Do Your Part, Get Vaccinated

By: Masood Ashraf

The American Revolution was a conflict in which 13 colonies established in North America revolted against the unjust rule of England. The battles that ensued during this 7 year long period is well known among many individuals, but what many are not aware of is the third power America was fighting against. This third power was arguably stronger than the English and was one that nearly caused America to cease to exist: smallpox. Smallpox was a highly contagious and infectious disease caused by the variola major virus that had wreaked havoc on millions of people from numerous different time periods. Those who were unfortunate enough to contract the virus had around a 1 in 3 chance of surviving and progressed through a series of different stages, each one more painful than the last. During the first incubation stage, the disease manifested itself through high fevers, headaches, body aches, and excessive vomiting. As the infected experienced these initial symptoms, small but irritating red dots would begin to appear in the person’s mouth, coating their tongues and eventually spreading to cover their face, arms, legs, hands, and feet. In a mere 24 hours, these red spots would be found completely enveloping the individual’s entire body.  These itchy painful dots would slowly begin to fill up with a thick translucent liquid and form pustules, or large irregular bumps on the skin with a yellowish substance called pus. These pustules would continue to grow and if the person had not yet succumbed to the disease, they would eventually scab over and fall off, leaving them with deep scars all over their body. This infectious virus caused extreme discomfort and pain throughout all of its stages which made contracting it something to be very cautious of. However, getting a handle on this virus proved to be difficult since outbreaks of it would often infect thousands, dissipate, and then reappear to infect more people multiple times throughout history. Its origin was difficult to pinpoint and it spread rapidly through trade routes stretching across continents and through the confrontations of individuals from different territories. One of these confrontations, and arguably the most important, was the one between the English and the colonials during the American Revolution. Due to the occasional smallpox outbreaks, the English had already been largely exposed to smallpox and developed some degree of immunity to the disease. Unfortunately, those residing within the colonies had never dealt with the virus before and thus had absolutely no immunity to it. During the revolution when the English sailed over to North America, they brought smallpox with them and spread the infectious disease to the Americans, adding an entirely new conflict for them to deal with while fighting for their independence. However, just as Britain’s smallpox spread, so did their idea of variolation. Variolation refers to a process used to eradicate smallpox, originating from the virus’s name variola major.  This method of inoculation involved taking the substance from pustules on individuals with a much milder version of smallpox, known as variola minor, and injecting it into someone who desired immunity.  The small injection would cause far milder and manageable symptoms of smallpox and would allow the individual’s immune system to build up antibodies that could fight off the disease. These inoculated individuals became immune to variola major and were able to continue to fight in the revolution healthy and unscarred after a short recovery period.  Although this method of extracting viruses was not as sanitary during the 18th century as it would be now with our advanced technology, the idea of using a mild version of a disease to combat a more severe version is exactly how modern-day live-attenuated vaccines function. And it was because of this that America had a chance in winning the revolutionary war. Word of this method had spread across the colonies and upon discovering the concept of vaccinations through live-attenuated viruses, American general George Washington eventually mandated his soldiers to receive the procedure. He ensured new troops coming into the war would receive the inoculation and timed it so that the period of time in which new recruits would usually wait for their materials was used as a recovery period. Through this well strategized plan, more and more soldiers were becoming immune to smallpox and the colonials finally got a firm hold on the incredibly infectious disease, allowing them to focus on fighting actual British troops and to continue to do so until they were officially recognized as an independent nation on September 3rd, 1783. The American Revolution consisted of numerous bloody battles between the colonials and the English, but the battle that took the most lives from both sides was the fight against smallpox. This infectious disease had ravaged civilizations for centuries and if variolation had not been discovered when it was, the painful virus would have caused the colonies to lose their country and their independence. Getting vaccinated was a significant reason why America didn’t fall prey to the English during the revolution and if people had refused the inoculations, this disease would have taken our country and then evolved to take another. Smallpox would have continued it’s cycle of infecting people, dissipating, and reappearing for centuries to come just as it had been doing for centuries past. Through variolation and a more advanced method of inoculation for smallpox discovered by Edward Jenner involving cowpox in the near future, the world was able to completely eradicate the disease. The only reason why this infectious disease never survived long enough to torment another generation was because people had gotten these inoculations. Smallpox and countless other diseases like polio, measles, cholera, and even covid-19 would have claimed the lives of many more if vaccinations had not been developed for them. The more people who had taken the vaccines, the safer the general public was. Through time and scientific advancement of vaccines, we no longer have to consider smallpox, cholera, measles or several other diseases as a worldwide epidemic. All that’s left now, is covid. If we want to eradicate covid-19 as a pandemic just as we did with countless previous diseases, getting vaccinated is the best step that needs to be taken.