Oxford University Artificial Penicillin totally fails to deliver - morally as well as technically

It goes without saying that Oxford University's wartime chimera of totally synthesized artificial penicillin was an abject failure.

75 years on, we still start the production of all the penicillin and beta lactam antibiotics with natural fermentation.

So ---- just a minor technical failing ?

Few go on to consider the moral failings behind the Conservative Party-led British government's wartime penicillin decisions.

The (New Deal-oriented) American WPB (War Production Board) had greatly upped the penicillin amounts originally proposed by Oxford's American ally , Vannevar Bush's OSRD.

The WPB wanted not just enough penicillin produced to satisfy the life-saving demands of the American military, with some left for certain civilian conditions.

They wanted levels that meant all American lifesaving situations were met.

With plenty left over to fill all the unmet demands among the other Allies, with still more left for neutral nations, liberated Europe and even Axis POWs.

The WPB fulfilled Dr Martin Henry Dawson's dream of cheap abundant penicillin for all in the war world - in spades !

By contrast, Churchill's government was unwilling to divert enough resources away from yet more heavy bombers to cure all of Britain's military and civilian life-threatening bacterial infections - let alone to meet the needs of its own colonies.

And as for the rest of the world ? The could all whistle for their penicillin , as far as Churchill was concerned.

The prime minister of the nation that had given the world the discovery and early development of the world's first and best lifesaver thus threw all that global goodwill away - just for a handful of more bombs.

With that one - unbelievably heartless and stupid - decision , Churchill ensured that the Pax Britannica became the Pax Americana .....