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Of vaccinate, Washington said, “No!”
Emphatic he was. “Out you go
…If as soldiers you do,
…Then as soldiers you’re through!”
But he changed his mind, ending woe.
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Vaccination was primitive in Washington’s time. Pus from
a smallpox victim was put into a wound to inoculate
another, giving them (for the most part) a slight case of
smallpox and immunity, though a few even died. When
Washington changed his mind and had his army inoculated,
the death rate in his army associated with smallpox went
from 160 out of 1000 to 3 of 1000.
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© Dennis Allen Lange, 2019.
The Bard on the Hill 