Articles on Inoculation

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As a printer’s apprentice in 1721, Franklin had a front-row seat to the controversy around a new prevention technique. ClassicStock/Archive Photos via Getty Images

Benjamin Franklin’s fight against a deadly virus: Colonial America was divided over smallpox inoculation, but he championed science to skeptics

Mark Canada, Indiana University Kokomo and Christian Chauret, Indiana University Kokomo

When Bostonians in 1721 faced a deadly smallpox outbreak, a new procedure called inoculation was found to help fend off the disease. Not everyone was won over, and newspapers fed the controversy.
A 1975 stamp printed in St. Vincent shows U.S. presidents George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, who were all vocally pro-inoculation and vaccination. (Shutterstock)

The U.S. Founding Fathers would want us to get the COVID‑19 vaccine

Jason Opal, McGill University

In the early years of the United States, several American presidents were in favour of public health inoculation and vaccination strategies.

Related Topics

  1. Benjamin Franklin
  2. Boston smallpox epidemic
  3. COVID-19
  4. James Madison
  5. Public health
  6. Smallpox
  7. Thomas Jefferson
  8. US history
  9. Vaccination

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