‘This Is Very Strange’: Ancient Smallpox May Have Been Less Deadly (Gift Article)

“These DNA fragments have prompted scientists to think about smallpox in a new light. It may not have begun as the dreaded killer we think of it as today. It’s possible that it was a relatively mild infection for centuries, taking many generations to evolve into Jenner’s dreadful scourge.”

'These DNA fragments have prompted scientists to think about smallpox in a new light. It may not have begun as the dreaded killer we think of it as today. It’s possible that it was a relatively mild infection for centuries, taking many generations to evolve into Jenner’s dreadful scourge.'

‘In other words, early smallpox viruses might have been relatively mild. …there are no written records of smallpox outbreaks in northern Europe during the period of the Viking viruses. It’s possible that most people regularly survived smallpox and gained immunity to it.’

www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/s...

#Smallpox #Colonialism #SouthAmerica #EarlyModernTimes ‘This Is Very Strange’: Ancient Smallpox May Have Been Less Deadly www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/s... [...] Historians have long suspected that Europeans brought smallpox to the New World, and that it then helped drive down the ...