Tom Mooney Reprieved (in 1918), Oil Embargo Layoffs (1973), Vaccine for Millions (1803), "Unrestrained, Indiscriminate Police Violence" (1968), Monroe Doctrine is Too Old (1823), NYC Says 'No' to Lynch Law (1933), Slavery's Enemies Organize (1833)
Shining light on federal records in 1966. Segregating the U.S. civil service in 1913. Smallpox scam in 2002. March of the Mill Children in 1903. A big win for airline workers in 1966. 14th Amendment inked in 1868. Telstar fried by a nuke in 1962.
The key ingredient in our oldest vaccine is a mystery that goes back 200 years.
A new viral outbreak is testing whether the world has learned anything from COVID.
When rumors of Jesty’s “bold experiment” spread, the reaction was brutal. The upstanding farmer became the target of vicious attacks from neighbors who were appalled that he had experimented on his own family.
Colonial America was divided over smallpox inoculation, but he championed science to skeptics.
Measles, like polio and smallpox, is a horrible disease - it's still a major killer of young children in the developing world. The creation of a vaccine was widely welcomed. Measles is so contagious that it is used as the indicator disease to show deficits in immunization coverage of all vaccine-preventable diseases-which means the problem goes well beyond measles. We are now seeing outbreaks of whooping cough in the US, mumps in Britain and tuberculosis more widely.
American and Russian officials always insist that their smallpox repositories, under WHO oversight, are well guarded. But experience tells us that scientists working in laboratories with the highest biosafety standards are still caught off guard by technical breakdowns, that their staffs make mistakes and break rules, and that a predictable institutional reflex is to cover up blunders.
How weird is vaccination? So weird they’re putting cow disease juice under your skin. Ew.
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