Simon Schama on how inoculation changed the world
HistoryExtra podcast
00:00
The Psychology of Self-Poisoning
Smallpox was known for a long time but became extraordinarily deadly at the end of the 17th, early 18th century. The great breakthrough about inoculation before Edward Jenner came around 100 years later. It's still absolutely amazing to me that people in such large numbers eventually come to accept that that's the way not necessarily to escape the certainty of death.
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