During pre-Columbian Viking contacts with North America, why weren't European diseases like smallpox spread/?

by 7UPvote
[deleted]

This question is actually a common one. We have several questions on the popular questions page on this topic. (For example this one.) The short answer is that:

  1. The Vikings did not have a significant population with smallpox at the time of contact, and;

  2. Contact between the vikings and natives of the northeast coast was much less frequent and less sustained than the contact between the Spanish and the natives of Central and South America.