Apropos of James Fulford's piece this morning, which noted that popular meme that "whites committed genocide" by taking small pox from Europe to the New World, it's worth observing that the transmission of disease went both ways.

The natives likely gave syphilis to the Columbian explorers, who brought it back to Europe.[Syphilis – Its early history and Treatment until Penicillin and the Debate on its Origins, By John Frith, Journal of Military and Veterans' Health, March 2013] Note that we never hear the left fret that the "Indians committed genocide" because of the syphilis epidemic that ravaged Europe in 1495.