As someone who spent most of his professional life working in Medical Immunology, Jenner is certainly one of my heroes. It not just that he did what he did, but that he had the courage to do so despite the scorn of both the public and the medical community. Our lives would be very different without his efforts and are particularly relevant as the world races to try and develop an effective Ebola vaccination at this time.
This morning I received my free Flu vaccination and a time when nearly all of us are fortunate enough to receive vaccinations and inoculations for many illnesses from the winter flu upwards it is well worth remembering that there was once a time when people weren’t so lucky. When there were countless diseases and infections that were every bit as deadly and even more untreatable than Ebola has been until at least very recently.
In Victorian Britain, people were considered lucky to reach their 40th birthday and yet this in itself is a much longer life than was enjoyed in the preceding centuries.
The very fact that you are reading this blog today may well be due to one man, Edward Jenner. He was born on 17th January 1749 and is widely considered to be the father of immunology. His work not just in creating a vaccine for smallpox but…
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