Vaccination using cowpox seems to be the kind of technology that didn’t require a lot of “prerequisites” in its way. I wonder how different history would’ve been if cowpox was discovered much earlier, and cowpox-vaccination became a widespread practice in at least some regions before the 1000s or so.
Could smallpox eradictation be achieved on a national/regional level in a pre-industrial society? And how much would that change the course of history?
Vaccination using cowpox seems to be the kind of technology that didn’t require a lot of “prerequisites” in its way. I wonder how different history would’ve been if cowpox was discovered much earlier, and cowpox-vaccination became a widespread practice in at least some regions before the 1000s or so.
Could smallpox eradictation be achieved on a national/regional level in a pre-industrial society? And how much would that change the course of history?