Associated Press
A smallpox outbreak in Boston in March 1764 prompted the Rev. Ebenezer Storer to write a prayer in his diary – recently digitized by the Congregational Church – after arranging to have his children inoculated.
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Sunday, May 23, 2021 1:00 am
Light shed on smallpox in 1700s, parallels to now
WILLIAM J. KOLE | Associated Press
BOSTON – A highly contagious disease originating far from America's shores triggers deadly outbreaks that spread rapidly, infecting the masses. Shots are available, but a divided public agonizes over getting jabbed.
Sound familiar?
Newly digitized records – including a minister's diary scanned and posted online by Boston's Congregational Library and Archives – are shedding fresh light on devastating outbreaks of smallpox that hit the city in the 1700s. Three centuries later, the parallels with the coronavirus pandemic are uncanny.