Historical Perspectives

in Medicine
On Vaccination: Smallpox

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 History

Remember one thing,

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 History & Philosophy
of Medical Science
AIIMS syllabus for MBBS
Hits for “History”: 52
Only “History-taking in a case”
History of medical science:
NIL
https://tinyurl.com/aimcurric Hits for “Philosophy”: ZERO.

So what are we teaching in our medical schools and universities

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Smallpox
Mortality: 25-30%, disfigurement for life
Death in 2-5 days after rash appeared.

Skin disease caused by a virus

Even Queen Elizabeth I was not spared of the suffering – age 29
Yet over the 40-plus years of her rule, the young and pretty Elizabeth aged into a
balding, frail woman with black, rotten and foul-smelling teeth; scarred by pox,
crippled by headaches and plagued by bouts of depression.
Mortality: 25-30%, disfigurement for life
Death in 2-5 days after rash appeared
This is what a person afflicted by small pox looks like, it is pretty horrifying
picture,
so I will just click it on for a very short time and then dissolve it out of sight

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 Year 1700 – found rarely
occurred twice in same person
Get the
Better to let it run its course
disease to
avoid it! Why not get the disease and get
over?
Variolation (Chinese practice??),
but had problems, often lifelong.

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 I cannot escape it

Mentality I am a victim
that
underlies I’m going to get it
vaccination
I better get it now!

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 Father of Vaccination?
• Edward Jenner (1749-1823)
• Barber & podiatrist
• Experimented idea on children
• 1st experiment 14 May 1796
• 8-year old James Phipps, his
gardener’s son.

In 1800 the King granted the barber-surgeons a Royal Charter and the Royal College of
Surgeons was formed.
The acronyms MRCS and FRCS are for members and fellows of this professional body

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If Jenner did his experiments in 1796, somebody else had done it before

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 Royal Experiment 1721
Wortley Montagu, British ambassador, Istanbul
Variolation common in Turkey, China, Africa
1718 – son “variolated”
Friend of Princess of Wales Caroline
6 condemned prisoners variolated and set free
Female prisoner forced to sleep with 10-yr old infected boy.

Even before Jesty was born there was a Royal Experiment in 1721

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Panacea for
pandemics?
• Small pox is no longer
active disease
• Thanks to vaccination?
• What about the Black
Death (bubonic
plague)?
• No vaccine - but no
longer active!

Is vaxing Panacea for pandemics

Small pox is no longer active disease
Thanks to vaccination?
What about the Black Death (bubonic plague)?
No vaccine - but no longer active!
ccination the panacea for all pandemics?

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 Jenner: Experiment
14 May 1796 vaccinated James Phipps with cowpox
6 weeks later injected him with smallpox
Several months later injected him with smallpox again
Later vaccinated his son Robert
James Phipps died at age 20 due to TB
Son Robert died age 21 due to TB.

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Jenner: Outcome

On the strength of this ONE experiment

and its questionable interpretation, Jenner
based his claim that one vaccination would
“forever secure a person from smallpox”.

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 • Many doctors reported
milkmaids were not immune
Later • Jenner agreed there were
many such example
findings • 1798: changed his method to
using pus from disease
horse hooves.

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Vaccination introduced as a programme
• 1806: Dr Robert Willan publishes paper
• Based on Jenner’s work only
• Calls it “true prophylactic”
• Many still got infected despite vaccination
• This was denied.

1806: Dr Robert Willan publishes paper

Based on Jenner’s work only
Calls it “true prophylactic”
Many still got infected despite vaccination
This was denied.

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Denial of deaths denied
• Deaths began to be reported
• 1823: Jenner died – 3 kinds of vaccines
• Cowpox, Horse-grease, Horse-grease-cowpox
• All resulted in deaths
• New program – revaccination introduced!

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Denial followed by coverup

• Hospital records showed deaths as those of

unvaccinated persons

• Infection cases after vaccination classified as

“pustular eczema”.

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Numbers don’t lie
• 1883: England passes mandatory vaccination
law
• Highest death rate from small pox in ANY 2-
year period – 2,000 cases
• 1870-1872 – after 15 years of vaccination
program – 45,000 people died.

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Refusing Vaccination: Leicester
• Good sanitation
• Quarantine
• One death only – other towns large numbers
died.

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Eradication
• 1972 – South America
• 1974 - India
• 1975 – Bangladesh
• 1979 – Globally
• “One of the greatest triumphs of scientific
knowledge and public practice in history”.

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Eradication Program: WHO findings

• During mass-vaccination cases went up

• Mass-vaccination abandoned

• Replaced by surveillance, quarantine/ isolation.

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 Key Take-aways
History of vaccination not taught as it really is

The “revolution” based on just ONE experiment

Effectivity was less than that due to hygiene

After-effect – finally abandoned.

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 Selected References
• Vaccine Epidemic. Editors: Louise Kuo Habakus, Mary Holland, Kim Mack
Rosenberg. Skyhorse Publishing, 2011
• Review of Critical Vaccine Studies. Neil Z Miller. New Atlantean Press,
2016
• Dissolving Illusions: Disease, Vaccines, and the Forgotten History.
Suzanne Humphries, Roman Bystrianyk. CreateSpace Independent
Publishing Platform, 2013
• Vaccines: A Reappraisal. Robert Moskowitz. Skyhorse Publishing, 2017
• The HPV Vaccine on Trial: Seeking Justice for a Generation Betrayed. Mary
Holland, Kim Mack Rosenberg, Eileen Iorio. Skyhorse Publishing, 2018
• Vaccine Whistle-blower: Exposing Autism Research Fraud at the CDC.
Boyd E. Haley, Robert F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Skyhorse
Publishing, 2015.

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