A fact from 1770s Pacific Northwest smallpox epidemic appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 29 March 2024 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
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The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk pageorWikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.
... that a massive smallpox epidemic struck the Pacific Northwest shortly before historical records were kept? Source: Boyd, Robert (1999). The Coming of the Spirit of Pestilence: Introduced Infectious Diseases and Population Decline among Northwest Coast Indians, 1774-1874, pp. 21-22
@Lightburst:@Z1720: I'm a bit confused by this; I feel the hook is a fairly plain summary of the first two sentences of the Historical accounts section within the article: "A severe paucity of sources limits research into the spread and effects of the pandemic. No European explorers directly witnessed the pandemic, only writing about their effects. Anthropologist Robert T. Boyd describes the epidemic as existing in a "shadowy period at the juncture of the protohistoric and historic eras", occurring almost immediately prior to sustained European presence in the Pacific Northwest." Generalissima (talk) 20:13, 1 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
If the article says what I think it says, then as far as I can tell it directly contradicts the hook: "The 1770s epidemic was the most devastating and widespread of all recorded epidemics among the Northwest Coast natives, as well as the first recorded. A virgin soil epidemic, it spread rapidly across a population which had no prior immunity to the disease." Am I missing something?--Launchballer08:20, 22 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
It was the first recorded, but all recording was done post-hoc, by European explorers witnessing the aftermath some years or decades after the fact. Hence, before written records were kept. Generalissima (talk) (it/she) 15:03, 22 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Good work on this article! I'll assume that the offline source has the information in the hook. :) ~ Tails Wx (🐾, me!) 03:31, 5 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Generalissima: I am unable to confirm the hook in this article. Lightburst (talk) 05:49, 6 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Good enough for me. Let's roll.--Launchballer (talk) 16:31, 22 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
