the position for two decades—still a record. The lesson? Picking up the pieces after a
disaster can make your career (as Rishi Sunak, Britain’s ambitious chancellor, is surely
aware).
That is not the only tale from three centuries ago that may prove relevant in 2021. Back
then the wife of Britain’s ambassador to Turkey, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, noticed
that there was very little smallpox in the country. In each village, she wrote, an old
woman “comes with a nut-shell full of the matter of the best sort of small-pox, and asks
what vein you please to have opened. She immediately rips open that you offer her, with
a large needle...and puts into the vein as much matter as can lie upon the head of her
needle.”
Lady Mary returned to Britain and in 1721 had her daughter inoculated in front of a
group of people, including the king’s doctor. An outcry ensued, but some of her friends
followed suit, as did the king. It was not until 75 years later that Edward Jenner
developed a vaccine from cowpox, and the practice took off. But 1721 was an important
year in the defeat of a deadly disease. Britons will be hoping 2021 is, too.
| Section menu | Main menu |