I'm Olivia and I'm Drew and we...
I don't know why I always feel awkward after the end like I have to say something like yes we are
but it's like do I have to say it like that? What should I say after? Nothing? Just not an agreement.
It's not changing.
What?
You're just going because every time you're like what do we say? How do we... How do I say hello?
I know.
How do we say bye?
That's even harder somehow.
How do I say bye?
So I feel weird asking you how you've been because we've been talking about it.
The last time we talked and it was being recorded
it was right before I went on a trip.
Yes.
So since then I have been on a trip to out of the country and then been on my own
mental health trip back inside the country of post-trip sadness and then also
post-trip why did I spend so much money? You know that?
Oh yes. Yeah definitely.
It's like so you go on a trip for two weeks and then you come back and you pay off your trip
for the next eight weeks and you're like I saved money for this trip and it didn't matter.
But you had a good time.
I did have a good time.
Yeah.
I went to Japan.
It was so beautiful.
I want and the next time I go you should come.
Yes.
I have always wanted to go to Japan.
I always want to go to Japan.
I always want to go to Japan and I would love to go back to Taiwan.
Yes and then we could record there.
Yeah you need to go back to Taiwan even though since I've been back there has been
several earthquakes.
Yes.
Since not very many casualties because the infrastructure is insanely amazing.
But just like that the earth just be wanting to take Taiwan out.
I know and Taiwan's like you'll never take us.
I know.
China can't have us.
You can't have us.
Oh gosh.
But yeah I think I'm okay.
I'm doing okay.
How are you doing?
I'm good.
Since the last time we recorded I started a new slash old job.
That's right.
So that's been good.
I like my job and my body has also just been falling apart more than usual.
I have gotten sick like three times since we recorded.
I know and then I felt like when it was finally you were like I'm good now.
I was like actually now I'm not good.
Oh boy.
It's like life outside of a podcast is really hard.
Yeah.
If I could just get if we could get paid to do this.
That would be amazing.
So that's why it's been a while.
Travel and jobs and mental and physical deterioration.
Yeah.
We're like I am hunnable.
Very.
Which is kind of fitting for our topic today.
Just like last time it's themed right and you start.
Go first.
And it's medical.
Medical.
Yeah.
Oh and we also I will be posting a picture on our Instagram because I have a cute new
plague doctor squishable that my mom got me that I think goes with our theme very well.
Yeah.
I think he's actually now our mascot.
I think he should be our mascot too.
Yeah.
We have to share his name which is.
It's Wilson not like cast away but like Dr. Wilson from house.
Yeah.
Okay.
So anyway I got really obsessed with yellow fever when I read the book fever 1793 in school.
Oh I've always wanted to read them.
Yeah.
It's called fever 1793 by Laurie Halls Anderson and I read it in I think it was middle school.
Okay.
And I got so obsessed with learning about yellow fever.
And then I started listening to this podcast will kill you and was very excited when they
did an episode all about the origin of yellow fever.
So I'm going to start with how yellow fever is spread.
Okay.
So yellow fever is a vector born disease meaning that it is transmitted by mosquitoes.
And it has.
The worst.
I know mosquitoes are little devils.
Little devils.
And it has a similar transmission to malaria.
It's spread by the 80s Egypti mosquito and.
The 80s.
80s like AEDS.
Oh okay like they don't have the gypti.
They don't have like Aquanet hair.
And those mosquitoes transmit the disease.
If that mosquito has blue eye shadow on you better watch yourself.
Truly.
Also can I interject something random about mosquitoes.
Sure when I was in Taiwan because mosquitoes there are huge because it's it's a tropical place
because it's like the same latitude as.
Hawaii.
So it's kind of like you kind of get the vibe.
But mosquitoes would kind of avoid me and my friend that I was traveling with until we had eaten
more local food and then mosquitoes are into us.
We probably smelled a little too like where are you from.
They're like what are you.
Yeah I just thought that was funny that mosquitoes are like no thanks.
That is really funny.
