As for disease vectors, the most widely “known” is the “smallpox blankets” but that was just a tiny part. Smallpox was indeed a real disease vector because Europeans already had immunities as a result of exposure in childhood. What was news to me (and it really shouldn’t have) is some evidence that influenza or something similar was likely the greater lethal disease.
I still have another 200 pages left to wade through in the book.