On this date in 1928, a young Scottish bacteriologist named Sir Alexander Fleming accidentally left a plate of staphylococcus bacteria uncovered in his laboratory. He later noticed that a mold had fallen on the culture, and had killed many of the bacteria. He was able to identify the mold as similar to the kind found on bread: penicillium notatum. [“This Day In History,” History.com, September 3, 2025.]

Thus did the world become the beneficiary of penicillin, and ultimately other antibiotics that have been responsible for saving countless millions of lives from bacterial infection over the past century.

And I can’t help wondering: What would have happened to the use of penicillin in the United States if Bobby Kennedy, Jr. had been in charge of the nation’s health services 97 years ago? Would it have been dismissed as fake science? Blamed for causing autism? Or accused of being a Scottish plot to infect the world with a deadly virus?

Think about it . . . and then tell me it doesn’t scare the crap out of you.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
9/3/25