreto]

Thanks for sharing these!

[Buttons12]

North Africans scraped the mold from their saddles and used it as medicine; a French physician named Duchesne experimented with it, noticed its effects on bacteria, decades before Fleming.

[Flag_This]

"People don’t realize Penicillin was our 2nd largest outlay after only the Manhatten project during WWII."

I thought it was the B-29 project...

[Huaynero]

Subject aside, an outstanding historical collection of “memes” of the time. Thank You.
Reading of CW POWs, I recall anecdotal mention of moldy bread and other “off” rations having medicinal properties. Even more obscure was mention of the anti-biotic properties of nasal mucus. Kill or cure I suppose!
Subject is way over my head but established science has had lesser origins.

[SunkenCiv]

“and in this ever-changing world in which we live in”... == English-speaking Paul McCartney

[mware]

Dad was in 5th Army during first few years of WW2. While in Italy, he got Trench foot from weeks without taking off boots in the constant rain. Penicillin saved his feet and perhaps his life. Recently found letters to his parents reassuring them and telling them about this new medical miracle.