Mondo Knows Facts

Jenner pioneered smallpox vaccination

Cowpox exposure appeared to protect against the far deadlier disease In 1796 Edward Jenner inoculated a boy with material from a cowpox sore and later exposed him to smallpox without illness. The word vaccine comes from vacca, Latin for cow. Smallpox was declared eradicated in 1980 after a global campaign built on the same principle. It sits in Mondo's science collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

World Health Organization

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

Go further

More facts like this

Tags: medicine, experiment, history

Jenner pioneered smallpox vaccination: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?
Cowpox exposure appeared to protect against the far deadlier disease. The figure is taken from World Health Organization, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a science fact?
Yes. It sits on the Science shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?
The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.