If I had been a member of the Corps of Discovery, I would have brought my own vial of smallpox vaccine. Meriwether Lewis’s supply lost its potency and was therefore useless. Had this not happened, he might have protected some native peoples against the epidemic of 1837-38. The history of smallpox in early America is horrific. I know that some have questioned the wisdom of eradicating a species—the smallpox virus—from the planet. But I, for one, am heartily glad for it.  (To be clear,


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