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Robert Promisloff

Robert A. Promisloff, DO, is a Clinical Professor Emeritus of Medicine in Pulmonary & Critical Care at Drexel University College of Medicine.

Oct 13, 2026

Science Friction

Science Friction

01 | Outbreaks: The aquarium illness

Oct 13 · 25m

Belinda SmithHOST
5:47
Even experts didn't know what it was, so fears only grew, and conspiracy theories alongside them.
Robert PromisloffGUEST
5:54
I do remember there were many people picketing in front of the hospital, handing out leaflets that it was the government plot to kill people.
Robert PromisloffGUEST
6:02
Some of the newspapers were calling it a hoax.
Robert PromisloffGUEST
6:04
They were blaming the government.
Robert PromisloffGUEST
6:06
They were blaming the communists.
Robert PromisloffGUEST
6:08
And we were just scratching our heads and trying to figure out what was going on.
Robert PromisloffGUEST
6:12
And the reason we weren't having any success is that this was an unknown bacteria.
Belinda SmithHOST
8:24
Robert remembers this time as intensely stressful, and it was an eventful summer in more ways than one.

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