Yeah they have they have preferences.
They have preferences.
Yeah.
So those mosquitoes also transmit the disease vertically to their offspring.
So that contributes even more to the spread because they're also then spreading the disease to their own offspring.
Yikes.
And there's basically no hope of eradicating it completely due to its enzoootic cycle.
So that's in the mosquito population and it's also spread through primates as well.
Yeah.
Scientists originally believed that the disease was spread through miasma or bad air.
Much like the black plague.
They thought that was spread through miasma as well.
False.
Yes. Yeah sorry a little plague doctor your mask isn't helping.
But much later it discovered that it was a vector-borne disease and led to the development
of the vaccines that we use today.
And it most likely originated from West Africa and arrived as a result of the slave trade.
Just another negative connotation to don't get people to do things for free.
I know I'm like guess what.
But it's your fault for bringing people against their will.
Yes I think that's on you.
Yeah.
And sorry not sorry.
Yeah mosquitoes live near areas of water so they most likely arrive via the barrels of water that were
often kept on slave ships.
And now I will go over what the symptoms are of yellow fever which are not very nice.
Uh oh.
I'm like do I have yellow fever?
I'll find out.
I'll tell you then.
No.
I'm like well if you do you definitely don't have the like worst type.
Okay good.
So it has a three to six day incubation period and the first symptoms are fever, headache,
back pain, chills and vomiting.
So that initial period can like be mistaken for a lot of other diseases just because it's pretty
general flu like symptoms.
And then 15% of cases go into the second phase which includes recurring fever,
jaundice which contributes to the yellow part of yellow fever.
Oh okay I was wondering.
Bleeding from eyes, mouth and GI tract and kidney failure.
Oh no.
Yeah.
And uh bloody vomit too.
No.
That's fun.
The fatality rate is 15 to 20% or higher and there's no treatment other than supportive therapy
or prevention through vaccination and the vaccine that we have today is an attenuated vaccine
which means it's a live virus.
And currently as of today it is endemic in Africa and South America so that's where it's most common.
It is spread other places as well.
As well but that is where most cases are.
The first outbreak of yellow fever recorded was in 1647 in the Isle of Barbados and an
outbreak was recorded by Spanish colonists in the Yucatan Peninsula and the indigenous
Mayan people called the illness I think it's pronounced sickic which means blood vomit.
Oh gosh.
Yeah.
So that was the only thing I could really find about the 1647 outbreak but we will be talking
about several other outbreaks.
Okay.
So in 1793 Philadelphia was the perfect place for an outbreak as it was surrounded by marshes,
swamps and holes in the ground that held rainwater.
It was also a port city importing goods and slaves at their docks.
He said Philadelphia.
Yes.
So was Benjamin Franklin dodging yellow fever?
Probably.
Alexander Hamilton.
When did he die?
I don't know.
I don't remember.
Don't come from me anyone.
I'm like I only know him from his hit Broadway show.
Oh right.
In 1793 the yellow fever in Philadelphia killed 5,000 or more people just between
August 1st and November 9th and by the end of September 20,000.
Can you imagine?
I'm just thinking that is like prime humidity era too and the east coast is just like can
you imagine it's like hot and everyone's dying?
No.
That's like my least favorite, two least favorite things together.
Humidity and people dying.
By the end of September 20,000 people had fled the city including officials.
So anyone that was left was like sucks for you there's no officials to organize anything.
A fissure.
The mortality rate peaked in October before frost finally killed mosquitoes and doctors tried
various treatments but no one knew at the time that the disease was being transmitted by mosquitoes
and there was a fever hospital organized and they requested assistance from the free
African people society because they mistakenly believed that people of African descent would
have partial immunity like they did with malaria.
So black nurses aided the sick and black men were hired to take away the dead which
most people would not touch.
Unfortunately as you can imagine the black aid workers got sick and died at the same rate as
non-black people and as citizens were fleeing Philadelphia other cities such as Baltimore and
New York City had a quarantine against refugees refugees from Philadelphia.
