
Ask HN: Where to find foundational studies for virology and germ theory? - boldpandabear
I&#x27;m curious where I can find the studies that prove:<p>1-  viruses are contagious.<p>2 - viruses definitively cause negative symptoms.<p>3 - vaccines work to prevent symptoms beyond placebo effect.<p>I have looked everywhere but unable to find anything more than &quot;vaccines work because they do.&quot; type stuff from the CDC.<p>I want to review the actual groundbreaking studies that virology and vaccine effectiveness are created from.
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gus_massa
1 and 2) From
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus)

> _Since Dmitri Ivanovsky 's 1892 article describing a non-bacterial pathogen
> infecting tobacco plants, and the discovery of the tobacco mosaic virus by
> Martinus Beijerinck in 1898,_

For more details see original paper in
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martinus_Beijerinck#cite_note-...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martinus_Beijerinck#cite_note-7)

3) I think the biggest test was in 1954 for the Polio vaccine by Salk. From
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polio_vaccine#1950%E2%80%93195...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polio_vaccine#1950%E2%80%931955)

> _Salk 's vaccine was then used in a test called the Francis Field Trial, led
> by Thomas Francis, the largest medical experiment in history at that time.
> The test began with about 4,000 children at Franklin Sherman Elementary
> School in McLean, Virginia,[68][69] and eventually involved 1.8 million
> children, in 44 states from Maine to California.[70] By the conclusion of
> the study, roughly 440,000 received one or more injections of the vaccine,
> about 210,000 children received a placebo, consisting of harmless culture
> media, and 1.2 million children received no vaccination and served as a
> control group, who would then be observed to see if any contracted
> polio.[39] The results of the field trial were announced 12 April 1955 (the
> tenth anniversary of the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose
> paralytic illness was generally believed to have been caused by polio). The
> Salk vaccine had been 60–70% effective against PV1 (poliovirus type 1), over
> 90% effective against PV2 and PV3, and 94% effective against the development
> of bulbar polio.[71]_

Some links related to the test
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1114166/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1114166/)
[https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/polio-vaccine-
tr...](https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/polio-vaccine-trials-begin)

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boldpandabear
thank you immensely for this. i want to research the Francis Field Trial...
but also hopefully the entire field of virology is not derived from a tobacco
plant study?

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gus_massa
Take a look at
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_virology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_virology)

