WOKE LIBERAL GEORGE WASHINGTON IS UNAMERICAN, PASS IT ON
Early Modern Period (~1600 AD)
(media.piefed.social)
So is the treatment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inoculation
For smallpox, they’d infect a break in your skin, deliberately. With actual smallpox. It was less likely to kill you, but absolutely possible and quite miserable.
But principle is the same. Outbreaks dramatically weaken war fighting capabilities, even if it’s “just” influenza. The history of warfare is littered with thousands of examples. For instance:
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/history-disease-outbreaks-vaccine-timeline/flu
…Which is why this is so egregious. Vaccination (compared to smallpox inoculation) is trivially easy in comparison to the decision Washington faced, and influenza has a long, grim history in the US military. No sane general would throw away such an easy, and historic, warfighting advantage.