The Physician to Soldier Pipeline · Episode 8 of 14 · 21 min
From a Barracks Ward to a Vaccine
A young man joined the Army Specialized Training Program, earned his medical degree in 1944 as an Army private, and finished a civilian internship in 1945 just as the war in Europe ended. His service in occupied Germany is undocumented, but he later joined a Penn pediatrics department tied to the Army's wartime hepatitis work and became second author of the 1969 paper behind the world's rubella vaccine strain.
Who's who
- Joseph Stokes Jr.+1 more episodePenn pediatrics chair who ran the Army's wartime hepatitis work
- Stanley Plotkin+1 more episodeWistar scientist who attenuated RA 27/3; first author of 1969 paper
- Michael KatzCo-author of the 1969 rubella vaccine paper
- Fritz BuserSwiss pediatrician and co-author of the 1969 paper
- Leonard HayflickDeveloped the WI-38 cell strain the vaccine depends on
- Felix MorleyHaverford president who applied for Army training units in 1943
- Douglas SteereQuaker philosopher on the Haverford faculty
Where it happens
- University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia+1 more episodeMedical school and pediatrics department at the center of the story
- Wistar Institute, Philadelphia+1 more episodeWhere the WI-38 cells and RA 27/3 vaccine strain were developed
- Haverford College, PennsylvaniaQuaker college that applied for Army training units
- Germany+2 more episodesOccupation duty location, exact posting unknown
Timeline
- 1942Army Specialized Training Program established with a ceiling of 150,000 men
- February 1944Program cut from about 145,000 men to 35,000
- May 1945War in Europe ends and occupation begins
- 1964RA 27/3 strain is isolated from tissue of an infected fetus
- August 1969Plotkin and colleagues publish the attenuation paper
- 1979RA 27/3 is licensed, replacing earlier rubella strains
Still debated
The identity of the senior officer the family remembers in Germany is unknown and unguessed, and so are the unit, branch and dates of service. Whether an Army hepatitis center ever opened in Germany is unconfirmed.
