What if, after the Allies won World War II, world health officials had employed a Nazi version of DDT against mosquitoes that transmit malaria? “Two years ago, we never thought we’d be doing this,” said Michael D. Ward, an N.Y.U. In postwar Allied intelligence reports examined by Dr. Ward and his colleagues, German scientists claimed their insecticide, now called DFDT , was more effective than DDT. Allied officials dismissed those assertions as fanciful, especially given the deplorable behavior of Hoechst , the German chemical manufacturer that developed the insecticide , during the war. The company had forced residents of countries occupied by Germany to work in its factories, and it tested drugs on concentration camp prisoners.

Source: New York Times October 17, 2019 15:22 UTC