Health & biology · 1796

Vaccination

Edward Jenner used cowpox to protect a boy against smallpox, with far less risk than variolation.

In 1796 Jenner inoculated James Phipps with cowpox and showed he was immune to smallpox; vaccine comes from vacca, Latin for cow. Vaccines have since saved hundreds of millions of lives.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 2

Variolation 1721
Cattle 8000 BCE

What it led to 3

Rabies vaccine 1885
Polio vaccine 1955
Smallpox eradicated 1980

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Smallpox deaths in London, 1629-1902 Latest: 1.59 % of all deaths (1902) Source: Our World in Data

Reported smallpox cases worldwide Latest: 0 cases (2023) Source: Our World in Data

Life expectancy in the UK since 1543 Latest: 81.3 years (2023) Source: Our World in Data