Maya Prabhu

At a glance West African societies practised inoculation – a precursor to vaccination that deliberately provoked immunity to smallpox by managed exposure to the virus – long before Europeans had ever heard of it, and brought that knowledge with them when slavers transported them to America. Yet the African early history of immunisation is little known today. Historian Dr Elise Mitchell explains that it was “forgotten” amid the hardening of racial ideologies in the 19th century.

Georgia Senate Republicans are touting their proposal to build a new forensic mental heath hospital. Unveiled earlier this week, the Senate’s version of the state budget includes$409 million to build a new 300-bed mental health hospital.