Andrew Wehrman

I’d like to be flattered for being cited so extensively in the cover story for the most recent issue of the CDC’s journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, which features an article on George Washington’s decision to inoculate the Continental Army. wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/...

It also likely shows the politics of the current CDC because it does not mention that inoculation was introduced in America by an enslaved Black man named Onesimus. Instead it cites me as it credits Cotton Mather. My book mentions Mather but credits Onesimus.

I’d like to be flattered for being cited so extensively in the cover story for the most recent issue of the CDC’s journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, which features an article on George Washington’s decision to inoculate the Continental Army. wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/...

As bad as this is for science and for health, it’s also fundamentally unamerican to be opposed to vaccination and vaccination research. George Washington called for "a Law to compell the Masters of Families to inoculate every Child born within a certain limitted time under severe Penalties."

After calling for the inoculation of the Continental Army, Washington wrote: “I shudder when ever I reflect upon the difficulties of keeping [smallpox] out [without inoculation].”

If Abdul El-Sayed wins the primary in Michigan today and goes on to win in November, he will be the first Democratic Senator to hold and medical degree and be a public health expert since Sen. Royal Copeland (former NYC health commissioner) died in 1938.

*You might say, "AHA! Wehrman doesn't know what he's talking about! What about Senator Ernest Gruening (1959-1969)?” Well, Gruening did graduate from Harvard Medical School in 1912, but he never practiced medicine or served in a health department and instead made his career in journalism.

If Abdul El-Sayed wins the primary in Michigan today and goes on to win in November, he will be the first Democratic Senator to hold and medical degree and be a public health expert since Sen. Royal Copeland (former NYC health commissioner) died in 1938.

In recent decades Republicans have elected several physcians, who mostly come from backgrounds in private medical practice (Mehmet Oz, Rand Paul, Bill Cassidy, Roger Marshall, etc.) and have used their Senate careers to vote against public health initiatives and national healthcare programs.

Sprite saved us all from an invasion this morning. Our little hero…

An hour later and he is still pacing the house and barking. This event has shaken him to his puppy core.

Much is made of the 27 grievances in the Declaration and how some of them are thin or contrived. It’s really a wonder that blaming the King for spreading smallpox among them. It was widely thought that the British army was purposely trying to infect both the Continental Army and the American people🧵

At the same time, Jefferson worried about Virginia Governor Lord Dunmore’s efforts to give Virginia’s slaves freedom in exchange for fighting against the rebels. Jefferson learned that many slaves caught smallpox and feared Dunmore was using them to spread disease.

Much is made of the 27 grievances in the Declaration and how some of them are thin or contrived. It’s really a wonder that blaming the King for spreading smallpox among them. It was widely thought that the British army was purposely trying to infect both the Continental Army and the American people🧵

After the American invasion of Canada failed spectacularly due to an outbreak of smallpox among the American soldiers, Congress held investigative hearings in July 1776, the first congressional investigation in US history. Jefferson, as if he wasn’t busy enough in June and July 1776, chaired it.

Much is made of the 27 grievances in the Declaration and how some of them are thin or contrived. It’s really a wonder that blaming the King for spreading smallpox among them. It was widely thought that the British army was purposely trying to infect both the Continental Army and the American people🧵

In Boston in March 1775 in the last town meeting before the Battle of Lexington and Concord, the public learned that the British Army had been keeping known smallpox cases secret. This came after British officers had been caught inoculating contrary to Boston’s quarantine ordinances.