For those that don’t know, Outlander is a TV series on Starz. The show features a UK combat nurse from 1945 who is transported back in time to the Scottish Highlands in 1743, a few years before the pivotal Battle of Culloden. But none of that matters now.
In one of the episodes, our heroine, Claire, encounters a ship full of men infected with smallpox. She tells her friends that she can help care for them and not fear contracting the dread disease. She tells her husband, the only one at that time who knows she is from the future, that , in the future, they discovered a way to make people immune to smallpox. Of course, she shows him the scar from her inoculation.
My question: would a smallpox vaccine delivered in the 1940s be effective against 18th century smallpox? Furthermore, would a mid-20th century person even be able to survive the environment of the 18th century Highlands? Even though Claire had seen Army service in France and had lived in less-than-ideal conditions, those conditions were still created in her own time. The lack of sanitation, hygiene, and safe food preparation seem to me would kill her pretty readily. Even if she had all the vaccines available to her in 1945, her body would lack the resources needed to fend off the every-day cavorting beasties that would infect every surface she would encounter. Germ theory had not been discovered yet.
Given that early smallpox vaccines were based on an entirely different virus around that time, it seems plausible that smallpox doesn’t change much and/or the immune response is broad enough that it covers large viral variation and her vaccination would protect her.
As for the rest, I think she’d do as well as anyone, maybe better. A nurse from 1945 does know about safe food preparation and washing her hands, so she could take reasonable precautions. She might experience some manner of “traveler’s diarrhea” for a while until her gut gets used to whatever’s around, but it’s not likely to kill her as long as she stays hydrated.
But she knew germ theory and used it in her 17th century life. So she was able to protect herself (and loved ones) from many contagions she encountered because of her food safety, sanitation, public health knowledge.
If I knew how to make a spoiler tag I would tell you what medicine she created later in the stories as told in the books. The books are terrific as they go into so much more. How she survives the 17th and 18th centuries in the UK and the colonies is detailed there. Good, good reading.
I think the OP has a very warped idea of how dangerous a lack of hygiene is. Yes, it increases the risk of a lot of disease, but it’s not a death sentence for everyone.
Okay. I was really more thinking that Claire, our 20th century heroine, would be exposed to diseases that her body was not equipped to handle because of the relative cleanliness of her own time versus that of the 18th century. The people already steeped in the 18th century would not have such difficulty.