In Memoriam: Dr. Frank John Fenner

In Memoriam: Dr. Frank John Fenner

[Announcer] This podcast is presented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC — safer, healthier people.

[Peter Drotman] Good day. I am Dr. Peter Drotman, editor-in-chief of EID and I'm talking with Dr. Frederick Murphy, a member of EID's editorial board and the Institute of Medicine. He is also professor of Pathology at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

Venezuela virus working up the line,

Boys in Beltsville heard the news,

Horses in Texas got the crab hole blues.

Down in Maracay back in '36,

Kubes and Rios found a virus doin' tricks,

Horses die, this one's gotta be,

New cause of 'cephalitis, V-E-E.

Voice-over: Horses, mules, and donkeys are all susceptible.

The years roll by, the virus makes a score,

In Vene, Colombo, and Ecuador,

Comes rain to the desert instead of dew,

And, VEE burns the coast of Peru.

In Trinidad, Panama, they say "Hey, Hey,"

We got this creature like every day,

His swampy home, you can always tell,

By finding some rats and the Culex (Mel)."

Voice-over: Mosquito, that is.

Back at MARU, raggin' the brains,

We found that the virus had different strains

Horses convulse with the southern kind,

Northern virus leaves them feelin' fine."

Refrain: 'Cause virus hits man by aerosol,

Could be used to cripple us all,

In Maryland, they grew it in vats,

Tested it out in monkeys and rats.

The other Team outside the fence,

Lookin' for the answer that made some sense,

Got a strain from an old donkey,

Made a vaccine, TC-83.

The offensive team tried to make some noise,

A cloud for the Commies, but not our boys,

Did not work, that is why,

Nixon said 'declassify'.

Voice-over: The Pentagon papers, volume 25, page 324, 1970… the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and the Christian Science Monitor….

Sleepy defense gets a Latin call,

New outbreak and it ain't small,

Took the vaccine off the wall,

It really worked to save them all.

Refrain: Down in Guatemala, year of '69,

Horses started dying on the borderline,

Virus come down from Ecuador,

Nobody knows the reservoir.

Voice-over: But Mackenzie has an idea.

Virus hopped the mountains, got to the sea,

Vaccine brought in and given out free,

Virus kept movin', had to go,

All the way from here to Mexico.

Cause everybody said, "Gotta stop that bug,

Gotta use the vaccine because there ain't no drug,"

Beltsville brethren said "Gotta wait,"

Afraid that the vaccine was MF-8.

Voice-over: That means reversion to virulence.

Results today are plain to see,

Story's hot on the wire of Associated P,

A million horses all over the West,

Are living proof the vaccine was best.

Voice-over: Addresses for reprints may be mailed to Karl M. Johnson.

[Announcer] For the most accurate health information, visit www.cdc.gov or call 1-800-CDC-INFO, 24/7.