Abstract
This article examines the story of Louis Pasteur from the point of view of a classic movie presented at the Weekly Seminars of the "Oswaldo Cruz Institute", at the end of the 2017 activities. Although very old, the movie The Story of Louis Pasteur (Warner Bros., 1936) inspired spectators and gave rise to an energetic debate that led the authors to decide for publishing the comments of the Seminar Coordinator, the guest commentator and the audience. The movie communicates to the public the legacy of one of the greatest precursors of the public health history using also fictional characters. The article presents the reliable passages in Pasteur's biography and the fictional ones, without disrespecting the production of the creators of cinematographic work. The major merit of the movie, one of the first steps towards the policy of scientific diffusion, is to disclose the importance of vaccines and hand hygiene to prevent infectious diseases. The authors argue that the film-maker impeccably captured the scientist's tenacity in the relentless search for discoveries and Pasteur's idea that only persistent work can lead to rewarding results, remembering that the context created by previous researchers enabled Pasteur to establish new paradigms. Finally, the authors cite movie passages illustrating realities that are still in force: (i) the inertial resistance of science to new paradigms, illustrated by the medical-scientific community opposing to simple practices proposition, such as washing hands and boiling instruments, and (ii) the excessive confidence, and even arrogance, of some specialists, instead of serenity and humility that arise from committed study and accumulated knowledge.
Highlights
This article examines the story of Louis Pasteur from the point of view of a classic movie presented at the Weekly Seminars of the “Oswaldo Cruz Institute”, at the end of the 2017 activities
After hand hygienization, vaccination is the isolated procedure with the highest effect on public health, which is one of Pasteur’s main contributions, he may correspond, associated with Ignaz Semmelweis and John Snow, as one of the most solid contributors to the knowledge that solidified the paradigms of collective health
Pasteur’s life story, by itself, is fascinating. His relentless and tireless pursuit of scientific discoveries, aiming at clarifying phenomena that had oppressed physicians and patients for centuries, is an example for all those who know that only committed and persistent work can lead to a rewarding outcome
Summary
The movie narrates the development and consolidation of the “germ theory” when, by recommending thorough hygiene and sterilization of medical instruments, hospital infection rates would decrease considerably. Other scene, depicted in the movie, that deserves to be commented, is the own Louis Pasteur vaccinating the young boy Joseph Meister, even though he was not allowed to do so (Pasteur was not a Medicine Doctor) At this moment of the story, his wife enters the room and draws Pasteur’s attention to the ethical and even criminal risk of such procedure. This scene does not represent the reality, and it is clear that the vaccination has never been done by Pasteur himself, but by Dr ( Jacques-Joseph) Grancher (1843-1907), a French pediatrician (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Meister#cite_ note-3, accessed on 18/Mar/2020) (Figure 2). Latour’s understanding situates, based on the acceptance of bacteriology and Pasteur’s and Pasteurians’ theories, the protagonism of hygienists, far beyond the laboratory, since the role they began to play in society, to fight against microbes, involved reviewing living conditions, social-economic and political relationships
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