However New York did send financial aid which was very nice of them and this part so during
the Civil War many soldiers died from yellow fever and this this guy Dr. Luke Pryor Blackburn
was nicknamed Dr. Black Vomit.
Oh gosh.
Because he sent clothes soiled by yellow fever to the northern states in an attempt to win the war.
He also attempted to send more soiled clothing and blankets to Abraham Lincoln
which I'm like what what kind of plan is that what kind of care package.
I know and I'm like man Abraham Lincoln just dodging assassination attempts everywhere and
then eventually not.
He's like Martha this blanket smells terrible.
Wait no Mary Mary or Martha Mary Mary Mary sorry Martha.
Martha Washington.
Martha okay yeah that's why you're I take it back and here he goes.
Mary this blanket smells awful.
She's like why are you talking to Martha.
Oh my gosh that's amazing.
I just can't stop picturing Abraham Lincoln opening that package.
I'm sure he didn't he had some guy that was like but I'm it's a funny image.
It is.
In 1878 there was a epidemic in Memphis.
It was an El Nino year which caused it to be a lot warmer and caused it to rain more drawing more mosquitoes.
City officials voted against a quarantine and there was a mass exodus in August
and people were easily able to identify houses with dead bodies due to the residents being swarmed by flies.
Oh no.
Yeah.
Dead bodies also accumulated as there was a shortage of dead bodies.
Dead bodies also accumulated as there was a shortage of grave diggers
and there is a mass grave in Memphis that holds 1500 unidentified victims of the plague.
A third of the people that remained in Memphis died from the fever
and the Yellow Fever Commission was formed after the Memphis epidemic
and it was a team made up of four people based in Cuba.
In 1886 Cuban doctor Carlos Finlay discovered that the disease was carried by the 80s Egypti mosquito
but he was ridiculed for his theory at the time and it was only accepted 20 years later when Dr.
Walter Reed confirmed his theory.
The last major outbreak of yellow fever occurred in 1905 in New Orleans.
The yellow fever vaccine was developed by Max Thaler in the 1930s and he received a Nobel Prize for his work
which saved many lives but the disease risk is still high today.
Urban disease spread can be controlled by public health interventions but the
enzoootic and sylvatic cycles which is the mosquito and primates that carry this disease
are much harder to control and the second cycle transmission can lead to larger outbreaks due
to spillover from primate populations and a spillover event is when a disease spills over from
animal populations into the human populations so like the SARS-CoV-2.
Right.
So yeah those those are scary.
Yeah that is.
Most recently cases of yellow fever have been reported in Brazil and Nigeria and yellow fever
can be difficult to diagnose because it mimics other diseases like malaria, leptospirosis,
and other hemorrhagic fevers.
Modern prevention of the disease relies on vaccines because there is no antiviral treatment
since the disease the disease is sylvatic cycle is so hard to control it's very important
for researchers to see how yellow fever affects primates as well as what primates
role in the spread of yellow fever is and as far as yellow fever today new areas of research
have begun to focus on intervention planning.
Some researchers are... reaches oh my gosh some Jack Reachers.
Some researchers are using epidemiology data to assess vaccine impact and others are working
on methods to predict outbreaks.
Climate change also plays a huge role in the spread of yellow fever as it has increased the
spread of mosquitoes and it's also creating more aggressive mosquitoes which is fun.
The last thing we need.
And deforestation also contributes as humans go into the deforested areas they're more likely
to get into closer contact with the sylvatic cycle so deforestation is also another thing
that is causing more spread of disease.
So far I've learned slavery is bad deforestation is bad climate change is bad.
What a concept.
Mosquitoes are bad.
Yeah yeah spillover events like the ones in Nigeria and Brazil show that there is a
potential for the re-urbanization of the virus where it will be in more urban areas like
like the Philadelphia and Memphis areas.
