Forgotten Contagion Experiments: When the Flu, Measles, and Chickenpox Refused to Spread. In 1919, doctors tried to transmit flu, measles, and chickenpox to healthy volunteers. They failed. Why are these forgotten experiments ignored today?
During the Spanish Flu pandemic, some of the best medical minds of the early 20th century set out to answer a basic question: how do diseases spread? Their goal was simple — prove contagion by exposing healthy volunteers to the sick. The results? Not what anyone expected. These studies — conducted by Rosenau, McCoy, Richey, Sellards, and Hess — failed to transmit influenza, measles, or chickenpox under controlled conditions. Yet today, their work is largely erased from textbooks. If these diseases were truly “highly infectious,” why did rigorous experiments fail to demonstrate contagion? Rosenau’s Influenza Trials (Boston, 1919) Context: U.S. Navy faced massive influenza outbreaks during WWI. To understand transmission, Dr. Milton Rosenau led experiments at Gallops Island, Boston. Method: Over 100 healthy young sailors were exposed to mucus, blood, and direct coughs/sneezes from flu patients. Some even had swabs placed deep into their throats and noses with infectious materi...