iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Another strange thing about this article in the CDC’s peer-reviewed journal is that because the author used chatgpt to research it, it does not cite the CDC’s own research on smallpox and instead pulls random numbers from my book and some other odd sources.

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Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I’d like to be flattered for being cited so extensively in the cover story for the most recent issue of the CDC’s journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, which features an article on George Washington’s decision to inoculate the Continental Army. wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/...

wwwnc.cdc.gov

Smallpox Military Policy and Decisive Actions of George Washington

About the Cover

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Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

wwwnc.cdc.gov

Smallpox Military Policy and Decisive Actions of George Washington

About the Cover

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Gyrfalcon (jeer-falcon) @gyrfalcon05.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

recently read The Contagion of Liberty, about smallpox inoculation in revolutionary America. people who don't like vaccines don't remember that for smallpox, the founding fathers would have expected the town to build a fence around your home and post guards if you had it. that was liberty to them!

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Mar Hicks @histoftech.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

This is the outcome of the “you do you” approach to public health that so many people favor

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Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Sprite to the rescue! (His favorite thing right now is this empty first aid kit box)

A shaggy black and white cavapoo gripping the handle of a first aid kit in his teeth)

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Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

The Gideons are on campus today. Even as professors have cut readings and moved away from print books, the Gideons are still out here pushing tiny hard-to-read print New Testaments into students’ hands.

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Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

My buddy Josh (we were both on the University of Arkansas quizbowl team way back when) is on Jeopardy again (it’s not a rerun if you haven’t seen it) tonight in one of the more spectacular finishes in Jeopardy! history.

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Henry Snow @henrys.now · 27/08/2026

Love ye your neighbours?—let that love be shown Risk not their children while you guard your own -Robert Bloomfield, 1804, "Good Tidings, Or, News from the Farm," a tribute to smallpox vaccination

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Josh 🐯 Hill @joshtigerhill.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

The most common mnemonic for the Great Lakes is HOMES. If Trump renames Lake Ontario to Lake America, that mnemonic becomes SHAME. Yep, that checks out.

A screenshot of a Wikipedia page featuring a map entitled "Great Lakes of North America".

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Dr Surekha Davies, Historical Monster Consultant (she/her) @drsurekhadavies.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

No room here for a novella on how I define being functionally literate, but anyone who thinks that a slop summary is the equivalent of reading a book isn't functionally literate. A related essay of mine on what historical research is like: 3/ buttondown.com/surekhadavie...

buttondown.com

Basement adventures showed me why ChatGPT can only ever be garbage.

In The British Library. Photo by Surekha Davies. Hallo readers, First, a news flash: Join me for a virtual book launch for HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY...

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Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

As 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."

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Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Time 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?

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Kathleen Bachynski @bachynski.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Congratulations Abdul!!!! I can’t believe I know a Democratic nominee for Senate! Or that this picture was 11 years ago. The idea of Abdul being in the Senate advocating for public health and access to health care, especially at a time when RFKJ is in charge at HHS, is incredible to contemplate.

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Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

If 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.

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Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

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Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Glad 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. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/29/c...

nytimes.com

In Ohio, Toxic Wastewater Is Bubbling Up Out of the Ground (Gift Article)

The state is a major importer of fracking wastewater, which gets pumped underground but doesn’t always stay there. The city of Marietta is fighting back.

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Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Sprite saved us all from an invasion this morning. Our little hero…

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honor sachs @drhonor.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

This is an incredible idea.

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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Conservatives in 2016: TRIGGERED LIB???? Conservatives in 2026: We are installing trigger warnings in the Smithsonian

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Kathleen Bachynski @bachynski.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Amazingly, this is not a unique experience! “In 2003, a librarian in New Mexico opened a book and an envelope containing lesion crusts fell out of the book (Figure 3, panel C). The envelope was labeled “scabs from vaccination of W.B. Yarrington’s children,” and the book was dated 1888.”

wwwnc.cdc.gov

Poxvirus Viability and Signatures in Historical Relics

Poxvirus Viability and Signatures in Relics

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Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

YIKES! 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.

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 17/07/2026

Probably more helpful to think of them not so much as “Canadian wildfires” but rather “climate change wildfires currently consuming Canada”

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Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Sprite has announced that this game is over and it’s time for *him to play ball.

Our black and white cavapoo named Sprite climbing over the back of the couch to get my attention while the World Cup match is on the tv behind him.

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Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

Enjoy 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.

"Glorious Fourth and Its Lockjaw" Headline from the Richmond Item in Richmond, Indiana in 1908.

"More Victims of Fireworks: Lockjaw Reaps a Rich Harvest in Many Places" Report from the Baltimore Sun, July 16, 1903 detailing a few of the fireworks deaths from across the country.

Before the 4th of July in 1908, the Indiana Board of Health produced a report on fireworks and lockjaw and discovered that 60% of the 64 deaths in the state the previous year from lockjaw occurred in July, likely caused by infections after fireworks.

Headline: "Advises Vaccine for Fireworks Injuries" The cause of tetanus was discovered in the 1880s and the first vaccine began to be produced in the 1920s. Here the city health department in Lansing, Michigan calls for the use of tetanus vaccine for the public on July 3, 1923, as the army was starting to do for gunpowder burns. Routine vaccination for tetanus nationwide was not available until the 1940s.

