Edward Jenner: A Hero

120 Words1 Page

The name Edward Jenner is a name that many folks do not recognize. However, that was just how Edward wanted it. Under the radar, Jenner’s goal was not for eminence or glory; being able to save lives was his only objective. Through his diligence, Jenner got people to come aboard his notion of the Earth’s most destructive epidemic, smallpox. Because of this, Jenner was able to cure smallpox, discovering the first ever vaccination in 1796. It was not just Jenner finding a solution to smallpox that made him a hero; it was about his ambition of putting others before himself, and his unwillingness to be satisfied of doing a mediocre job as smallpox took its toll on the United

Show More
Related

  • Demon In The Freezer

    969 Words  | 2 Pages

    The book jumps to a distressing story about Peter Los in 1970 in West Germany who became ill due to smallpox. After ten days he was hospitalized but medical staff did not realize he had smallpox, which is highly contagious. Preston gives vivid descriptions of the disease and how it ravages the body. Los survived his illness, but caused an epidemic that killed many others that had become exposed to him. “Today, the people who plan for a smallpox emergency can’t get the image of the Meschede hospital out of their minds.

    Read More

  • The Andrew Bedner Case

    165 Words  | 1 Pages

    Story: Andrew Bedner is an American man at the center of bioethical controversy regarding the rights of parents to make medical decisions for children they have allegedly abused

    Read More

  • The Hero Journey in Princess Bride

    975 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hutchinson, Tom “Illness and the hero’s journey: still ourselves and more”, CMAJ. 162.11 (2000):p.1597 web (date accessed).

    Read More

  • Pox Americana

    1072 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the book Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82 by Elizabeth A. Fenn, the author provides a fresh outlook on the face of North America during the time of the American Revolution. Fenn provides the reader with a perspective of the American Revolution from the vantage point of the variola virus and its effect on the population of North America. Her thesis for the book is, “While colonial independence reshaped global politics forever, the contagion was the defining and determining event of the era for many residents of North America. With the exception of the war itself, epidemic smallpox was the greatest upheaval to afflict the continent in these years.” Fenn does not discount the war, but rather, provides more information about the era of the American Revolution and the role of smallpox within that time period. Considering the author’s argument, Fenn clarifies the diverse impact that smallpox had on North Americans depending on their race and social status during the American Revolution.

    Read More

  • Valley Forge Analysis

    892 Words  | 2 Pages

    They needed healthy men, and I am somewhat healthy, so I just had to do it. I had to talk to others to see what is happening in their point of view, and I also had to see their opinion about these things. I figured that I needed to talk to a man named Dr. Waldo. Since he was a doctor, I asked him what was happening, what he saw. The look on his face was unbearable to stand, anyone who looked at him would be terrified at what he was about to say. He told me that it was a terrifying experience, and that 1,800 to 2,500 men were dying in December-June, he also said that there were many diseases such as smallpox ( when Dr. Waldo was experimenting, I was one of them to be experimented on, and now I’m immune to it), dysentery, typhoid, and pneumonia.(Busch, 147) By then, even I was shaking, I knew that it would be hard, but it was a risk that I was willing to

    Read More

  • The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson

    1031 Words  | 3 Pages

    ... that it combined the perfect amount of medical history, scientific fact and storytelling; creating a brilliant account that kept me wanting to find out more. It was full of interesting information that helped me to understand more about the cholera epidemic and the views of public health and medical practice of the people in 1854 London.

    Read More

  • Mary Shelley's Frankenstein - Victor Paid for his Sins

    924 Words  | 2 Pages

    The setting for Mary Shelly's Frankenstein plays a very important role on both the significance and realism of the story. By the end of the 18th century, smallpox and cholera epidemics throughout Europe had claimed millions of lives and brought about a crisis of faith within both the Catholic and Protestant churches. The formerly profane practices of medicinal healing were only beginning to gain acceptance in major universities as hundreds of cities were put under quarantine for their diseases and high mortality rates. Interdisciplinary learning within the scientific community was unheard of. Had Victor Frankenstein been alive during this period, his practices would have been considered blasphemous. Much more so than Edward Jenner's research on smallpox during the same time, which would eventually save millions of lives in 1796. Frankenstein's intentions were good, but even during this modern age of genetic engineering and cloning, the story of his creation remains entirely evil. Contemporary thought has allowed for tremendous growth in genetic engineering in recent years; the evolution of science from the analytical engine to the modern PC has occurred thousands of times faster than the evolution of our own species, from ape to human.

    Read More

  • Smallpox in America

    983 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...ver the years to numerous people in regards to smallpox and the American Revolution. Fenn, was able I believe to shed light on a subject which has had little attention brought to it. Even when we read about the Revolution from other perspectives smallpox is only briefly mentioned as major outcome to the war. I feel the author has brought to the fore front something that needs to be scrutinized even more. Smallpox played a important roll in our history affecting thousands as it moved across North America. We as historians should be aware that the impact smallpox had on the colonies and Revolutionary War was just as much a part of our history as the “shot heard around the world”.

