Posted on 05/21/2021 8:36:31 AM PDT by devane617
BOSTON (AP) — A highly contagious disease originating far from America’s shores triggers deadly outbreaks that spread rapidly, infecting the masses. Shots are available, but a divided public agonizes over getting jabbed.
Sound familiar?
Newly digitized records — including a minister’s diary scanned and posted online by Boston’s Congregational Library and Archives — are shedding fresh light on devastating outbreaks of smallpox that hit the city in the 1700s.
The mini series on John Adams illustrated Adam’s wife having the cow poke vaccine given to her and her children. Quincy was actually quite ill due to it.
It’s getting lost as ancient history, but the biggest strides taken to control infectious diseases were building a safe water supply and sanitary sewers. There are places in the Third World where those are still badly needed.
Yup. That was the late (politician) Paul Simon’s favorite cause I think, and Bjorn Nyborg champions it as well. And the Roman Empire didn’t last 1800 years (from the conquest of Ostia to the fall of Constantinople) for no reason.
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