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In April 1957, a mysterious illness was making its way through Hong Kong. Medical workers encountered throngs of children with “glassy-eyed stares,” and more than 10 percent of the city’s population was infected with influenza. The scientific community stayed quiet, but American virologist Maurice Hilleman recognized the threat: A pandemic was brewing.
Hilleman thought the disease was a new strain of influenza capable of spreading around the world. By the time the virus arrived in the U.S. in fall 1957, he was ready with a vaccine. His work prevented millions from contracting the deadly virus—and that’s a small fraction of the people Hilleman would save over the course of his career.
Born in August 1919, at the height of the Spanish flu, Hilleman was raised on a farm near Miles City, Montana. During the Depression, he managed to get a job as an assistant manager at a J.C. Penney store and planned to spend the rest of his professional career with the company—until his older brother convinced him to apply to college. He went to Montana State University on a...
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