Today begins Black History Month
And vaccine science is threatened by misinformation
I feel it is timely to share that three centuries ago, the knowledge of an African slave introduced the concept of immunization to America, launching the first successful public inoculation campaign
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And vaccine science is threatened by misinformation
I feel it is timely to share that three centuries ago, the knowledge of an African slave introduced the concept of immunization to America, launching the first successful public inoculation campaign
Thread 1/8
Comments
Ultimately, 5,759 people out of ~10,600 in Boston were infected (61%) and 844 were recorded to have died (15% case fatality rate)
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Enslaved in Ghana and transported to America, he was given as a gift to Cotton Mather—a Puritan minister and prominent figure in the Salem Witch Trials
Mather taught Onesimus to read and write
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He relayed what Onesimus taught him in a letter
"People take Juice of Small-Pox; and Cut the Skin, and put in a drop"
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Even after the violence subsided—Boylston visited his patients only at midnight and while disguised
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