{"id":2355462,"date":"2020-05-05T07:34:06","date_gmt":"2020-05-05T11:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/?p=2355462"},"modified":"2020-05-05T07:34:06","modified_gmt":"2020-05-05T11:34:06","slug":"smallpox-covid-19-2355462","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/smallpox-covid-19-2355462\/","title":{"rendered":"How smallpox changed the face of public health"},"content":{"rendered":"

The victory over smallpox shows the beginning of more modern public health and can teach us about today’s COVID-19 pandemic, historian Michael Willrich argues.<\/p>\n

When the United States suffered a great wave of smallpox outbreaks at the turn of the 20th century, the public health field was in its infancy.<\/p>\n

Compulsory vaccinations were haphazard and often discriminatory. Many people did not trust the vaccines or the local governments doing the vaccinating. At the time, the federal government passing nationwide vaccination measures would have been unthinkable.<\/p>\n

The events of this time, known as the Progressive Era, paved the way for laws and regulations still in force today. Willrich<\/a>, professor of history at Brandeis University, chronicled this period in American history in his award-winning book, Pox: An American History<\/a> <\/em>(Penguin Books, 2012).<\/p>\n

If widespread distrust of public officials<\/a> and discrimination<\/a> against marginalized groups during the smallpox outbreaks made containing the virus difficult, the development of sound public health practices at the time finally defeated the epidemics.<\/p>\n

Here, Willrich explains the outbreaks and their relevance to today’s COVID-19 pandemic:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The victory over smallpox shows the beginning of more modern public health and can teach […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8942,"featured_media":2355552,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[293542,351,877,2154,426],"class_list":["post-2355462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-quote","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-medicine","tag-covid-19-research-news","tag-history","tag-smallpox","tag-united-states","tag-vaccines","post_format-post-format-quote","university-brandeis-university"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow smallpox changed the face of public health - 糖心视频<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A historian explains how smallpox outbreaks changed American public health and vaccination forever, as well as what we can learn for today's pandemic.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/smallpox-covid-19-2355462\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How smallpox changed the face of public health\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A historian explains how smallpox outbreaks changed American public health and vaccination forever, as well as what we can learn for today's pandemic.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/smallpox-covid-19-2355462\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"糖心视频\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/糖心视频\/143906865226\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-05-05T11:34:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/smallpox-covid-19-vaccination-history_1600.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"915\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jarret Bencks-Brandeis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@糖心视频News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@糖心视频News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jarret Bencks-Brandeis\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/smallpox-covid-19-2355462\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/smallpox-covid-19-2355462\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jarret Bencks-Brandeis\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/#\/schema\/person\/55199bf45ec8318c476077d749437832\"},\"headline\":\"How smallpox changed the face of public health\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-05-05T11:34:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/smallpox-covid-19-2355462\/\"},\"wordCount\":185,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/smallpox-covid-19-2355462\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/smallpox-covid-19-vaccination-history_1600.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"COVID-19 Research News\",\"history\",\"smallpox\",\"United States\",\"vaccines\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Health and Medicine\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/smallpox-covid-19-2355462\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/smallpox-covid-19-2355462\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/smallpox-covid-19-2355462\/\",\"name\":\"How smallpox changed the face of public health - 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