Edward Jenner

Link to the episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1402771/9594401-edward-jenner.mp3?download=true

Jenner

Introduction

This is A Viral Podcast, and I am its Viral Host. I preface this episode by saying that I am not a professional and links to the resources I used are on my website which is linked in the description. This episode is part of my season on Scientists, we’re going to talk about Edward Jenner. So, to talk about Jenner, we need to talk about Smallpox, but this episode is not about smallpox if that makes sense. So Jenner, not Smallpox or Vaccines. I’ll probably have episodes on those coming out soon, but only talking about them tangentially in this episode.

Part One: Who was Jenner?

Edward Jenner was a scientist and physician born May 17th, 1749 in Berkeley, Gloucestershire. His father was a member of the clergy, which gave him opportunities in the region.

He trained under local surgeons before training in London.

He then became the surgeon of Berkeley and the surrounding area.

His most well-known experiment was conducted in 1796, when he was 47 years old. Before I explain the experiment, I should briefly explain Smallpox and its impact at the time.

Smallpox

Smallpox is a disease caused by the variola virus, the disease is highly contagious with a fatality rate of approximately thirty percent. There four forms of Smallpox: ordinary, modified, flat, and hemorrhagic.

A Timeline According to the FDA Website about smallpox:

Exposure to the virus occurs.

Seven to seventeen days later, high fever, back pains, and severe headache. This lasts for about two or three days.

A rash occurs and after about two days, progress to papules. The rash appears on the mucus membranes in the mouth, face, and forearms before reaching the legs.

Four days after the high fever, vesicles appear. By the seventh, pustules, and scabs by the fourteenth. The scabs are deep and firm.

Jenner’s Experiment

Jenner heard rumours that those that had caught cowpox were unable to catch smallpox. He investigated and found that some milkmaids caught the disease from the cows they worked with, in these cases the pocks did not travel far from the hand and illness only prevailed for a few days.

A dairymaid contacted Jenner in 1796, Jenner diagnosed her with cowpox and took samples to test his hypothesis relating to the phenomenon that those that had had cowpox could not get smallpox. The eight-year-old son of his gardener, James Phipps, was scratched in the arm and cowpox poxes were rubbed into them. Over the next week, Phipps was mildly ill and recovered. Jenner then variolated him with smallpox, meaning he gave Phipps a pustule of smallpox from a milder case of the disease. He gave the child smallpox to test his hypothesis. Thankfully, he didn’t die (I mean Phipps here, if I wasn’t clear enough). But, Jenner decided to test this multiple times. He variolated Phipps with smallpox many times.

Maybe it’s just my modern sensibilities, but I don’t like that Jenner tested the eight-year-old son of his employee. I mean, he wasn’t an orphan, that’s nice. Actually, I do have to clarify who I mean here because Jenner was an orphan. A well of one, but an orphan none the less. At the time, it was common to have risky medical experiments be performed on prisoners, women, orphans, and generally on poor individuals. Slaves were not often forced into experiments like these, but it did happen. Also, it was because white slave owners thought the slaves would be of more value for the slave labor they were forced into. Enslaved women were tested on in medical experiments as well. Black men were the focus of these types of studies later on, for example the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. In this test, the United States Public Health Service tested six hundred black men, 399 had syphilis. They had little knowledge of the tests being performed on them other than it was related to fatigue, anemia, or syphilis. They were not given promising treatments like penicillin, instead given free health exams, meals, and burial insurance. And what I just told you, the majority of it comes from the CDC’s website, so it was worse than that.

After looking at other sources, penicillin was claimed as a cure before the end of the study. And, they were told they were being treated. Maybe I just missed that, but it’s pretty important.

Apparently, this episode went on a tangent that I wasn’t expecting. Non-consensual medical experimentation. Not really sure how to get this back on track, so … one of the other tangents I promised!

Part Two: What is a Vaccine?

History of Vaccines

Vaccines have a long history, beginning around 1000 in modern China, Turkey, and parts of Africa.

As I promised that this episode is not about vaccines, I will focus on how they made their way to England and how Jenner fits into this. An English noblewoman, named Lady Mary Montegu, had painfully suffered from smallpox. Her family, including her husband, her young son, and herself travelled to the Ottoman Empire. Montegu heard of women that inoculated children with smallpox. She returned home to a variety of oppositions to this inoculation. However, she publicly had her daughter inoculated. Once this proved to be successful, her friends asked to inoculate their children. King George I tested this on prisoners in front of an audience, then it was given to orphans, and eventually members of the royal family.

This allowed smallpox inoculations to become a standard practice in England. Jenner’s studies found a safer method. And I should mention that Jenner was inoculated as a child, and strongly believed it improved his health as a child.

Part Three: Importance of Jenner, Historically

So, why is this guy important?

He did show that there were ways to improve inoculation, he fought off a lot of the attempts to thwart his practices, which were often excuses to keep those that sold smallpox inoculations in business. Pushing for safer methods, saved many lives over time and meant more research for safer methods. Montegu and Jenner are two of the most influential figures for bringing vaccinations, especially smallpox vaccines, to England.

These advancements have allowed us to create smallpox vaccines, which have allowed for world eradication. Meaning that naturally, the disease no longer occurs.

If you’re expecting a hidden meaning in that, you’d be correct!

Using samples of the disease and copies of its genomes and proteomes (a list of the nucleotide bases or the amino acids that make up the virus), we can make new matter that taxonomically, is smallpox.

There are worries of how these could be used.

Due to the availability of the genomes and CRISPR technology, something I’m not going to explain in depth here called gain-of-function research can be done, which basically uses strains of a disease to try to mutate desirable immune responses or to hinder the virus in its ability to spread or kill.

Also, as always, a concern is terrorism. And by, as always, smallpox has some examples of being used for terrorism. *cough* … smallpox blankets … *cough*.

It is a very dangerous disease, it has a lot of potential. But a significant amount of its potential has been stopped due to the work of Edward Jenner.

Conclusion

Thank you for listening. I have a miniature version of the Galen episode that I’m not sure if I should publish, I would appreciate your opinions.

The next major episode is supposed to be one on Human Trafficking, then another one on AIDS. As always, you can follow this podcast on Instagram @aviralpodcast and for any questions you can email aviralpodcast@gmail.com