Remember a few years ago when someone decided that we were about to be attacked by biologically engineered smallpox? And that we had all better go and get that new vaccine that the US government paid almost a billion dollars for? And made some drug company (I think Aventis) very happy?

Well as we know, and I’m sure that the CDC would love to bury this folly in the center of the earth, the so-called first responders largely refused to get vaccinated and the plan fizzled to a complete halt. Plus a few lethal reactions, and the military stopped jabbing its personnel as well.

And of what of the threat? Well, the threat of a biologic weapons attack vanished as well. Strange how those things coincided.

But the reason I’m even mentioning smallpox now, is that today is one of those dates in medical history. In April 1721, when the U.S. was still a British colony, the first cases of smallpox arrived in Boston on a ship from the West Indies. The disease spread rapidly, as smallpox tends to, but the physicians of the day vehemently opposed a pamphlet that encouraged them to adopt an African practice in which the patient was given a weakened form of the disease to prevent getting the more dangerous strain.

Now, not to get up on the soapbox, but even back then, doctors were stubborn and stuck in what was considered “read medicine.” Same as today. Just as many docs pooh-pooh anything that doesn’t involve a prescription pad or surgery, it seems that they were of the same mindset almost 300 years ago. Even though they had absolutely no way of treating smallpox or preventing it, they weren’t willing to try a new method that might save lives. Sound familiar?

Anyway, on this date in 1721, a gentleman by the name of Zabdiel Boylston began inoculating a small group of patients, including his own two sons. When word got out that Boylston had ignored the ordinance that forbid vaccination, he was actually attacked by angry mobs. Why, I have no idea. But then, angry mobs often are a bit irrational. Especially in a case like this, where the vaccination might mean the difference between death and survival. People who survive smallpox are often terribly disfigured, so that was an incentive in and of itself.

Three years later Boylston packed up and left the Puritans behind, and sailed for London. His expertise was well received. It would be another 75 years before Edward Jenner developed the vaccine for smallpox that would eventually lead to eradication of the disease.

Unless of course, you believe Pres. Bush.