New England’s graveyards testify to, as the Rev. Thomas Thacher of Old South Church wrote, the deadly result of “Small pocks, or Measels,” and what English writers called “a pestilential Pox.” The European arrival brought with it smallpox and other contagious diseases. Together, these diseases killed up to 90-95% of New England’s Native American people. Smallpox also swept through Puritan Boston. Thacher’s Brief rule to guide the common people sought to protect those who could not afford a physician; but the truth was that 17th century medicine could not help. 

How different is our response to Covid-19 today? Not very. Despite the scientific advances of the 21st century, the perception of society facing untreatable smallpox in the 17th century both in England and Boston and those facing untreatable Covid-19 remain the same. Then as now, public health measures aimed at suppressing high mortality; today, public health measures also mean the development of effective drugs and vaccines.

This Zoom discussion led by Sidney Levitsky M.D. explored the history and biology of smallpox, including its devastation of Native American people, and the contrast and similarities to Covid-19 in 2020. Our discussion also incorporated the readings listed below. 

• Sidney Levitsky M.D. is the David W. and David Cheever Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School, and senior vice-chair, Department of Surgery, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Readings 

David Jones, Rationalizing Epidemics: Meanings and Uses of American Indian Mortality since 1600 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004), 21-45.

S.J. Rasmussen et al., “Public Health Decision Making During Covid-19-Fulfilling the CDC pledge to the American People,” New England Journal of Medicine, no. 383, 2020.

R.T. Gandhi et al., “Mild or Moderate Covid-19,” New England Journal of Medicine, no. 383, 2020.

Thomas Thacher, A brief rule to guide the common people (Boston: Printed and Sold by John Foster, 1677).