It seems to be difficult to get definite numbers on how many people a year are getting
infected by yellow fever but in 2013 84 to 170,000 people in Africa came down with this
severe yellow fever and of those 29,000 to 60,000 died from yellow fever.
The actual number of cases is most likely 10 to 150 times higher than reported.
Oh my gosh.
I know it's it's really scary.
There is a lot more surveillance on episodic cases of spread among primates than there is
of those among humans which I'm not really sure why.
It's not being surveilled as well.
And currently yellow fever is not a problem in Asia even though 80s Egypti are present in Asia.
So they have more manners.
Maybe but the potential of a much wider spread is there because all it would take would be
for one infected person to spread to another.
So I'm not sure why that's the case that it hasn't spread.
That's really interesting.
Yeah but as soon as one person got it
don't encourage them.
Don't give them the idea.
I won't encourage them but the mosquitoes listening to this podcast you stay out of Asia.
Let's just hope a lot of areas will require that you show that you've been vaccinated for
yellow fever when you travel to different countries.
That's true.
It's called a yellow passport.
Yeah I have worked with my job.
I work sometimes in infectious disease and you have to be certified.
I don't know where you get your certification but it's through the government.
And doctors have to apply for the certification to give the vaccine to travel.
Yeah.
And it's kind of a big deal.
And there's like only one in the area that has it.
Yeah and this research is obviously very important but it's also really important due to the fact that
it could lead to a spillover event so it could potentially be our next pandemic if it is not
controlled.
But yeah that's I hate to end it there.
Yeah just when you go to bed at night just pray for no bloody vomit in your future.
Yeah.
Or however you want to think about it.
Pray that there's no spillover event.
I just don't like the the term spillover anyway.
It just sounds like why are you letting this spill be over things.
Yeah.
But does it make any sense but in my head I'm like stop it.
Talk to those bats and primates and mosquitoes.
Yeah okay I will.
So my sources for this episode were this podcast will kill you.
Episode 10 on yellow fever.
Our dearest friend Wikipedia and history of yellow fever in the U.S.
by the American Society for Microbiology.
And I also just wanted to say that I recommend in general if you are interested in learning about
other diseases or spillover events hemorrhagic fevers any of that I highly recommend this podcast
will kill you.
It's hosted by two epidemiologists.
Oh. And then I also recommend the book spillover by David Kwaman.
He in the book he basically him and other scientists predicted that the next spillover
epidemic would come out of China and be from bats and that was from before COVID.
So.
He's onto something.
I read that during COVID because I'm a crazy person.
But it was really interesting.
Well he I guess he knows what he's talking about.
He does.
Yeah.
You know I'll need to listen to him.
But yeah it's very interesting he goes into different enzoootic diseases.
Yeah.
So.
Very interesting.
Rabies enzoootic.
I don't remember.
I don't think that would necessarily be considered a spillover event because it's not
it's not like a epidemic.
Yeah.
That's true.
They do I believe this podcast will kill you has an episode on rabies.
It does.
I remember it's really fascinating.
It's been a while since I listened to that one.
Mm-hmm. But also just another shout out to them because I love their podcast so much.
They just did episodes on long COVID and chronic fatigue syndrome.
Oh.
Which was super.
I need to listen to long COVID especially.
Yeah.
It's my asthma has turned into long COVID.
I don't really have it so much anymore but the first time I got COVID it's like it just
I mean like two years later it'll just rear its stupid head.
Yeah.
It's really interesting because like obviously I don't want anyone to have long COVID but
long COVID seems to be more recognized and validated than chronic fatigue syndrome.
I think because there's like a clear disease that it has resulted from.
Right. So a lot of research that is going into long COVID is actually really beneficial for
chronic fatigue syndrome as well.
That's good.
So because chronic fatigue is kind of a pandemic in its own right.
Yeah.
And for I guess I should say for those that don't know I have chronic fatigue syndrome.
Yeah.
That is why it's important to me.
But I mean I want everyone to get the proper health care that they need.
Right.
And everyone should.
They should.
Yeah.
But just don't get yellow fever.