    Read More

  • The Roles of the Characters in “Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee”

    668 Words  | 2 Pages

    During his employment as a medical official the reality of reservation life could not be ignored. Although he must have wanted to help his people there were many difficulties of the time. They were far away from Western civilization and supply to medical equipment. The epidemics of small pox, measles, and influenza were attacking the people. He could not al...

    Read More

  • Summary Of William Ecenbarger A Cultural Minefield

    162 Words  | 1 Pages

    William Ecenbarger’s “A Cultural Minefield” is an essay about respect in different cultures. He commits faux pas as he travels throughout different countries. A faux pas is doing something embarrassing in a social situation. As he has traveled around the world, he has learned minor actions can have a major impact. He explains how a gesture in one culture can be normal and respectful, while in another culture, the same action can deeply offend people. People that travel to other countries may not have malicious intent but can still come off as rude. Simple actions such as reaching for bread with your left hand or signaling that you are okay are primarily unconscious acts-- they come off as second nature to Americans. However, while abroad, one

    Read More

  • Vaccine Debate Essay

    2185 Words  | 5 Pages

    Edward Jenner invented a method to protect against smallpox in the late 1700s. The method involved taking substances from an open wound of someone with small-pox or cow-pox and injecting it into another person’s skin, also called “arm-to-arm inoculation”. The earliest actual documented examples of vaccination date all the way back to the tenth century in China (Lombard, “A brief history of vaccines and vaccinations”). The mention of early vaccination was taken note of by a French scholar, Henri Husson, written in one of his journals (Dictionaire des sciences médicale). The Ottoman Empire Turks also discovered a method of immunization a few centuries later. Lady Montagu of Great Britain, a famous writer and wife of the English ambassador of Istanbul, between 1716 -1718, came across the Turkish vaccine for small-pox. After surviving as a child with small-pox, she insisted her son be vaccinated (Henricy, “Letters of the Right Honourable Lady Wortley Montagu”). When she returned to England, she continued to publicize the Turkish tradition of immunization and spread their methods to the rest of her country. She also had all family members also vaccinated. Immunization was soon adopted in England, nearly 50 years before Jenner's smallpox vaccine in 1796 (Sharp, “Anti-vaccinationists past and present”). Edward Jenner’s target for smallpox was to eradicate it. And later by the 1940s, knowledge of the science behind vaccines had developed and soon reached the point where across-the-board vaccine production was a goal that was possible and where serious disease control efforts could start. Vaccines for many dangerous diseases, including ones protecting against pertussis, diphtheria, and tetanus were underway into production. ...

    Read More

  • Polio In The 1950's

    650 Words  | 2 Pages

        During the 1950s one disease that was the most feared was polio. 60,000 children  were infected with the disease with tons of people paralyzed and over 3,000 children dead. According to Jason Beaubien On April 12, 1955, Dr. Jonas Salk and his research team at the University of Pittsburgh released the first successful vaccine for polio. The virus was completely eliminated during the year 1979. The outbreak started in New York City with 27,000 cases and 6,000 deaths ‘Beaubien Jason’. As the number of cases grew for polio the disease it changed the way Americans looked at public health in the 1950s.

    Read More

  • The Crucial Role of Vaccinations in Human Survival

    743 Words  | 2 Pages

    He said “Milk maids who caught cowpox did not later than catch smallpox protected against inoculated smallpox. He also said “Smallpox vaccines were the first to be a successful vaccine to be developed.” So he made vaccines that first started with cowpox that lead into something really dangerous that we have found vaccines for today.

    Read More

  • Jonas Salk

    300 Words  | 1 Pages

    In 1955, for instance, a virologist by the name of Jonas Salk invented the polio vaccine. During that time, polio was a serious threat to the public, however, Jonas didn’t even worry that in the process he could get polio himself. His plan was to create a cure for people that had the polio disease. As a matter of fact, the 32nd President of the United states, Franklin D. Roosevelt, was diagnosed with poliomyelitis but sadly he never saw the vaccine in use during his lifetime. Had Salk invented the vaccine sooner, President Roosevelt would have lived longer and be able to walk.

    Read More

  • Biography of Edward Jenner

    506 Words  | 2 Pages

    Biography of Edward Jenner Jenner, Edward (1749-1823), an English physician of Gloucestershire. Young Jenner went to London and studied medicine with the celebrated anatomist, John Hunter, in whose family he lived for two years. On returning to his native Berkeley he gave his attention to the plague of smallpox permanently prevalent in all parts of the country. Starting with the hint given by the dairymen that those who had acquired cowpox by milking cows were not subject to smallpox, Dr. Jenner investigated the matter and formulated a regular plan of giving cowpox as a vaccination for the more dangerous pox.

    Read More

More about Edward Jenner: A Hero

Open Document