Dr. Edward Jenner
Portrait of Dr. Edward Jenner
Dr. Edward Jenner was born in Berkeley, England on May 17, 1749. He is considered the pioneer of smallpox vaccination and the father of immunology. When he was eight, a smallpox epidemic struck his hometown, so his parents got him inoculated. This traumatizing event inspired Jenner to come up with a safer method for preventing smallpox.
"The practice of variolation continued until Edward Jenner, an English country doctor in the town of Berkeley, Gloucestershire, discovered a safer alternative. Jenner himself had been variolated in 1757 at the age of eight, after a preparatory period involving six weeks of fasting and bleedings. The procedure had made him severely ill and he had required months of recuperation---a deeply traumatic experience that had persuaded him of the need for a better approach to smallpox prevention."
- Jonathan B. Tucker; Scourge: The Once and Future Threat of Smallpox
"The practice of variolation continued until Edward Jenner, an English country doctor in the town of Berkeley, Gloucestershire, discovered a safer alternative. Jenner himself had been variolated in 1757 at the age of eight, after a preparatory period involving six weeks of fasting and bleedings. The procedure had made him severely ill and he had required months of recuperation---a deeply traumatic experience that had persuaded him of the need for a better approach to smallpox prevention."
- Jonathan B. Tucker; Scourge: The Once and Future Threat of Smallpox