Yeah.
If you can avoid it at all I would recommend not getting it.
Right.
Okay.
That's super helpful.
And thank you.
I've learned so much today.
Oh thank you.
Just another reason to hate mosquitoes.
I know.
They just they carry so much disease.
Yeah.
There's I don't know I don't really know what their benefit is.
I just I don't know.
There's gotta be something right.
Yeah.
Well are you ready for my story.
Yes.
Do you need a break for like drink or anything.
Just want to check.
Yes.
Okay.
So today I'm going to tell you.
So Olivia.
Olivia and dear listener.
Listeners.
Only one.
About Lincolnu de la Seine.
Which which is French.
It means unknown woman of the Seine.
Who is also known as the most kissed face in history.
And you're going to find out why it's medically related.
Maybe I'll just wait to give my my resources at the end like you did.
Because that's I don't want to give anything away.
Okay.
So for over 60 years medical students have practiced CPR on dummy dolls.
There's one in particular I'm sure you can imagine it in your head.
Just like a very like kind of serene placid face.
I'm sure we can think of the office episode.
But this doll in particular is called Rasouci Annie or rescue Anne.
And this is a doll that if you are aware you can press the chest and you can breathe air into
the mouth whether with your own mouth or with a little device.
And so this dummy is is built so that you can practice on not a human and not hurt them.
So it's like.
Yeah.
Ideal.
A lot of people didn't realize that this face on this dummy is actually based on a real person.
I didn't.
You didn't.
No, not until you told me.
And this is a face of not just some random person but a teenage girl who was found dead
in the sun in Paris in the late 19th century.
Her body was never identified but her face lived on in infamy for the rest of her little existence.
It sounds like one of those creepy short stories you'd read in school.
Yeah.
You read it in school and at the end your teacher's like and now we're going to practice CPR on her face.
And they're everywhere.
All the kids scream.
Okay, so we are starting in roughly 1881 in Paris.
So Paris had built a morgue that could be seen through a plate glass window because when
Paris officials would find unidentified bodies, they would take them to the morgue, clean them up,
prop them up.
So and they could be they said at 14 people at a time could fit in this this area and passersby
could either just come and look because you know Victorian era Europe was unhinged.
Just let's go take a walk by the dead bodies or primarily it was for identifying the unidentified
already.
Sorry, real quick.
Whenever someone says that true crime is a new fad, I'm like hello, look at Victorian.
Yeah.
They're like, hey, on our date before we head to dinner, do you want to go pass by the dead body?
Or like let's go watch a public execution.
Yeah.
And she's like, I never thought you would ask.
So yeah, it was, you know, morbid curiosity, like you said, or it was because hopefully
they can be identified before they become so decomposed that they just have to bury them
and they're long forgotten.
Yeah.
So keeping that in mind, just a few years later, as I mentioned before, a body of a young
woman was fished out of the Sen, which I'm sure everyone knows, but just in case you don't,
the Sen is the primary river running through Paris.
So it was said there was no evidence of violence upon her body.
So they weren't really sure how she died.
It was assumed that she perhaps intentionally drowned herself, which they said in the article
I read that at the time it was nothing new because poverty, I mean, if you had nothing
else in your life, you were either homeless or, you know, parentless, instead of, you know,
resorting to a life of like sex work or something like that, some people would just feel like,
I'm just going to end it all, which is very sad.
But that was more common.
Yeah.
It was said that in this particular year, 200 people were pulled out of the Sen's murky water
by river police, and at least a quarter were already corpses at the time, or they had,
you know, passed away once they were pulled out.
And half of those were pulled out from either attempted unaliving or successful unaliving.
And then it was said that young women made the largest population of these Sen people,
which is very sad.
They didn't have a lot of prospects.
They didn't, no.
So since this young woman was unidentified, she was taken to this particular morgue.
She was propped up on that marble slab and displayed in hopes that someone would walk
by the window and identify her.
And of course, this was intentional so that, you know, people could see her.
