Smallpox in 1787 had a far greater potential for causing death than does Covid in 2021.
Exactly. Generally the “major” form had a 30% death rate! (NOW THAT’S A DEATH RATE!)
People will want to use this as an example of how imperative it is we get vaxed - for a measly 1% death rate disease.
So did "variolation" the method Washington used to inoculate his troops.
How Crude Smallpox Inoculations Helped George Washington Win the WarBut immunization in the 1770s was not what it’s like today with a single injection and a low risk of mild symptoms. Edward Jenner didn’t even develop his revolutionary cowpox-based vaccine for smallpox until 1796. The best inoculation technique at Washington’s disposal during the Revolutionary War was a nasty and sometimes fatal method called “variolation.”
“An inoculation doctor would cut an incision in the flesh of the person being inoculated and implant a thread laced with live pustular matter (of smallpox) into the wound,” explains Fenn. “The hope and intent was for the person to come down with smallpox. When smallpox was conveyed in that fashion, it was usually a milder case than it was when it was contracted in the natural way.”
Variolization still had a case fatality rate of 5 to 10 percent. And even if all went well, inoculated patients still needed a month to recover. The procedure was not only risky for the individual patient, but for the surrounding population. An inoculee with a mild case might feel well enough to walk around town, infecting countless others with potentially more serious infections.