Modern Medicine and Vaccines (Patreon)
Content
This season, modern medicine scores another huge victory in humanity's struggle against disease, this time with a tuberculosis vaccine. The modern world doesn't only change the human kind wards off its old foe sickness, but also hunger. New technology allows for increasingly productive agriculture, and countries which have been taking advantage of this are now seeing some of the first ever hamburger fast food joints. Countries ravaged by war, chaos, and underdevelopment, like the Russian Empire (now becoming the Soviet Union) see the other end of the stick. When large scale food production fails, the catastrophic effects can bring suffering to entire populations.
Burger joints and vaccines reflect the first blossoms of our modern society, but the famine in Russia is a stark reminder of how underdeveloped much of the world was in the year 1921.
If you went back in time, what are some comforts you would miss, and what are some things you'd be happy to leave behind in the present?