So I’m having trouble with this, and I’ve went through different links on Google and can’t find an answer. So they would poke into sores of people who had smallpox and then proceed to cut the patient and insert the infection directly into them. I’m not understanding why catching small pox that way would be any different than catching it naturally?
I am specifically referring to how it was done during the revolutionary war, not today’s vaccines. But wouldn’t mind knowing how those two things differ as a bonus
In: Biology
Well, firstly, smallpox itself wasn’t used for inoculation. Cowpox was used, which was a similar virus.
It’s a lot less spread around now, but there used to be a notable amount of pretty milkmaids- not because they were selected because they were pretty, but because they rarely developed smallpox.
The guy who invented the original smallpox vaccine noted that milkmaids didn’t get smallpox- but all those milkmaids, who often milked the cows themselves, had scarred-up *hands*, because they got cowpox, a similar but MUCH less severe and deadly disease, from milking. Cleaning standards were also higher where milk was worked with because dairy products can develop off flavors if exposed to things like smoke, so the equipment would’ve been washed with proper soaps and scalded with boiling water more often, which caused chapped hands.
So the milkmaids got cowpox infections around places where their hands split from being dry and callused. So when Dr Jenner started trying to vaccinate people, he’d use cowpox and create a little lesion, effectively giving the person a cowpox infection.
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