She captured the imagination of many Parisians, you know, those few days that she was there.
And many noted how mysterious and beautiful she looked, including the pathologist on duty,
and he named her, Lynn Cornu de La Sen, because he was so entranced by her face.
A little eerie, but okay.
Yeah, okay, spend a lot of time with bodies, I guess.
Right?
He's like, I don't have a lot of people to talk to.
This is my new friend.
So he was so entranced by her beauty that he, knowing she still had not been identified
and she would need to be buried, he made a plaster cast of her face.
And he said, quote, her beauty was breathtaking and showed few signs of distress at the time.
Of passing, so bewitching that I knew beauty as such must be preserved.
And quote.
Okay.
I'm having some feelings about that.
Right.
We all know somebody who could, that one creepy guy in high school were like, oh, that was
you, wasn't it?
Yeah.
So true.
Okay, so he made her a death mask.
And that's what, you know, if you don't know a death mask, you know, you're not going to
know a death mask is a likeness of either wax or plaster, which was, you know, to preserve
a dead person's likeness.
And it was actually very common at the time.
Yeah.
Usually it was done for people who were infamous or people who had money.
Like a lot of times they would do that with like saints or nuns.
You'll see them in cathedrals throughout Europe.
But this particular girl got her own death mask thanks to the creepy pathologist.
Creepy or perhaps just or just lonely and nice.
Let's just hope he's just nice.
I think he was just nice.
Yeah.
And a lot of times death masks were given to families for like just mementos or to create
a portrait.
So if somebody had already passed away, they could at least have it like propped up and
then someone would create a painting out of it to be like, here they are.
Yeah.
Their last beautiful dress.
And actually this has gone on a long time.
It started to like build up in popularity in ancient Egypt.
So people just really, if you didn't have photography, which we know photography hasn't
been around a long time, you know, and paintings can take a long time.
The quickest way to do it is just plaster their face.
I mean, yeah, that does make sense.
It makes sense.
Yeah.
Actually, yeah.
So this young woman's face was so popular because she looked so serene that before long
she became almost as popular as the Mona Lisa for this one particular summer in Paris at least.
She started appearing in shops all over Paris.
And in following years, copies of her mask became a fixture in fashionable homes across
Europe.
What?
Which is strange to think that you could just be sitting down for dinner and look over at
the smiling serene face of a dead person you've never met.
Yeah.
You're like, that's my thing I bought at the store.
Yeah.
Her smile alone bewitched artists, poets, and novelists.
And over the decades, dozens of poems were written and stories invented to give her an identity.
Books in the 1900s were written about the mask entrancing men because what else do men do but
be entranced by masks?
Even if you're dead, you still can't keep the men away.
So if you're a mask in the woods, would you rather be with a bear or a man?
A bear.
And there is an example of a, actually a movie, a screenplay and then a movie, was made in 1936
about the story of a man who fell in love with the mask that he left his wife for the mask
and then fell to his own death.
So it was like the mask was luring him.
The mask had abilities.
Okay.
It didn't.
I'm like, just say you want a divorce.
Right.
Like why blame it on a mask?
He's like, this mask doesn't talk back to me.
Yeah.
This mask doesn't tell me to take out the trash.
Okay.
So many years later, the mask fell out of popularity because trends changed.
And it seems like it said that people became less macabre.
No, they just became macabre and quiet.
Yeah.
They're like, this is gauche macabre.
And he's like, that's weird.
I'm going to go read about it in secret in my room.
So now we are in the late 1950s.
So medical students are starting to learn and practice CPR.
Like this has become a thing.
Archer Gordon, a member of the American Heart Association's CPR committee,
he realized that a CPR dummy could save medical students from a necessary pain and potential
rib damage of practicing CPR, which is true.
I just recently got my CPR certification renewed.
Oh, cool.
I had to practice on a dummy and you have to press so hard because it's the dummies are
really advanced now and it's hooked up to a computer and it'll tell you if it's you're not
pressing hard enough or it's too much.
