My latest story for Scientific American: https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/civil-war-vaccine-may-have-lessons-for-covid-19/#transcripts-body

During the Civil War, soldiers were vaccinated against smallpox. Here is my latest podcast about the cool way scientists uncovered the virus doctors based the vaccine on. One thing I learned while researching this is that black soldiers in the Union army were 6 times more likely to get smallpox, and those who did were more likely to die from it. My guess is that poorer health care, living conditions, and racism were involved. Another thing I learned is that desperate soldiers tried to vaccinate themselves. Remember, hypodermic needles hadn’t been invented, and viruses hadn’t yet been discovered because they’re tiny. This “spurious vaccination” often resulted in soldiers giving themselves syphilis and other diseases! ALSO, there’s some evidence that people had gotten complacent about smallpox during the 19th century after the development of the vaccine, and that led to vaccine refusal! Just like today. Smallpox inoculation goes back a long time, but vaccination using viruses that are less deadly is a much more recent practice.