Kate Womersley

Even after a vaccine, smallpox took two centuries to eradicate

Medical breakthroughs depend on overcoming prejudice as much as on scientific research, as two new books on the smallpox pandemic demonstrate

‘The COW POCK — or — the Wonderful Effects of the New Inoculation!’ Gillray cartoon on vaccination against smallpox using cowpox serum, 1802. Getty Images 
issue 08 August 2020
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  • The Great Inoculator: The Untold Story of Daniel Sutton and His Medical Revolution

    Gavin Weightman

    Yale, pp. 208, £16

  • War Against Smallpox: Edward Jenner and the Global Spread of Vaccination

    Michael Bennett

    CUP, pp. 434, £29

In supposedly unprecedented times such as ours, there are compelling reasons to turn to the history of medicine. For hope, that epidemics do indeed come to an end; for consolation, that the people of the past suffered even more than us; and for insight into how we could be doing better.

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