Andrew Wehrman: @profwehrman.bsky.social

Historian at CMU. Author of The Contagion of Liberty: The Politics of Smallpox in the American Revolution (JHU Press, 2022), “Expert in old-timey vaccines”

[Andrew Wehrman: @profwehrman.bsky.social @ProfWehrman]

THRILLED and honored that my little ol’ book The Contagion of Liberty has been named one of the five finalists for the Los Angeles Times book prize for history! https://t.co/YboWB3adBh

[Andrew Wehrman: @profwehrman.bsky.social @ProfWehrman]

Not only did the Revolutionary Americans support inoculation (and later vaccination), they claimed inoculation to have been a proud American invention up there with Franklin's lightning rod. Putting an anti-vaxxer in charge of health and defunding scientific research is an insult

[Andrew Wehrman: @profwehrman.bsky.social @ProfWehrman]

I will be talking about the United State's 225 year streak of support for vaccination. When Thomas Jefferson first heard of it months before being inaugurated the 3rd President in December 1800 and wrote "every friend of humanity must look with pleasure on this discovery."

[Organization of American Historians @The_OAH]

Wishing you a fantastic evening OAH speaker Andrew Wehrman on your lecture, America's First Vaccinators, @CMUniversity. We're proud to have historians like you. Looking to bring a dynamic speaker to your campus? The OAH DLP connects you with scholars: https://t.co/c5oWsa02PE

[Andrew Wehrman: @profwehrman.bsky.social @ProfWehrman]

Tennessee Families for Vaccines gave away copies of my book to legislators yesterday as they declared that "protecting public health is patriotic!" How awesome is that?! I hope it makes a difference!

The US has been pro-vaccination since its founding. Let's not change it.

[Rep. Gloria Johnson @VoteGloriaJ]

Met with TN Families for Vaccines today, they brought me this cool book. Vaccines save lives and I believe in science! Let��s not bring back the iron lung, please.

[Andrew Wehrman: @profwehrman.bsky.social @ProfWehrman]

Retweeting this 🧵about the damage that can be done simply by legitimizing an anti-vaccination huckster and allowing him to gain a bigger audience.

[Andrew Wehrman: @profwehrman.bsky.social @ProfWehrman]

What harm can be done by a scientist or public health official agreeing to debate an anti-vaccination huckster? It's not just a thought execise. The damage has been done before. Let's look at Minnesota's "Vaccination Debate" of 1902. 1/

[(((Dorit Reiss))) @doritmi]

Kennedy claims he's a science person after:
A. Ignoring much of the data about thimerosal and including junk science in his thimerosal book.

B. Denying HIV in his Fauci book.

C. Repeatedly making false claims about vaccines.

He's not a science person. Just anti-vaccine.

[Andrew Wehrman: @profwehrman.bsky.social @ProfWehrman]

I'm looking forward to giving the Coy James Lecture in American History at Albion College on Monday Jan. 27! Come hear me speak on the centrality of inoculation and public health to the founding of the United States. https://t.co/aYl7LiPf9d

[Andrew Wehrman: @profwehrman.bsky.social @ProfWehrman]

@joshtigerhill @JocelynBenson @godzellen You just have to move to Michigan, so you can vote for her, Josh!

[Andrew Wehrman: @profwehrman.bsky.social @ProfWehrman]

@SFWamPearl Waiting anxiously here in Michigan. I’m glad to see Kathy is joining you!

[William Nettleton, MD, MPH @DrWDNettleton]

In 1945, Grand Rapids, Michigan became the first city in the world to fluoridate its drinking water.

#Fluoridation #GrandRapids #Michigan #PublicHealth
@ProfWehrman

[Andrew Wehrman: @profwehrman.bsky.social @ProfWehrman]

@DubiousCA The rollout of free vaccinations to every county and every local pharmacy was an amazing thing to witness in 2021, unprecedented. But I agree that Democrats by and large have been afraid to go further to promote public health. At least they’re not making RFK jr. head of HHS!

[Andrew Wehrman: @profwehrman.bsky.social @ProfWehrman]

Not to be forgotten, the women 65+ who seem to be turning hard toward Kamala are the ones who have most witnessed the harms caused by Covid and are by percentage the most vaccinated in the country. Trump’s anti-public health platform is anathema for this group.

[Andrew Wehrman: @profwehrman.bsky.social @ProfWehrman]

An element of this election that has been understated nationally is that in 2020 Trump was running a pro-vaccination campaign. There was hope the Covid vaccine was coming soon. In 2024 with RFK Jr., he’s running an anti-vaccination campaign, the first of its kind in U.S. history.

[Jen Kates @jenkatesdc]

"Among children born during 1994–2023, routine childhood vaccinations will have prevented approximately 508 million cases of illness, 32 million hospitalizations, and 1,129,000 deaths, resulting in direct savings of $540 billion and societal savings of $2.7 trillion."

[Andrew Wehrman: @profwehrman.bsky.social @ProfWehrman]

@AstorAaron It's true, but having driven from Chicago to KC many times, the middle route taking advantage of US-36 is by far the best and ends up being quite a bit faster when traffic and construction are factored in.

[Christopher Deutsch @dr_cdeutsch]

@USNatArchives please don't adopt ai llm tools! Doing so is literally the death of history and the death of the archives. Your own account says 90% accuracy, that is unacceptable. Ai severs the past from primary sources and jumbles together word associations lacking context.

[Anna Clark @annaleighclark]

This is extraordinary.

[(((Dorit Reiss))) @doritmi]

The Missing Information in Anti-Vaccine Propaganda: Anti-vaccine activists do not only overstate and even invent vaccine risks, they never tell you about the risks of not vaccinating. https://t.co/ra5l3B0dE8 via @AboutPediatrics

[@charlesgaba.com at Bluesky now @charles_gaba]

Let's go back to the pre-ACA healthcare landscape. This is what it looked like in 2012...*before* the ACA's major provisions went into effect.

Half the US had employer coverage. Another third had Medicare or Medicaid. ~11M had "individual" insurance; ~48M had nothing at all. 2/

[@charlesgaba.com at Bluesky now @charles_gaba]

🧵📣 THE DEAD POOL: Since @JDVance wants to Concentrate folks w/pre-existing conditions into separate Camps, let's talk about it. 1/

https://t.co/L1IcWcYjfy

[Adam Jaksa @AdamJaksa]

.@ZachCMU is in the @tigers lineup today!

Mckinstry’s the first @CMUBaseball player to compete in the @MLB playoffs since Josh Collmenter (Arizona) in 2011.

#FireUpChips🔥⬆️⚾️