science · 02 February 1962 · 62 years ago
In 1962, the USS Diamond Head set sail for Africa from Newport News, Va. Its passengers were medical workers equipped with the newly invented vaccination gun pistola de la paz ("pistol of peace"). Their mission was to conduct the first field trials of this invention of Robert Hingson. The "jet" injector, which enabled more efficient mass innoculation without need of needles and syringes and subsequently improved the health of millions of people. Hingson thought the most important benefit of the hypospray was that it did not frighten children undergoing vaccination nearly as much as did needles. Hingson was not only a pioneer in anaesthesiology, but also recognized for his humanitarian contributions to public health
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