History of medical oxygen: How the key to Covid fight once used to be a feared thing SECTIONS History of medical oxygen: How the key to Covid fight once used to be a feared thingBy Stephen Mihm, Bloomberg Last Updated: Apr 27, 2021, 11:11 AM IST Share Synopsis Oxygen’s history in medicine begins in the 1770s, when the Swedish pharmacist Karl Scheele and the British scientist Joseph Priestly independently isolated oxygen gas. Priestly unfairly received the lion’s share of the credit. PTI This simplest of treatments has been around for ages. It can be deployed in a range of settings, from the trenches of war to the parking lot of a hospital.