Foreign Bodies: Pandemics, Vaccines, and the Health of Nations

Historian Schama (The Story of the Jews) examines in this insightful study the scientific battle against epidemic diseases over the past three centuries, as scientists contended with both the contagions and human intransigence. Schama describes Europe’s gradual acceptance of inoculation to combat smallpox during the 18th century, despite a populace skeptical of an “oriental” solution (the earliest version of inoculation came to Europe from the Ottomans and likely originated in China) that seemed to contravene the “will of the Almighty” (sickness being imagined as divinely ordained) and contradict widely accepted humoral theories, which posited that disease emerged naturally from within the body and strengthened survivors. Schama also recounts the later efforts of vaccine pioneers, focusing mainly on Waldemar Haffkine, a Ukrainian Jewish microbiologist who established the world’s first mass production line of vaccines in British-ruled India. However, this “modern saint and savior” was brought down by anti-vaccine backlash, as he was made the scapegoat for the deaths of 19 Indians who got tetanus from a bottle of plague vaccine that was likely contaminated at the injection site, not during production. Schama concludes with a summary of Anthony Fauci’s struggles in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, highlighting how modern vaccine resistance is entwined with conspiracy theories and nationalist impulses that resist international coordination, echoing past fears of “foreign” solutions. Schama’s wide-ranging history brings worthwhile lessons from the past to the present. Readers will be enlightened. (Sept.)