And it's when you get to the point where you are pressing hard enough, it is a workout.
Yeah.
Like you're like, am I actually helping this person or am I killing them further?
It's how it feels.
But I know it's really common for people to have cracked ribs.
Right.
They're being resuscitated.
Yeah.
So with that in mind, we now know this idea is good.
Yeah.
The CPR dummy is good.
So to manufacture such a thing, Archer Gordon and a Norwegian colleague sought out the help
of a Norwegian toy maker named Osmund Lerdahl.
I love that.
Right.
At the time, Lerdahl had started manufacturing imitation wounds for the Red Cross for first
day training in Norway and Sweden, which is actually genius.
I'm sorry.
Did you say wounds or wounds?
Oh, wounds.
Okay.
Whoa.
Uh-oh.
Wounds would be a little weird.
But maybe.
Well, I mean, you know, like in gynecologist offices, they have like the...
That's true.
They do.
Well, and I know they have like dummies for doctors to practice delivering babies.
Yeah.
So actually that actually both makes sense.
So he might have not been wombing yet.
But he maybe was in the future.
Oh, he might make womb.
He might make womb.
Oh, God.
I hate that I mean.
He's alone in his womb thinking about wounds.
Oh, God.
Okay.
So he's making imitation wounds and maybe wounds.
And he was like, yeah, you know what?
This is a good idea.
A life-size doll for training purposes.
Like this is...
He's like, this is my jam.
He's like, I forget toys.
I'm ready to make people size dolls.
So it was interesting to note that at the same time he had considered making a doll,
he had just seen a reproduction of Le Canneau de la Seine on the wall of a relative's home.
He had been there at dinner, looked over and he's like, oh, there's that face.
And so he just kind of put two together and he was like, I'm going to make this
look like this.
CPR mannequin have the face of this random face I saw.
Interesting.
Yeah.
So by 1960 in Stavanger, Norway, Rassusi Annie made her debut at the first international symposium
on resuscitation.
So this CPR mannequin changed the course of histories medically, as we know it.
And it changed the Laer Doll Company from toys to just medical devices, which is still in
business today.
They still have a functioning website where you can buy Rassusi Annie.
That's so cool.
And when I was doing my CPR training, I actually noticed the name Laer Doll.
And I was like, oh, look it.
It's real.
It really happened.
And the company estimates that 300 million people around the world have been trained in CPR,
most of them with the help of Rassusi Annie.
And one of these people was Michael Jackson.
You weren't expecting that.
Not a million years.
And so he used the refrain, Annie, are you OK?
And the song, smooth criminal.
Oh.
He was inspired by his CPR training.
That's kind of amazing.
It's not amazing because when you're practicing, especially back then, you don't do it now,
you don't talk to your mannequin at all.
But the line is used in CPR training for trainees to check on the response of the patient.
Because her name is Annie.
And you're like, Annie, are you OK?
That is so funny.
Yeah.
She's like, I wasn't struck by a smooth criminal.
I was actually choking on something.
OK.
So over the decades, questions have arose over the authenticity of the face.
Some state the mask of the face seems too healthy to be a mask taken from a corpse.
Many question the ethics of making reproductions of a deceased person's face
and selling it without their or their family's consent.
And it said, the article I read said, it would be ethically troubling today.
But since it was so long ago, it's now a blurred line or just a middle ground between
judging the past by present day standards.
Because back then, it was just like, I mean, she was even lucky to be given the hopes of being identified.
I mean, they put their bodies up in windows.
In windows.
So let's just take that into consideration.
I mean, honestly, if somebody told me that my face was to help people save people's lives,
I'd be like, heck yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
But, you know, we don't know.
And it can be noted that thanks to Annie's face, she has saved so many lives since becoming a mannequin
that it's an interesting parallel thinking of how young she lost her life.
So it's like this kind of balance there.
And thankfully, CPR is still widely taught today.
And the dummy is the most integral part of learning the technique.
It's very life-saving.
