Let’s talk about Benjamin Jesty. Most people haven’t heard of him, and I hadn’t until recently. I did a little additional research after reading, “The Great Influenza” by John M. Barry. As the name implies, it documents the history of the 1918 flu pandemic.
I grabbed this book from our library because I kept hearing about that pandemic, but didn’t know any details other than it killed millions worldwide. The book discusses a lot of epidemiology that, frankly, goes over my head. But it mentions a historical fact I didn’t know: A rural English farmer figured out how to fight smallpox decades before scientists. Enter Mr. Jesty.