Myth of the fat dodo. The birdâs obesity, slowness and lack of intelligence are commonly given as reasons for its alleged evolutionary inferiority. Dodoes were for years considered not just large, but grossly overweightâto the point that they not only couldnât fly, but could hardly run from their enemies.
The HPV strains that Gardasil protects against are sexually transmitted. The vaccine was approved in the US on June 8, 2006 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In 2008, Gardasil was approved in 41 of U.S. states. The Gardasil vaccine has also been approved in 120 other countries.
The influenza virus was discovered in the early 1930s, and scientists developed a working vaccine by the 1940s, when it was first used on soldiers during World War II. In 1947, Jonas Salk, one of the vaccine's creators, began to develop a polio vaccine, which was perfected and approved in 1955. In 1976, an errant outbreak of swine flu at Fort Dix, New Jersey, caused scientists to worry about a possible pandemic, so President Gerald Ford announced that the federal government would vaccinate the entire U.S. population.