Old records shed new light on smallpox outbreaks in 1700s

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

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.

And three centuries later, the parallels with the coronavirus pandemic are uncanny.

“How little we’ve changed,” said CLA archivist Zachary Bodnar, who led the digitization effort, working closely with the New England Historic Genealogical Society.

“The fact that we’re finding these similarities in the records of our past is a very interesting parallel,” Bodnar said in an interview. “Sometimes the more we learn, the more we’re still the same, I guess.”

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https://apnews.com/article/us-news-smallpox-coronavirus-pandemic-health-795b86e0d8fd632034cf70fc320e4c91

[Scrivener7]

1. Cotton Mather learned how to innoculate from his slave, Onesimus. Onesimus

had been a gift from Cotton's oh-so-pious Puritan congregation. He came from a place in Africa that practiced inoculation.

[tanyev]

2. The thing that gets me is how many more advantages we have now.

Detailed scientific knowledge of how disease is spread. Advanced medical facilities to treat those who have disease. Running water and soap easily available almost anywhere you go. Other ways to sanitize and disinfect also easily available. PPE they couldn’t have even dreamed of years ago. Instantaneous communications. Ways to purchase food, clothing and necessities from your house and have it delivered to your door. Ways to do schooling and many jobs from your house.

And yet, there’s still a large chunk of the population actively fighting an effective response to this pandemic. It’s unreal.