Hank's childhood scarlet fever
story · status: told 3× · last event: retold (2026-08-25)
Hank had scarlet fever as a child, an illness easily cured today but once a common cause of childhood death. Hank recalled it in 2026 as a death day he never thinks about, and John brought it up again later that year when writing about infectious disease.
About: scarlet fever
| date | event | what | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-05-05 | told | John marks Hank's 46th birthday: he was born 46 years ago today and survived childhood scarlet fever and other illnesses that a century earlier might have killed him. | Noted Brother Hank Green 00:00:03 |
| 2026-05-08 | retold | As John said in his Tuesday video, Hank had scarlet fever as a child: another potential death day behind him that he never thinks about. → refers to Noted Brother Hank Green | My Deathday 00:04:52 |
| 2026-08-25 | retold | Hank probably would not exist either: he had scarlet fever as a kid, easily cured, but a common cause of childhood death in the 19th century. (hedged) | The Great Thing about Infectious Disease 00:02:26 |
What is said about it
6 statements, by date (the events above are the turns of the thread; these are the details).
- 2026-05-05 · Noted Brother Hank Green — John hails Hank as inventor of 2D Glasses, TikTok science guy, Crash Course, VidCon and Project for Awesome man, best-selling novelist, Billboard-charting musician and Emmy winner. (playful) — 00:00:13
- 2026-05-08 · My Deathday — Hank jokes he would need to live 100,000 years to lay flowers at the graves of all who put his death day in his past, so he is stuck celebrating birthdays. (playful) — 00:05:21
- 2026-08-25 · The Great Thing about Infectious Disease — John: Before milk pasteurization, as a poster from 85 years ago shows, children caught TB from caregivers, told not to kiss them, and from raw milk of infected cows. — 00:02:55
- 2026-08-25 · The Great Thing about Infectious Disease — John: TB from raw cow's milk often invades the bones, causing intense pain, lifelong disability and very commonly death. — 00:02:55
- 2026-08-25 · The Great Thing about Infectious Disease — John: Researching Everything Is Tuberculosis, John read Gail Perkins's memoir The Baby's Cross: infected by raw milk at three, she spent over 13 years in a sanatorium and came home unaccustomed to touch. — 00:03:24
- 2026-08-25 · The Great Thing about Infectious Disease — John: We have forgotten that in 1900 there were almost as many beds just for TB patients as hospital beds for all conditions combined. — 00:03:24