Abraham Lincoln was infected with smallpox at some point in his life.
Notes on verification
Confirmed by peer-reviewed medical history study (Goldman & Schmalstieg 2007), contemporary diaries of Lincoln's secretaries, and multiple independent journalistic and historical sources. Minor scholarly debate exists only over severity of the case, not the fact of infection. [cascade flags: aggregator_dropped_primary_exists,wikipedia_dropped_other_sources_exist | tier=silver indep_score=0.9 clusters=4 claim_tier=notable | framework convergence=partial (upstreams: Goldman & Schmalstieg, 'Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Illness,' Journal of Medical Biography (2007), Donald R. Hopkins, 'The Greatest Killer: Smallpox in History', contemporary diaries of John Hay, John Nicolay, William O. Stoddard) — publishers independent, evidence may not be | kind=empirical eligibility=high (extractor: empirical/medium)]
Sources
- History of smallpox vaccination (seed:anatomy_and_medical_oddities)
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17551612/ (corroboration)
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/10/11/lincoln-smallpox-valet-died/ (corroboration)
- https://historyofvaccines.org/blog/lincolns-brush-death-smallpox-1863/ (corroboration)
- https://www.chron.com/news/health/article/UTMB-study-finds-Lincoln-had-smallpox-at-1794864.php (corroboration)