The pharmacy just called to schedule my second shot. I’ve been thinking a lot about who to thank for this vaccine. Of course there is the pharmacist and the people who declared me 1B. There is the government Warp Speed group, there are the scientists who developed it, but before all of that, way back is a person who I’m just become aquatinted with his name was Edward Jenner. It is said of him, “his work saved more lives than any other man on earth.” That is a big claim.
Jenner is considered “the father of immunology” and he was a Christ follower. He was a simple country doctor. He realized that milkmaids were immune to smallpox (which often killed 10% of an area’s population and had for several thousand years - we have found evidence in Egyptian tombs). This immunity was caused by them being exposed to cowpox. In 1796, he made the intellectual leap that it was MUCH safer to give people cowpox to let their natural immune system grow stronger than the older method of injecting smallpox pus into people (variolation).
He tried his method on several people, and then larger groups of people with the same result-immunity from the savage results of small pox. He created the term vaccination to describe the process because vaccinia is the latin term for Cow Pox (Vacca is Latin for cow). He said after his success, “the annihilation of the smallpox, the most dreadful scourge of the human species, must be the final result of this practice.” He took the information to the world.
A number of people opposed him. They made fun of him. Groups of doctors who used the much more dangerous method opposed him. Groups of anti-vaccinators emerged. They suggested that if people were vaccinated they would turn into cows. (See the editorial cartoon here). There was anger, there was resistance. It was a long slog to get people to accept the truth. By 1800 Thomas Jefferson was helping to launch vaccination in the US. in 1805 Russia made variation illegal, but it took until 1840 for England to follow suit. When smallpox was eradicated from the people of the world his insight and God’s design finally achieved his noble goals. In the last decade, it is estimated that vaccinations for all diseases have saved more than 23 million lives. The evidence is clear. Underneath it all is the truth that the process only works because of our immune systems, our God designed immune systems. We have found a way to teach it to learn to recognize and help us defend against threats. Its an amazing thing.
Jenner was not concerned with notoriety. He was not concerned with profit - he gave the technology away for free and vaccinated people for free at his home in the Temple of Vaccinia (see here). He was concerned that people understood the truth, I am not surprised that men are not thankful to me; but I wonder that they are not grateful to God for the good which he has made me the instrument of conveying to my fellow-creatures. (Original quote page 295). Jenner considered his mind and talents as from God. He loved God’s word. He wrote in a bible he gave his granddaughter Augusta, “this is the best book that ever was written, she will give it not only the first place in her library, but convince those who love her dearly, that is occupies the first place in her heart.”
I love that vaccines was developed and popularized by someone who was trying to express the truth and the love of God. I’m praying that as the vaccine becomes available that the vaccine- resistance will find a way to allow themselves the great gift we have been given of science and an immune system. Mine is learning a new skill as I write this, I pray your will soon.
The Origin Of The Word ‘Vaccine’ Science Friday. HERE
Heros of Faith Edward Jenner, HERE
Edward Jenner and the history of smallpox and vaccination. Baylor University Medical Center. HERE
A great historical project about Edward Jenner, his impact, people responses to him. It uses lots of primary sources. HERE
History of anti-vaccine movement HERE
Story of an vaccine-opposed mom who reversed course and vaccinated their family HERE