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The Conversation USA

Benjamin Franklin's fight against a deadly virus: Colonial America was divided over smallpox inoculation, but he championed science to skeptics

  • Written by Mark Canada, Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Indiana University Kokomo
imageAs a printer's apprentice in 1721, Franklin had a front-row seat to the controversy around a new prevention technique.ClassicStock/Archive Photos via Getty Images

Exactly 300 years ago, in 1721, Benjamin Franklin and his fellow American colonists faced a deadly smallpox outbreak. Their varying responses constitute an eerily prescient object lesson...

Read more: Benjamin Franklin's fight against a deadly virus: Colonial America was divided over smallpox...

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