EP 667 America’s Response to Viral Outbreaks Has a Historical Familiarity

To hear a great historian of America’s early history come to the realization that America’s victory over the British in the Revolutionary War was second to its defeat of the scourge of smallpox at the time is pretty stunning.  Then he makes a compelling case that the virus had to be conquered in order to have the capacity to beat such an estimable force.  It all makes sense and reminds us that when a society has its health, like an individual, it can perform at its best.  The real question is whether given our performance as a nation, did we learn that lesson even as the science of medicine should have brought us a much better result than what we evidenced during the recent COVID-19 pandemic?  So much of it has to do with Americans’ sense of individual liberty and shared responsibility.  In our conversation with Andrew Wehrman, author of “The Contagion of Liberty: The Politics of Smallpox in the American Revolution”, we will return to debates and divides that regrettably remain in our body politic to this day, thus affecting the health of bodies throughout our country.

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