It was the first half of the twentieth century and polio was blooming. Historically rare, infection rates started to steadily rise as the decades moved on. Children would develop fever, headache, and muscle weakness. Most of the time the fever would break and strength would return, but not always. Permanent paralysis and deformity were common, leaving thousands regulated to crutches, canes, wheelchairs, or even the iron lung.

Fears grew as the numbers did. During the 1952 pandemic 58,000 American children were infected. More than three thousand died with over 20,000 left paralyzed. A cause was needed. Something we could be warned against, something we could prevent. Well during this polio scare, some scientists stumbled into what has become one of history’s most famous examples of jumping to conclusions.
They declared that ice cream was the problem.
It happened because some watchful experts noticed an interesting correlation. The yearly rates of polio…
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