All of this reminds me of my friend Tamar Stieber's efforts at the Albuquerque Journal 26 years ago to expose the harm done by Tryptophan, after dozens had died, and the medical community alternately ignored her or ridiculed her. This strange epidemic was first reported on November 7, 1989 by Tamar Stieber. She did win the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Journalism; from the New York Times story: "Tamar Stieber's articles noted the connections between a rare blood disorder and a nonprescription drug, L-tryptophan, a dietary supplement used by some to treat insomnia, premenstrual syndrome and depression. The drug has since been recalled by the Federal Government, and physicians have credited the articles for helping identify many cases of the illness that would have gone undetected and for saving time, money and suffering. Her first article was based on a tip from a Journal news stringer about four friends who were suffering unusual cases of the flu, two of whom were taking L-tryptophan."
Something also like Ignaz Semmelweiss suggesting to Viennese physicians that high infant mortality rates resulted from the doctors handling babies right after doing autopsies in another part of the hospital, without washing their hands! He was banished and died in an insane asylum, for his trouble, but the largest Medical School in Hungary is now named after him.
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