Catherine the Great: inoculation pioneer

Lucy Ward speaks to Elinor Evans about the story of English Quaker doctor Thomas Dimsdale, who took up the risky challenge of inoculating Empress Catherine II – Catherine the Great – against smallpox, as a powerful statement at a time when the disease was ravaging Russia and superstition held sway.

Lucy Ward is the author of The Empress and the English Doctor: How Catherine the Great defied a deadly virus (Oneworld Publications, 2022)