Edward Jenner — "Did you make a convert of the obstinate antivaxinist at Lello?"
Did you make a convert of the obstinate antivaxinist at Lello?
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More from Edward Jenner
"I have often reflected, with a degree of wonder, on the slow progress of human knowledge."
"I am not surprised that men are not grateful to me; but I wonder that they are not grateful to God for the good which He has made me the instrument of conveying to my fellow creatures."
"The cow-pox is a mild disease, and never fatal; the small-pox is a formidable one, and often fatal. The cow-pox is not infectious; the small-pox is highly so."
"I have never been a lover of controversy; but when truth is concerned, I am not afraid to speak out."
"The most valuable possessions are those which we acquire by our own exertions."
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Understanding this quote
What it means
Jenner asks a colleague whether they successfully persuaded a stubborn vaccine opponent in a specific location. The word "antivaxinist" — coined essentially during Jenner's own lifetime — signals that organized resistance to vaccination emerged almost simultaneously with the vaccine itself. The question reveals that early vaccine advocates worked to win over skeptics one by one through personal persuasion campaigns, treating public acceptance as an ongoing battle requiring coordinated effort across multiple fronts.
Relevance to Edward Jenner
Jenner spent decades not only pioneering the smallpox vaccine — published in 1798 after his 1796 cowpox experiments on James Phipps — but tirelessly writing hundreds of letters and coordinating colleagues to expand vaccination globally. He faced ridicule from the medical establishment, parliamentary opposition, and vicious satirical cartoons. His frustration with persistent skeptics is well-documented in his correspondence. This casual, almost weary question captures his lifelong dual role as both experimental scientist and relentless public-health campaigner.
The era
Smallpox killed roughly 400,000 Europeans annually in the late 18th century and blinded or disfigured millions of survivors. When Jenner's vaccine emerged in 1798, opposition was immediate: clergy condemned it as interference with divine will, physicians resented an outsider's discovery, and satirists depicted patients sprouting cow horns. Formal anti-vaccination societies organized in Britain within years. This quote documents a forgotten truth — vaccine hesitancy and the grassroots labor needed to counter it began the very moment vaccination did.
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