To vacinate or not to vacinate, that is the question. - Printable Version +- Lincoln Discussion Symposium (https://rogerjnorton.com/LincolnDiscussionSymposium) +-- Forum: Lincoln Discussion Symposium (/forum-1.html) +--- Forum: News and Announcements (/forum-7.html) +--- Thread: To vacinate or not to vacinate, that is the question. (/thread-4627.html) |
To vacinate or not to vacinate, that is the question. - David Lockmiller - 03-03-2022 10:55 AM A bit of history from the New York Times (The Morning) today: The original American advocate for inoculation against severe disease was arguably an enslaved man named Onesimus. Before being forcibly brought to Boston, Onesimus seems to have lived in West Africa, where inoculation was a common practice. There, he had been deliberately infected with a small amount of smallpox to make him immune from a more severe version. In Boston, Onesimus told his owner, Cotton Mather, about the practice. Mather was among the colonies’ most prominent religious leaders in the 1720s. He was also keenly interested in science . . . . When smallpox began spreading in Boston in the 1720s, Mather campaigned for residents to be inoculated — and was met with fierce criticism and even an attempt to bomb his home. Some Bostonians argued that inoculation violated God’s will. Others, including doctors, argued that it was folklore that would do more harm than good. RE: To vacinate or not to vacinate, that is the question. - LincolnMan - 03-05-2022 07:44 AM As it is said “Nothing new under the sun.” RE: To vacinate or not to vacinate, that is the question. - David Lockmiller - 03-05-2022 09:12 AM (03-05-2022 07:44 AM)LincolnMan Wrote: As it is said “Nothing new under the sun.” It was new to the people of Boston . . . at that time. And, Cotton Mather was the Dr. Fauci of his time. |