In 1796, Edward Jenner used the fresh pus from a person infected with cowpox to inoculate people against smallpox. Because there were no refrigerators and freezers, you passed vaccine on using the fresh and infectious pustules of somebody who currently has cowpox. The vaccine chain was literally arm-to-arm. And it was especially challenging to get the vaccine from Europe to America, because back then it involved a months-long boat trip.
The famed power-sharing deal did its work of sharply reducing sectarian violence, but a quarter-century on it has led to depressingly dysfunctional politics. The next generation of vaccines is already on the way—and the first thing to do is get them out of the freezer. And why the long-frothy market for works by Pablo Picasso may at last be cooling.
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