History professor at CMU and author of "The Contagion of Liberty: The Politics of Smallpox in the American Revolution" Vaccination is patriotic. New book project(!) tentatively titled: Afterlife and Liberty: New York City’s Doctors’ Riot of 1788https://bsky.app/profile/profwehrman.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/profwehrman.bsky.social/post/3msrciwd5lk2dAs bad as this is for science and for health, it’s also fundamentally unamerican to be opposed to vaccination and vaccination research. George Washington called for "a Law to compell the Masters of Families to inoculate every Child born within a certain limitted time under severe Penalties." [contains quote post or other embedded content]10 Aug 2026 23:57 +0000at://did:plc:2qoxucumwitjpaykfqbfui3y/app.bsky.feed.post/3msrciwd5lk2dhttps://bsky.app/profile/profwehrman.bsky.social/post/3msr5r4duas2dTime to open up the Ol’ internet to see if there’s any news that might interest a historian of vaccination…. Oh no. Ohhh no no no. Why did I look?10 Aug 2026 22:32 +0000at://did:plc:2qoxucumwitjpaykfqbfui3y/app.bsky.feed.post/3msr5r4duas2dhttps://bsky.app/profile/profwehrman.bsky.social/post/3msjuq4layk2zVoting 3rd party in the U.S. [contains quote post or other embedded content]08 Aug 2026 01:02 +0000at://did:plc:2qoxucumwitjpaykfqbfui3y/app.bsky.feed.post/3msjuq4layk2zhttps://bsky.app/profile/profwehrman.bsky.social/post/3msayyscudc2tIf Abdul El-Sayed wins the primary in Michigan today and goes on to win in November, he will be the first Democratic Senator to hold and medical degree and be a public health expert since Sen. Royal Copeland (former NYC health commissioner) died in 1938.04 Aug 2026 12:24 +0000at://did:plc:2qoxucumwitjpaykfqbfui3y/app.bsky.feed.post/3msayyscudc2thttps://bsky.app/profile/profwehrman.bsky.social/post/3msayyscudc2tIf Abdul El-Sayed wins the primary in Michigan today and goes on to win in November, he will be the first Democratic Senator to hold and medical degree and be a public health expert since Sen. Royal Copeland (former NYC health commissioner) died in 1938.04 Aug 2026 12:24 +0000at://did:plc:2qoxucumwitjpaykfqbfui3y/app.bsky.feed.post/3msayyscudc2thttps://bsky.app/profile/profwehrman.bsky.social/post/3mrzqrulxf225Glad to see my friend and former Marietta College colleague standing up against the terrible damage fracking is causing in Southeast Ohio. I can’t tell you how many times I was gaslit when I lived there about how safe it was. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/29/climate/ohio-fracking-water-injection-wells.html?unlocked_article_code=1.2FA.BYLM.j_qnKurzO3bo&smid=nytcore-ios-share01 Aug 2026 15:09 +0000at://did:plc:2qoxucumwitjpaykfqbfui3y/app.bsky.feed.post/3mrzqrulxf225https://bsky.app/profile/profwehrman.bsky.social/post/3mrwwp3o27c2oSprite saved us all from an invasion this morning. Our little hero…31 Jul 2026 12:16 +0000at://did:plc:2qoxucumwitjpaykfqbfui3y/app.bsky.feed.post/3mrwwp3o27c2ohttps://bsky.app/profile/profwehrman.bsky.social/post/3mrbc7fkxwc2iYIKES! I always had this worry when doing my research but fortunately never ran into anything like this. I did question how I should be handling doctors’ notebooks from a smallpox hospital that looked like they hadn’t been opened in centuries, but luckily no scabs. [contains quote post or other embedded content]22 Jul 2026 21:44 +0000at://did:plc:2qoxucumwitjpaykfqbfui3y/app.bsky.feed.post/3mrbc7fkxwc2ihttps://bsky.app/profile/profwehrman.bsky.social/post/3mqn3e5ir722qSprite has announced that this game is over and it’s time for *him to play ball.14 Jul 2026 20:48 +0000at://did:plc:2qoxucumwitjpaykfqbfui3y/app.bsky.feed.post/3mqn3e5ir722qhttps://bsky.app/profile/profwehrman.bsky.social/post/3lt5isyuzu22aEnjoy fireworks on the 4th? Thank vaccines for making this (still dangerous) activity safer! Before routine vaccination for tetanus in the 1940s, the patriotic spirit every 4th of July was muted shortly thereafter when newspapers reported deaths from lockjaw (aka tetanus) in the days that followed.04 Jul 2025 14:56 +0000at://did:plc:2qoxucumwitjpaykfqbfui3y/app.bsky.feed.post/3lt5isyuzu22ahttps://bsky.app/profile/profwehrman.bsky.social/post/3mpt7vpl6vc2tMuch is made of the 27 grievances in the Declaration and how some of them are thin or contrived. It’s really a wonder that blaming the King for spreading smallpox among them. It was widely thought that the British army was purposely trying to infect both the Continental Army and the American people🧵04 Jul 2026 14:00 +0000at://did:plc:2qoxucumwitjpaykfqbfui3y/app.bsky.feed.post/3mpt7vpl6vc2thttps://bsky.app/profile/profwehrman.bsky.social/post/3mpqzdcjl3c2xToday is the 250th anniversary of Boston’s mass inoculation against smallpox on July 3, 1776. The city was effectively closed to commerce from July through September 1776. The mass immunization effort was cheered as evidence of true independence. Here's how I described it in my book:03 Jul 2026 16:57 +0000at://did:plc:2qoxucumwitjpaykfqbfui3y/app.bsky.feed.post/3mpqzdcjl3c2xhttps://bsky.app/profile/profwehrman.bsky.social/post/3mpo3voqz522vI’m with my son at the orthodontist and they have a “fun fact” slideshow about teeth in the waiting room. One of the facts is that George Washington had wooden teeth. I’m currently doing my best to suppress my historian rage. We’ll see if it lasts.02 Jul 2026 13:05 +0000at://did:plc:2qoxucumwitjpaykfqbfui3y/app.bsky.feed.post/3mpo3voqz522vhttps://bsky.app/profile/profwehrman.bsky.social/post/3mphsw5wltc23I very much endorse pretending to read my book while lying in a hammock. Thanks, Library of Virginia!30 Jun 2026 01:08 +0000at://did:plc:2qoxucumwitjpaykfqbfui3y/app.bsky.feed.post/3mphsw5wltc23https://bsky.app/profile/profwehrman.bsky.social/post/3moqshr72dk2aI showed this with a shocked face to my wife (who is not a soccer fan), and she too looked shocked and said “how did they get half a goal?!”20 Jun 2026 21:29 +0000at://did:plc:2qoxucumwitjpaykfqbfui3y/app.bsky.feed.post/3moqshr72dk2ahttps://bsky.app/profile/profwehrman.bsky.social/post/3mon6vkmucc2pHere’s a police dog that I saw in France. There’s no need for police dogs to be intimidating if their job is just to smell.19 Jun 2026 11:01 +0000at://did:plc:2qoxucumwitjpaykfqbfui3y/app.bsky.feed.post/3mon6vkmucc2phttps://bsky.app/profile/profwehrman.bsky.social/post/3mofleip7a223I was happy to see these large banners in Lyon commemorating the lives of historians Marc Bloch and Simonne Vidal in Lyon this week. [contains quote post or other embedded content]16 Jun 2026 10:23 +0000at://did:plc:2qoxucumwitjpaykfqbfui3y/app.bsky.feed.post/3mofleip7a223https://bsky.app/profile/profwehrman.bsky.social/post/3modgasehck23Currently in France and wondering if these are lawyers for octopi or indeed octopus lawyers.15 Jun 2026 13:46 +0000at://did:plc:2qoxucumwitjpaykfqbfui3y/app.bsky.feed.post/3modgasehck23https://bsky.app/profile/profwehrman.bsky.social/post/3mns3f5vgjk2rI’m saddened to hear the news of the great historian Gordon Wood. I got into grad school in part based on bashing his “Radicalism” in my cover letter, but I was fortunate enough to have dinner with him a couple of times and he was lovely and supportive of my scholarship. Truly a loss of a giant.08 Jun 2026 16:16 +0000at://did:plc:2qoxucumwitjpaykfqbfui3y/app.bsky.feed.post/3mns3f5vgjk2r