Reactions To Dr. Jenner’s

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Reactions to Dr. Jenner’s
Smallpox Vaccine: 1798 – 1825


Smallpox is one of the most problematic epidemic diseases that humankind has ever faced. It is one of the oldest and greatest killers of people for thousands of years. That was until 1796, when Dr. Edward Jenner released his smallpox vaccine to the English public. Dr. Jenner was an English doctor and scientist who gave a gift to the human race that must never be forgotten, the gift of the vaccine. As Jenner’s vaccine made its way into different parts of the world, reactions to its presence took many different forms, sometimes positive forms, and sometimes negative forms. Whatever the responses may have been, we can at least say it caused a variety of reactions among the population of the world, and that those reactions had an impact on the spread and use of the vaccination in different parts of the world.
Since Dr. Jenner released his vaccine in 1796 many historians have written about the different responses and what those responses were like. However, many historians have failed to account for why the reactions may have been so different. They have done a great job of keeping the information about the reactions available; however they did not offer their readers and understanding of the motives behind those reactions. I felt that in order to understand the reactions, motives for the different reactions had to be found and understood, because it is in these motives that the reactions to the vaccine took shape and history was made.
This paper will focus on those motives and attempt to explain the different reactions to Jenner’s vaccination. People need to see why reactions to Jenner’s vaccination were so varied and different around the world. Jenner’s vaccine was a gift to humanity, but strangely, reactions to the vaccine depending on the place did not necessarily reflect that view. Responses to Jenner’s smallpox vaccine positive or negative were driven ...