Talk:Jonathan Edwards

The original CP article focused on his death due to smallpox. I inserted this comment to correct the multilevel inanity: Hi. Smallpox vaccination, which involves the administration of attenuated live virus, (and has well-recognized dangers) was not in use at this time. Smallpox itself killed millions...the first successful preventative strategy, other than isolation, was innoculation, which involved taking material from the pox of an ill patient, and injecting it into the skin of a healthy patient. One of the first successful human trials was done on this, and used actual statistics. Unfortunately, it was done on prisoners and orphans. It did, however, provide decent protection, but there was, by today's standards, a very high rate of illness and death (lower than the rate of smallpox, though, during epidemic times). Eventually, vaccination was developed, which was actually more of a form of innoculation, as modern genetics had not yet been developed. An attenuated live virus (of Cowpox, not smallpox) was used. This had a much lower rate of complications than using smallpox itself, but still could lead to serious illness, especially in young or unhealthy people exposed to the virus, or to those recently vaccinated.I'd be happy to share more, if anyone is interested. Palmd001 14:52, 23 March 2007 (EDT)