How Crude Smallpox Inoculations Helped George Washington Win the War“An inoculation doctor would cut an incision in the flesh of the person being inoculated and implant a thread laced with live pustular matter 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.
It wasn't popular with the troops but they all did what they had to do. Sure makes modern Americans look wimpy to sell their American birthright away because of disease with a 0.2% IFR.
to be fair,
there weren’t alinsky socialists able to control media and scare people 24/7/365 about a disease that has asurvival rate well, well over 99% for almost everyone except the demographics that are always hardest hit by any disease.