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Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Much 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🧵

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Kinto (and Astor) @kinto-m.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

"Cotton Tufts"

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Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Today 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:

While John Adams and fifty-five men in Philadelphia debated a resolution on independence and the final wording of the Declaration of Independence, the people of Boston declared their own independence from smallpox. The measures taken in both cities provided hope that America would not only be a republic free of a king but also a country free from disease. On July 3, 1776, a day after independence was declared in Philadelphia, the Massachusetts General Court voted to allow inoculation. Despite the dangers of infection, the people of Boston and the surrounding areas cheered the news. Ezekiel Price, a court official and insurance broker, declared “Liberty is given for to inoculate for the small-pox; many begin upon it this afternoon.” Hannah Winthrop described the scene: “Boston has given up its Fears of an invasion & is busily employd in Communicating the Infection. Straw Beds & Cribs are daily Carted into the Town.” She wrote that “Men Women & children eagerly crowding to inoculate is I think as modish as running away from the Troops of a barbarous George was the last year.” Dr. James Warren wrote to John Adams that the “rage for inoculation” had “whirled me into its vortex.…” Warren and his wife Mercy Otis joined Abigail Adams and her four children who had been invited to be inoculated at Abigail’s uncle’s house in Boston along with Abigail’s sisters Elizabeth Cranch and Mary Shaw and their families. Even though Boston was teeming with the sick, the prospect that the city could conquer smallpox made it "a scene delightful indeed." Cotton Tufts was satisfied that he could now "take my leave of Earth, satisfied that the Day of American Redemption was at Hand."

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Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

I’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.

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Rachel Hope Cleves @rachelcleves.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

An open letter, to readers, about Charity and Sylvia. I am very pained to feel the need to write this. #queerhistory #pride

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Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

I very much endorse pretending to read my book while lying in a hammock. Thanks, Library of Virginia!

In a post on Instagram the Library of Virginia writes: “Looking for something to pretend to read while lying in your hammock?” And it shows the cover of my book The Contagion of Liberty

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Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

I 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?!”

From ESPN am image of the Germany Ivory Coast game showing Ivory Coast surprisingly up 1-0. The headline reads “ivory Coast hold lead over Germany after first-half goal.”

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Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Here’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.

A hard-working brown dachshund looks for any unusual smells at a French train station.

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Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

I was happy to see these large banners in Lyon commemorating the lives of historians Marc Bloch and Simonne Vidal in Lyon this week.

A large banner on Lyon’s Hotel de Ville explaining the lives and executions of March Bloch and Simonne Vidal (in French)

Another banner with a photo of March Bloch and Simone Vidal outside the Hotel de ville in Lyon)

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Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Currently in France and wondering if these are lawyers for octopi or indeed octopus lawyers.

A sign in French reading “Cabinet d’Avocats” This first name on the list is “Octopus Avocates”

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Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

I’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.

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Joseph M. Adelman @jmadelman.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Celebrate #America250 the way that Abigail Adams celebrated July 4, 1776: participate in a public-health campaign against infectious diseases.

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Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

“It’s difficult to apply history to modern day; most scenarios are deeply nuanced, with too many extraneous factors to allow for a fair equivalence. Even so, Boston’s early public health system relied on an essential ingredient lacking today: trust.”

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Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

I’m happy to have had my research featured in this piece for @wgbh.org! It’s a short version of the arguments I made in my book, namely that revolutionary Americans understood their government had a duty to protect them from epidemic disease. www.wgbh.org/news/local/2...

wgbh.org

The other enemy America was fighting 250 years ago: Smallpox

As smallpox spread, colonists equated public health with self-governance, demanding that local officials track outbreaks and protect the public from contagion.

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Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

Someone is upset that he’s not coming on our upcoming trip…

Sprite the black and white cavapoo with our Rick Steves France guidebook, that he snatched off of my nightstand, in his mouth. He’s holding it hostage until we give him a treat, which is his way.

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Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

You’re probably asking in this 250th anniversary of 1776: “how did Americans in the Revolutionary era handle people who tried to leave quarantine early?” Well, in 1774, sailors in Mass. threatened to kill patients who broke quarantine rules and later burned the hospital that allowed early exits.

nytimes.com

American Passenger Blocked From Leaving Federal Hantavirus Quarantine

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Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

My wife has been painting bricks for our garden to look like classic books. Here are a couple of favorites:

Two brinks painted like books on a table full of paints. The first is The Contagion of Liberty and the second is The Lord of the Rings

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Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Yes! Like building hospitals and inoculating the public for one.

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Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Making a mental note to give extra points to the student who wore a Dr. Joseph Warren t-shirt to the final exam.

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Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

This is my state district. I don’t think I’ve ever received more campaign flyers. The unhinged negative ads on Greene were omnipresent, but he still won overwhelmingly.

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Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 01/05/2026

Hire either a Viking or a Basque fisherman to help me introduce cow pox to the Americas. With a sufficient disease reservoir, there’s a chance smallpox does not wipe out most of the population 400+ years later. Otherwise, I dunno, die in childbirth like everyone else.

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Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Egad! You’ll be surprised to learn that showing students the “steamed hams” clip from the Simpsons and telling them that using AI to write their research papers is equivalent to Principal Skinner disguising fast-food as his own cooking did not prevent students from cheating.

media.tenor.com

a cartoon of a man sitting at a table with a tray of steamed hams on it

Alt: a Simpsons clip of principal skinner serving a tray of fast-food Krusty burgers to superintendent Chalmers

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LWD @lwdhopes.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

During the second Trump administration I repeatedly feel as if we are reliving the causes that led to the American Revolution or even revolutionary events. Here's another.

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Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

My freshman year at the University of Arkansas, my professor wrote this on my first ever research paper. He made copies and put them in other history professors’ mailboxes to read what this freshman had written. (But he still only gave me a 92, ha!)

The top of the first page of a 15-page research paper I wrote in May 2000 for an upper level course on Andrew Jackson taught by Dr. James Chase. His comment reads, “Well-written and organized—unusually so—92”

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