S2E28 Holding the Line: How Prevention Became Military Strategy

For much of history, disease claimed more soldiers than combat. In this episode of Infectious Dose, we trace the evolution of military preventive medicine—from the Revolutionary War to the present day—and explore how armies came to view infectious disease as an operational threat rather than an unavoidable consequence of war. We'll follow the story through George Washington's smallpox inoculation campaign, Florence Nightingale's sanitation reforms during the Crimean War, Walter Reed and William Gorgas's fight against yellow fever, the development of military vaccination programs, the adenovirus outbreaks that reshaped recruit health, COVID-19 aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt, and the ongoing influenza outbreak among military trainees at Lackland Air Force Base. It's the story of how prevention became strategy—and why the invisible enemy continues to shape military readiness today. Companion blog post with all citations and resources at Infectiousdose.com Subscribe to the free, weekly Infectious Dose newsletter, Field Notes.