Jason Lefkowitz

For most of history, the great killer of soldiers was not combat but disease. Soldiers live in close quarters, frequently in rough conditions with rudimentary sanitation. When a communicable disease gets into that kind of environment, it rips through it like wildfire. For every soldier who was killed in combat during the American Civil War, two died of disease.

Anyway, not sure why I'm remembering all this today

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/18/us/flu-outbreak-air-force-base.html?unlocked_article_code=1.rFA.de2w.aaCp7WaMdx74&smid=url-share

Jun 19 at 4:18pmWeb
Show threadJason LefkowitzJun 19
Disease played a large role in military strategy. Generally speaking, the way you won a war was by gathering more men together in one place than your opponent could. But the more men you gathered together in one place, the faster the clock ticked towards the moment when some plague would tear through them. An army was a rapidly depreciating resource; you had to use it or lose it.
Show threadclewJun 19

Taking this excuse to recommend _The Great Hedge of India_, Moxon, which does a brisk outline both of alcohol vs boiled water as disease prophylactic for armies; and salt as trade and salary, also famously in armies.

@jalefkowit

Show threadDaniel BairdJun 20

@jalefkowit “Seirogan, a popular anti-diarrhoeal pill, is arguably one of the most successful pharmaceutical products of modern Japan. What is less known is that the Japanese army initially developed Seirogan during the Russo-Japanese War as the ‘Conquer-Russia-Pill’ “

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3867848/

Checking your browser - reCAPTCHA

Show threadLyonsJun 19
@jalefkowit This reminds me of a song...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCQGQ5qBQTA
Schadenfreude

YouTube
Show threadMilcom MiasmaJun 19

@jalefkowit

Is the reason because our Secretary of Defense is a fucking idiot for suspending the flu vaccination requirements for our military?

Just spit-balling, but that's my guess.

* I wish these morons would read a damn history book at some point.

Show threadTall SimonJun 19

@jalefkowit I learned this week that the "Spanish Flu" was first noted, and may have started, at Camp Funston, Kansas.

The camp was run by Major General Leonard Wood, whose conduct during the 🇺🇸 war in the Philippines was infamous. In Spring 1918, he presided over the confinement, in awful conditions, and torture of WW1 conscientious objectors.

The 🇺🇸 army took the disease from Kansas to 🇫🇷 where it went on to kill an estimated 50 million people. Its effect on troops was probably a factor in ending the war.

General Wood later ran for the Republican nomination for president. Although Wood was considered seriously, he lost to Harding (whose rambling and vacuous manner of speech apparently is echoed by more recent, Republican 🇺🇸 presidents 🤔).

(Plug for my source, American Midnight, by Adam Hochschild, which I finished this week and thoroughly enjoyed.)

https://www.harpercollins.com/products/american-midnight-adam-hochschild

American Midnight

Show threadMichael GemarJun 20
@jalefkowit George Washington had his army vaccinated against smallpox.
Show threadVeeJun 20

@michaelgemar @jalefkowit I seem to recall even Washington hesitated to vaccinate his army, having to carefully chose when to do so. Because he knew the vaccine itself would incapacitate his troops. *But did so anyways, because he knew.

Edit to add above*

Show threadDavid PeningtonJun 20
@Vee @michaelgemar @jalefkowit
Washington did not vaccinate his troops. Vaccinia was not available. Edward Jenner demonstrated the benefits of cowpox inoculation in 1796. They "variolated" them - a deliberate arm infection of the full strength smallpox virus, which had a 1-2% death rate vs 30% for natural smallpox infections.
Modern vaccines typically have a 1 in a million or less serious adverse effect rate. The Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine had under 1 in 100,000 blood clot rate & was withdrawn once alternatives were available in adequate quantities.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variolation
Variolation - Wikipedia

Show threadVeeJun 20
@DavidPenington @michaelgemar @jalefkowit Thanks for clarifying. You are absolutely correct. I was playing fast and loose with what I recalled of it. 👍
Show threadRoss of OttawaJun 20
@jalefkowit large numbers of closely packed people, and the well-established science of vaccines should make for nice crisp statistics. Blame should be easy to attribute as waves of illness and disease get documented. An epidemiologists dream.
Show threadJillLJun 20
@jalefkowit What's equally worrying is that soldiers choose not to get vaccinated. I assume it is free for serving military members.