Video: What we can learn from a book documenting the first vaccine, for smallpox
The success of the smallpox vaccine was far from guaranteed when Edward Jenner first published his treatise in late 18th century. A curator of the book talks about what we can learn from it today.
As the world waits anxiously for a COVID-19 vaccine, Sam Lemley, curator of special collections at Carnegie Mellon University, says that the story of the first vaccine is worth revisiting today. As curator of special collections, Lemley cares for a copy of the first edition of Jenner’s self-published book, titled “An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae.” This video provides a glimpse into the history of vaccines and how the smallpox vaccine’s unlikely beginning can provide some hope for people today.
[You need to understand the coronavirus pandemic, and we can help. Read The Conversation’s newsletter.]
Read These Next
In World War II’s dog-eat-dog struggle for resources, a Greenland mine launched a new world order
Strategic resources have been central to the American-led global system for decades, as a historian…
3 generations of Black Philadelphia students report persistent anti-Black attitudes in schools
A sociologist explains how Black students in Philadelphia navigate racial prejudice and find affirmation…
Atrocities take place in democratic nations as well as autocratic ones – our database has logged the
Forty years of data suggests atrocities are on the rise globally.
