What did you learn to do because of the pandemic?

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Actually vaccines have been required in some public schools in the US for a little over 200 years.  Not quite forever, not even close to forever.  But thanks for playing.

Actually, I sincerely have to thank you. I just looked up the history of vaccines. I honestly did not know it went as far back as 1796. 


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox_v...ox%20virus.


But what is amazing comparing back then and now, is how did the medical community back then figure out how to inoculate people back then without the knowledge of DNA? I can only guess the primitive concept was to inject a small amount of the virus to create antibodies to fight it? It is the same tolerance motif with other things. Small doses of anything and your body builds up a tolerance or immunity. I simply didn't know how far back the history of vaccines went.

Actually, inoculation goes much further back than 1796, to the 10th century, IIRC.

As to how Jenner worked it out, it was largely by observation and inference. There’s a disease similar to, but much milder than smallpox, called ‘cowpox’. Jenner noticed that while many milkmaids got cowpox, none of them who had had it got smallpox. He hypothesized that having had cowpox conferred immunity against smallpox. He deliberately infected a boy with cowpox. When the child recovered, he deliberately infected the same boy with smallpox. He didn’t get sick.

Boru