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1796 – Edward Jenner develops and documents first vaccine for smallpox.
by victorbstan 5y ago
1796 – Edward Jenner develops and documents first vaccine for smallpox.
- ghaff 5y agoFor one thing, a very different disease. For another, how long did it take him? And depending upon how you count, it took decades to develop a polio vaccine. I would not bet on a COVID vaccine being developed and tested in about a year in 1990.
- kiba 5y agoVariolation already exists back then, but with a survival rate of 1-2%. What Edward Jenner did was to confer scientific status on the idea of vaccination and investigated cowpow as a much safer method of inoculation against smallpox. Heck, decade earliers, George Washington inoculated his troops against smallpox against the wishes of the continental congress.