Thank you for your observation. Really interesting. Colombia had a small pox epidemic in 1965 and the staff Peace Corps doctor came to our site because he thought it was his only chance to see the disease.

I was not trained to give inoculations, but we did vaccination campaigns with the local nurse. I was very concerned because there was no way to really sterilize the needles. But, choices were made and vaccinations were the priority. Public Health in Colombia set up vaccination sites at airports and main roads leading into major cities. You couldn’t enter unless you could show vaccination scar or better yet, a fresh scab. I was traveling and was vaccinated more than once….with those needles.

Not apropos of anything, I remember being involved in the very early recruiting efforts of the Peace Corps and, on the way to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota to recruit young research doctors, we realized we didn’t have a well-planned message, so we suggested simply that it might be the only, or at least best, opportunity they might get to see disease first-hand.