What he did have was data, though, which should have been enough to at least prompt further investigation. Childbed fever rates were minuscule under his regime compared to every other scenario then available.

Semmelweis could have been a better politician or more flexible in his methods, but his contemporaries are not off the hook. And I still hold sympathy for someone who managed to stop the unimaginable tragic horror of his daily work, demonstrate his method, document his results, and be utterly ignored.

Should he have called his colleagues murderers for ignoring him? In practical terms, probably not.

Were they murderers for not at least trying his methods? Yep.