He had very sensible ideas about hand washing a hundred years before it was accepted by most doctors. He was a bit weird though, and ended up being ignored.
I can just imagine both how desperate you might feel when you discover that you've been (unwillingly) killing your patients, how you might refuse this reality of being a vector of health instead of the saviour or helper you picture yourself as and also how personable and convincing you'd need to be to get people past that.
Semmelweiss was apparently lacking in social graces, but I wouldn't be able to behave normally if I'd discovered what he discovered.
He had very sensible ideas about hand washing a hundred years before it was accepted by most doctors. He was a bit weird though, and ended up being ignored.