And ethics aside, she is here to stay.
And chances are you have possibly kissed this young woman's face.
I know when you first said that, I was like, huh?
You're like, no.
And then you're like, oh yeah.
I'm like, oh, I see what you mean.
Yeah.
I mean, when you consider that at least 300 people, 300 people.
Wow.
300 million people have learned CPR.
You don't technically put your mouth on the dummy anymore.
It's actually more preferred to use the hand pump.
Yeah.
Because of germs.
Because germs.
But I mean, if you don't have that, you have to put your mouth on.
You have to do it.
Yeah.
To put your mouth on them.
And that is the story of the unknown woman of the Sen, also known as the CPR dummy.
Well, that was super interesting.
Right?
Yeah.
I'll never look at a dummy the same way again.
No.
In fact, when I was doing my training, I had our mutual friend with us who's a nurse.
And I was like, that's her face.
And she was like, no, it's not.
And then I showed her the death mask.
And she was, I don't know if she's still convinced, but I'm like, I see it.
It's like that.
You know that face?
It's very serene.
Yeah.
We'll put it on our Instagram.
Yeah.
Interesting.
And it's in her face is so neutral looking enough that you can see where it can be both
man and woman because it's the same face for a man.
Yeah.
I think they just add, you know, just maybe make the bone structure a little stronger.
But it's the same face.
Yeah.
That's so weird.
Yeah.
I just, that's incredible, like how long her likeness has lasted.
Yeah.
For extremely long time, she unknowingly became one of the most identifiable faces.
And it's like you don't even realize you know her.
I know.
She went from not being identified by anyone to now everyone knows her.
That's very interesting.
Yeah.
It's a little bit sad.
It's a little macabre.
Yeah.
But still cool.
It is pretty cool.
Well done.
Yay, we did it.
Yay.
I think this is episode 12 or 13.
I want to say it's 13.
13.
Yeah.
That's Taylor Swift's episode.
Yep.
It works because tortured poets department has links to insane asylum.
That's right.
So connection made.
Right.
There we go.
Like also it's a very good album.
Yeah, it is.
Yeah, it's just constantly playing through my head.
Well, now comes the time where we have to awkwardly end the podcast and decide if we have anything else left to say.
I don't know if I do.
I'm excited for whatever it is.
I'm excited for whatever is next.
Me too.
Episode 14.
I have to, oh, I remember what I wanted to do next.
Oh, I was supposed to do my resources.
Oh my goodness.
Let me scroll back there.
Everyone pretend like this is still the end of my episode.
And I got my resources from an amusing planning article written by Kaushik Padaway.
Patoirie.
Kaushik Patoirie.
An article from CPReducationersinc.com and a live science article written by Ashley P. Taylor.
Very nice.
Yes, and that's it.
I don't know what was I going to say.
It was something about the podcast.
Oh yeah, we need to decide what our next theme is.
Yeah, we will.
We're not going to tell you guys, so it's going to be a surprise.
We won't tell you because we don't know what it is yet.
No, I have some ideas, but.
I do too.
We have to run it by first.
We have to run it by our play Doctor First.
Yes, Wilson, what do you think?
And he says, it wasn't the rats.
Quit blaming the rats.
I'm just picturing Robert Sean Leonard saying it wasn't the rats.
It wasn't the rats.
But I mean, yeah, we'll figure it out and you will get to find out what it is.
Yeah, so that's exciting.
Next time you get CPR certified, think about Annie.
Think about Annie, think about Michael Jackson.
No, maybe not.
I don't know.
Maybe just the song.
The song.
It still slaps.
So it really does.
And maybe think about getting some bug spray.
Definitely some bug spray.
And if you are able to get your vaccinations, please do.
Very important.
And if not just for you, but for other people who are more delicately health wise.
Because we know there are those that because they are compromised, they can't get it.
So let's get it for those people.
Think about those people.
Yeah.
All right.
I think that's it.
Well, until next time, stay curious.
And stay odd.
Please stay odd.