This is Dr Edward Jenner.
He’s an English physician born in 1749 and died in 1823.
Boring historical footnote?
Think again!
Doctors worldwide are today trying to emulate his amazing success.
Here’s what he did …
The case fatality rate at the London Smallpox Hospital rose from 255 per 1,000 between 1746 and 1763, to 320 per 1,000 between 1776 and 1800.
To provide you perspective, today there are 399,081 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States and 12,907 deaths. Apply the small pox 320 per 1,000 fatality rate facing Dr Jenner in London of the 1700s translates as a tally of 127,705 deaths in the United States today. The dillemna was far dire than today.
Enter Dr Jenner. He is credited with discovering and implementing the process vaccination. And he started in earnest on smallpox.
Basically, a weakened form of the virus is injected into the patient. This triggers the immune system to fight it. If enough people are vaccinated in this way, herd immunity results and the disease is eliminated.
The elimination of smallpox and polio are in no small part due to the discovery which Edward Jenner made.
Vaccination is an Anglo-Celtic medical advance.
The Thinking WASP wouldn’t be at all surprised, and nor should you, if this breakthrough comes from our beloved Anglosphere.
It’s in Dr Jenner’s amazing footsteps today’s immunologists worldwide are following as they close on a vaccine for the coronavirus.
Praise your culture. It continues to save the world.
For more of our illustrious exemplars, see Hillary, Mackenzie, Armstrong, Mawson, Cook, and Philip.
Thank goodness for scientists such as him. Thank you for liking a post on my blog. 🙂
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Of course. It’s a great site.
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We owe him and other medical pioneers so much.
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We stand on the shoulders of great men.
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