Farms: Hookworms and the Myth of the "Lazy Southerner"
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The stereotype of the "lazy Southerner" may have been caused by widespread hookworm infections in the American South. Subscribe! http://bit.ly/1FkxVLb ‖ Twitter! https://twitter.com/gross_science ‖ Tumblr! http://grossscience.tumblr.com/ ↓Want more info?↓ Rachel Nuwer’s NOVA Next Article—How a Worm Gave The South a Bad Name: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/nature/how-a-worm-gave-the-south-a-bad-name/ The CDC on Hookworm: http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/hookworm/ Health Affairs—How Four Once Common Disease Were Eliminated From The American South: http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/28/6/1734.short Sabin Vaccine Institute on the Human Hookworm Vaccine: http://www.sabin.org/programs/vaccine-development/human-hookworm-vaccine The New Yorker—The War of the Worms: http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/war-of-the-worms -- Host, Writer, Animator, Editor Anna Rothschild Camera, Sound Sophie Benson Easy Come Blues (Dobro Version) Music Provided by APM ©WGBH Educational Foundation Footage and Images The following videos and images were use courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center. Thank you! Pot Belly: http://rockefeller100.org/items/show/1677 School Children with Hookworm Disease: http://rockefeller100.org/items/show/1736 County Dispensary: http://www.rockefeller100.org/items/show/1676 Unhooking the Hookworm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqBoT_DyOsI Hookworm - Necator americanus (New World hookworm) ©David Scharf/Corbis Hookworm filariform larva. Nematode, worm, parasite. CDC/Dr. Mae Melvin Hookworm egg undergoing the process of cellular division CDC Newspaper Article Herald Democrat. October 29, 1909 Historic diagram showing unsanitary placement of a farm house privy CDC/Minnesota Department of Health, R. N. Barr Library; Librarians Melissa Rethlefsen and Marie Jones SFX Cockroaches Freesound/StateAardvark (used with permission from author) Squeak Pack/squeak_10 Freesound/Corsica_S Swishes Freesound/Pogotron Projector Screen Pull in/out Freesound/YOH Jelly Mangling on Plate Freesound/lolamadeus Poof of Smoke Freesound/planman Bubbles Popping Freesound/ch0cchi Produced by WGBH for PBS Digital Studios
Comments
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Did you do a video on heart worms or dracunculiasis?
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And now Trump is about to be president. Thanks, hookworm.
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1:22 dat ole boyh need to break some wind
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Since the eradication of hookworm in the US south, average IQs have raised every single year and, as far as I know, that trend is STILL continuing. You downplayed the cognitive problems hookworm causes. Hookworm infection in youth causes PERMANENT IQ loss. It doesn't matter if you get treated afterward. Your brain never recovers. That's why it takes generations for the benefit of its eradication to be seen. Right now hookworm is a gigantic problem in Africa that actively prevents efforts to help many parts of Africa. Malaria also plays a role in preventing proper cognitive development (though my understanding from hearing parasitologists and virologists talk about it, its not certain whether this is intrinsic to malaria infection or a secondhand effect of causing kids to miss large portions of schooling due to battling infection). This makes many villages in Africa easy prey for people like local warlords and Christian missionaries that thwart attempts to educate and improve the lives of the populace.
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Not only in Southern América but also in latin American including Brazil for a long time.
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She is not going to address the flip side of this at all is she? So, we evolved with helminths. Some are specific to humans. Having a heavy load of hookworms due to poor sanitation is horrible. But, autoimmune disease kills people everyday. My sister has Crohns and has had an ileostomy. Her large intestine has been removed and she poops in a bag. That is pretty gross. The FDA as always is slow to admit that there may be value to careful pig whipworm and hook worm infection. It is said that we can tolerate about 10 hookworms without trouble as adults. Hookworm infection can save the lives of asthmatics and Crohns sufferers. Don't throw out the baby with the bath water. And...busy bodies Bill and Melinda Gates ARE I understand trying to create a vaccine against hookworm for 3rd world countries. Prepare to see autoimmune disease soar. There is a balance.
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holy carp! where's bill gates when you need him - again....
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Yankees don't know any stories about hookworms, the stereotype about southerners comes from the accent
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Probably the same logic applies to why similar stereotypes exist here in Brazil, such as "lazy 'Baianos'" (people native of Bahia), "yellow Northeasterners", "dumb 'caipiras'" (rural people), and so on.
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Did hook worms make southerners loud, racist, and poorly educated? I went to college in the South, and rural people there are still largely white trash.
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damn, I'm pretty lazy...
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thanks for the scientific explanation of racist and imperialist schilling
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No videos in a month, I hope everything is okay.
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is a toilet dirtier than a key board
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i've been dying for a new video of gross science. I hope all is well.
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And now people pay thousands to infect themselves with hookworm in order to cure asthma.
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this is why i dont go camping... sure it's fun to be with mother nature sometimes, but one mistake, bam, you got brain parasite..
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I love gross science I
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where i live in texas nopony runs around without shoes. there are stickers and other pokey plants everywhere. if you decide to go without shoes it is more of a careful step by step process than a run or even walk.