Yellow Fever

<p><span class="deck">Yellow fever killed 4,000 in Philadelphia in 1793, and puzzled doctors ignored the real clue to blame “miasmata” in the air.</span></p>

<p><span class="deck">Underschooled and ill-equipped, the men who attended the pioneers practiced a rugged brand of medicine—but they made some major advances all the same</span></p>

<p><span class="deck"><span class="typestyle">A disease that no one understood laid waste a major American city. Five thousand died in two months, and Memphis was never the same again.</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck">Philadelphia Fever</span></p>

<p>During George Washington’s first term, an epidemic killed one-tent of  Philadelphians, which was the capital of the young United States.</p>

<p>Masks and "social distancing" are nothing new. Over the centuries, Americans have suffered terribly from smallpox, yellow fever, cholera, typhoid, pellagra, influenza, polio, and other pandemics.</p>